The volunteers of "Charity Motorcycle Journey" gathered and set off. Reporter Long Zaiquan took the photo. In Ganshui Town, Qijiang County, every Saturday you can see a motorcycle team with small red flags bearing the words "Charity Motorcycle Journey - Traveling with Love". They are the "Home Visit Motorcycle Team" composed of teachers from Ganshui Middle School. To save students who dropped out due to poverty, they have traveled throughout the entire Ganshui Town, searching for every child who might drop out... In over a month, they successfully saved 80 students, allowing them to return to school and bask in the warm gaze of their teachers.
Discovery of children being forced to drop out
At around 10 a.m. on September 24th, at the entrance of Ganshui Middle School in Qijiang County, accompanied by the roaring sound of engines, more than twenty motorcycles once again departed from the school. I also joined as a temporary member, riding on Li Qingxian's motorcycle, following the teachers on their "home visit." Along the way, Teacher Li introduced the origin of "Charity Motorcycle Journey."
"This matter started back in February this year," Teacher Li recalled. During the first few days of school opening, several students were seen loitering at the entrance of Ganshui Middle School. The school's psychological counselor, Wang Dazhi, approached them to inquire and learned that they were all students from the first and second grades of junior high school. Because their families couldn't afford their 200 yuan/month living expenses, they had no choice but to drop out. However, they themselves still longed to attend school, so they lingered at the school gate, unwilling to leave.
After learning about this situation, Wang Dazhi decided to do something for these impoverished children. A few days later, Wang Dazhi visited the home of Ma Shaowei, a poor student, together with a head teacher. Ma Shaowei's home was located deep in the mountains at the boundary between Chongqing and Guizhou. Her house was a simple, rudimentary flat built with stone slabs, and her mother was bedridden.
Wang Dazhi learned that three years ago, during a stormy night, Ma Shaowei's adobe house collapsed, resulting in one death and one injury in the family. After borrowing money from various sources, this originally impoverished family managed to build three stone flats as shelter, but they could no longer afford Ma Shaowei's living expenses, forcing her to drop out of school.
Netizens donated 2000 yuan after seeing the photos
After returning from the home visit, Wang Dazhi discovered that there were quite a number of students in the school who had already dropped out or were facing the risk of dropping out due to family poverty. Among them, several students were abandoned infants and were now likely to drop out because of their elderly and frail adoptive parents, leaving them with almost no other options.
What to do? Wang Dazhi began posting appeals for help in various chat groups. Soon, a netizen from Jinhua, Zhejiang, provided a lead: the Charity Association of Jinhua City had a branch called Shile Society, which was a specialized online sponsorship charity organization with its own website.
Subsequently, Wang Dazhi contacted the responsible person of Shile Society through the internet and informed them of the specific situation. This responsible person told Wang Dazhi that Shile Society's charity education assistance program could help those impoverished students, but it required providing relevant photos and detailed information about the impoverished students' families while ensuring their authenticity.
After receiving this reply, Wang Dazhi immediately rode his motorcycle back to Ma Shaowei's home to take photos. He sent the information back to Shile Society's website that same day. The next morning, Shile Society transferred 2000 yuan for Ma Shaowei's living expenses during her junior high school period.
23 teachers establish "Charity Motorcycle Journey"
Ma Shaowei's problem was solved, but there were still many struggling students in the school, and most of these students lived in remote mountainous areas. If Wang Dazhi visited only one family each weekend, it would be too slow, too slow, making it difficult to ensure timely aid for children at risk of dropping out.
After much deliberation, Wang Dazhi decided to seek help from the "Daring Motorcycle Journey" team formed by the school's teachers. With a trial mindset, Wang Dazhi contacted the leader of the "Daring Motorcycle Journey" team, Li Qingxian. After learning the details, all members of the team expressed unconditional support for the charity education assistance activity and unanimously decided to change the name of "Daring Motorcycle Journey" to "Charity Motorcycle Journey". The following weekend, "Charity Motorcycle Journey" began its first operation, with 23 teachers divided into three groups, riding motorcycles to the countryside to collect information.
In the following month, the ranks of "Charity Motorcycle Journey" continued to grow, with a total of 45 teachers participating in the home visits. Each time they set out, either a dozen or more motorcycles formed a team, covering every village and community in Ganshui Town. "So far, through home visits, we have screened out a batch of 'qualified' students and have raised living expenses for 80 families during their study period," said Wang Dazhi.
Voices
Hope that "Charity Motorcycle Journey" will never find "business"
During the "charity home visit": Yang Chao delivered a single bed to classmate Li Junlin, who had been sleeping on the ground for a long time, along with new cotton bedding, sheets, and duvet covers; Xu Zhong saw the temporary shed where classmate Yang Chunhua's family lived and immediately took out over 200 yuan from his pocket, quietly placing it under her pillow... Li Chunyou, the secretary of the Party Branch of Ganshui Middle School, said: "They incur many expenses during home visits, but they have never asked the school for subsidies."
Recently, Wang Dazhi decided to conduct "charity home visits" for all impoverished students within Qijiang County, striving to secure charitable educational funds for truly impoverished children. In early April, the Shile Society website listed the teachers of Ganshui Middle School's "Charity Motorcycle Journey" as the website's "Special Volunteer Team" to encourage them to help more impoverished students.
To date, with the help of "Charity Motorcycle Journey", children from 80 impoverished families have received over 100,000 yuan in charitable donations.
Wang Dazhi said: "When 'Charity Motorcycle Journey' is no longer needed, there will be no more dropouts and no more impoverished families here."
This group of articles was written by reporter Yang Xi and intern Gao Liang.