Meeting our Guangxi Girl By Natasha Vidic
Our
family has been sponsoring Guangxi girls for several years, and our present
student SiSi since 2010.
Despite letters, photos, and even a short video, she remained
an abstraction until we met her last month.
We took the opportunity to travel
with Hope4ChinaChildren to Guangxi Province in October 2013.
During our trip,
we met with SiSi twice and found out she had a lively personality.
SiSi is happy to see
a pink T-shirt we brought her.
She
was sick and a bit subdued when we first met, but nevertheless enjoyed checking
the presents we brought for her. We found out that pink is her favorite color! My daughter and I practiced our Mandarin while SiSi
practiced her English. At the end, we lined up for the customary group photo on
the stairs of Majestic hotel (Nanning). I turned to SiSi and said:
‘Nǐ shì wǒ de nǚ'ér’ or ‘You
are my daughter’, a sentence I
dug from my humble repertoire of Mandarin. She gave me a strange look, and I
thought I must have offended her. Or said something really weird instead.
Team group photo on
the Hotel Majestic stairs.
However, when we met again and she gave us a beautiful
scrapbook she put together for us, I got to see that she understood. She lost her mother when she was 10, so what I said meant a lot to
her.
She will indeed remain akin to my daughter and an older sister to my
daughters.
She
was very sad after her mother died, but she stayed strong and set out to make
the best of her life because her mother asked her so. She enjoyed being a high
school student in Yizhou. She found summer jobs, and gave back by tutoring
younger students. She is now a major of radio and TV journalism at the Nanning
University. She is thinking about graduate school when done.
We were happy to
see that she is enjoying university, working hard, and enjoying life.
Sisi’s
scrapbook.
The last page of SiSi’s scrapbook brought
tears to our eyes.
It
was wonderful to meet with SiSi,! However, what impressed me the most about the
sponsorship program were the young ladies who benefited from the program, got
college degrees, and now lead successful careers.
Such as Lucy, who helps
manage the sponsored girls program for Hope4ChinaChildren.
She is a very
competent and personable young lady.
We all love Lucy!
Lucy (middle) with my Guangxi girl and her
little sister.
Another
example is a young lady we met in Guilin with her 3 year old daughter. She was
so proud having a good job in international business. So much so that she tried
to pay for a meal for over 20 people in a fancy restaurant. These young alumnae
of the program are very well aware that their life would be very different were
they not able to get an education through sponsorship, and they are very
grateful for the opportunities.
Hope4ChinaChildren sponsorship program alumna
with her daughter
and Xu lao shi (we call him Matthew).
So,
next time I get a reminder that sponsorship is due, I will not contemplate
discontinuing my support like I have pretty much every year because of many
expenses that keep cropping up. During our visit I saw that our contributions
make a great difference in these girls’ lives.
We are also building connections
for my Guangxi daughter, she is gaining ‘older sisters’.
However, I hope that
in time opportunities in China will improve and foreign sponsorship will no
longer be needed.
Although we did meet a crop of new young girls who need sponsors,
and one of them is tugging at my heart…
Natasa
If you would like to help them, please contact linda@hope4china.com
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