Li Yichao: Warming the hearts of impoverished left-behind children with companionship

"Compared with material assistance, impoverished left-behind children need care and nurturing even more." After 10 years of traveling a long road of helping students, Li Yichao, station manager of the Jilu border toll station on the Xingtai-Linqing Expressway, feels this deeply.

One day in 2006, Li Yichao, who had just started working, clutched 50 yuan in his hand and walked through the gate of a primary school in Neiqiu County. Although his monthly salary was only 200 yuan at the time, Li Yichao still insisted on taking out 1/4 of it to support the schooling and living costs of a poor child at the school. He said: "When I was little, my family's circumstances were poor, so I understand best the hearts of children longing for help."

Having taken the first step on the road of helping students, Li Yichao never looked back. Over 10 years, he successively helped more than 10 poor children complete their schooling. The report cards the children sent back from school became the most beautiful youthful memories of this young man born in the 1980s. Influenced by him, the colleagues around him also turned their attention to these children. In 2013, Li Yichao launched a "one yuan per month donation" at the station. Some gave 10 yuan, others 5 yuan. Although the money was not much, small amounts added up, easing the burden of schooling for more poor children.

Looking back on his original intention, Li Yichao frankly admitted that he just wanted to "donate money and do some good." It was not until the appearance of little Tianhao (a pseudonym) that he paid more attention to a more sensitive and fragile group among poor children: impoverished left-behind children.

Little Tianhao's father died early, and his mother worked away from home all year round, so he was raised from childhood by his grandmother. Because he lacked his parents' companionship, he became increasingly self-conscious when getting along with peers. In 2013, Li Yichao brought Tianhao to the station to play, but this fourth-grade boy just sat in a corner with his head down, dazed, and after a long time said coldly, "I want to go to middle school and live at school, because then my classmates won't know that I 'don't have' a mom and dad."

Tianhao's words deeply stung Li Yichao's heart. "I never imagined that the starting point of the child's desire to study was actually to leave home!" In order to reach Tianhao's heart, from then on Li Yichao brought him to the station every few days, told him stories, taught him to play basketball, cared about his studies like a father, and listened to his worries like a friend... Gradually, Li Yichao found that Tianhao smiled more and had more friends, and sometimes even stood him up, because "he had made plans to go cycling with classmates on the weekend."

Tianhao's change showed Li Yichao the power of "love." To warm the hearts of more impoverished left-behind children, in July this year, with the support of colleagues and friends, he established the "Xingtai City Association for Serving Left-Behind Families," whose main content is "caring for hope": not only giving material assistance, but paying more attention to companionship and nurturing through time and attention. "Don't underestimate talking and playing games. Sometimes this kind of time together makes children happier than simply putting down a few hundred yuan," Li Yichao said. As of now, the association has grown to more than 70 registered members, has provided a cumulative total of more than 3,000 yuan to 5 impoverished left-behind children, and has provided more than a hundred hours of care and companionship to children. (Reporter Zhang Huaichen)