After making a fortune raising pigs, a disabled young man in Haikou wants to expand his operation to help disabled people find employment
Over the past few years, Cai Yule, who has received help from the Hainan Provincial Disabled Persons' Federation and the Hainan Provincial Disabled Persons' Foundation, is filled with gratitude. He often teaches his children, "When you drink water, do not forget those who dug the well; in life, one must know gratitude and know how to give back."
He is a person with a physical disability, yet he refuses to yield to fate. Five years ago, he got into pig farming. Although he went through setbacks, with the help of the Hainan Provincial Disabled Persons' Foundation his pig farming business has gradually taken shape. After achieving success, he "does not forget those who dug the well when drinking water," giving back to society through his actions and helping a group of disabled friends find employment to the best of his ability. On the morning of August 15, Cai Yule wiped the sweat from his forehead as he told the story of his entrepreneurial journey.
Disabled in childhood, he did many kinds of work before finally starting a pig farming business
Cai Yule, 32, lives in Yangting East Village, Longquan Town, Haikou, and is a person with a Level 3 physical disability. In childhood, the bone joint in his right leg broke and became deformed, and because it was not treated in time it gradually developed into a disability in his right leg. Because of his disabled right leg, Cai Yule was always mocked by classmates at school. He was once self-abased and depressed, and with his family in poverty, at age 16 he chose to drop out before finishing the first year of junior high and go out to work. After dropping out, full of ambition, Cai Yule left home to look for work. He wanted to prove with his own hands that he was no different from able-bodied people.
After entering society, Cai Yule rode a motorcycle taxi and hauled swill. Later, on the recommendation of the local disabled persons' federation, Cai Yule worked at a pharmaceutical factory. "Working at the pharmaceutical factory earned about 1,000 yuan a month. I had just gotten married then, my child was about to be born, and the pressure of life was huge. The salary was not nearly enough. I also tried to change to a job with a slightly higher income, but because of my inconvenient legs and feet, many companies did not want to hire me," Cai Yule said. At that time he came up with the idea of starting a business, and partnered with several friends to open a brick factory. Because they had not done market research in advance, the bricks produced by the factory could not be sold, and they lost tens of thousands of yuan.
After learning from the painful experience, in 2011 Cai Yule decided to start a pig farming business. "At first I had no experience, so I did not dare raise too many. I only raised 10 meat pigs. With the lessons from the earlier failure, I paid even more attention to learning techniques and doing market research. Fortunately, this batch of pigs sold for a good price, which strengthened my determination to continue developing in the breeding industry." So Cai Yule boldly borrowed money and land from relatives, built 3 pig pens, and tried to expand the operation, while also trying to bring in a batch of chicks to raise. From then on, Cai Yule and his wife threw themselves wholeheartedly into the pig pens, getting up to work at just after 5 a.m. every day and usually not resting until 10 p.m. Despite his disabled right leg, apart from walking not being very steady, Cai Yule's walking speed is about the same as an able-bodied person's, and he works deftly too. He joked that he was no different from an able-bodied person.
Provincial Disabled Persons' Foundation supports his startup with 100,000 yuan; he repays the kindness by helping disabled people find employment
On a stretch of hillside a kilometer beyond Hanxiang Village Committee in Longquan Town, Haikou, a patch of weed-covered sloping land has been cleared into an open area and turned into pig pens, where more than 300 pigs are raised. On the morning of August 15, Cai Yule was leading 6 disabled employees in cleaning the pig pens and preparing swill to feed the pigs... busily and happily at work. "The Hainan Provincial Disabled Persons' Foundation gave me 100,000 yuan in startup funds. Now the pig pens have expanded, the number of pigs has increased, and the workload is much greater. We all have disabilities and work is relatively strenuous, so everyone gets up early to start busy work," Cai Yule said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
In fact, the entrepreneurial process once involved quite a few setbacks. In 2014, when Typhoon Rammasun swept across Hainan, the roof of Cai Yule's pig shed was blown off, and more than half of the chicks he was raising were lost, but this did not extinguish Cai Yule's entrepreneurial passion. His entrepreneurial passion and spirit of self-reliance won the support of the Hainan Provincial Disabled Persons' Foundation and the Longquan Town government. In early 2016, after learning about his situation, the provincial Disabled Persons' Foundation gave Cai Yule 100,000 yuan in startup support funds.
With the startup support funds, Cai Yule decided to expand the scale of his breeding operation, and the Longquan Town government also provided help when Cai Yule applied to expand the farm and purchase piglets. Now Cai Yule's pig pens have expanded to more than 2,000 sq m, with more than 300 pigs raised. After the scale of the operation expanded, Cai Yule bought a truck, and the scale of his pig farming business has gradually grown.
After lifting himself out of poverty and becoming prosperous, the one thing Cai Yule could not let go of was other disabled people whose bodies are disabled but whose spirit is not. So, in order to lead other disabled people out of poverty toward prosperity, he hired 6 disabled people. "The pig farm currently has 6 disabled workers, and each is paid more than 1,000 yuan a month. Although the income is not very high, it can still ease their living burden. I myself am disabled, and I know how hard it is for disabled people to find work. I will do everything I can to help them."
Wants to expand the scale of his operation and devote himself to helping disabled people
Over the past few years, Cai Yule, who has received help from the provincial Disabled Persons' Federation and the provincial Disabled Persons' Foundation, is filled with gratitude. He often teaches his children, "When you drink water, do not forget those who dug the well; in life, one must know gratitude and know how to give back."
Under Cai Yule's guidance, recently Cai Yule's 11-year-old daughter, Cai Yuting, encouraged by her father, wrote a thank-you letter to Fu Yong, secretary of the Party Leadership Group and chairman of the Hainan Provincial Disabled Persons' Federation and chairman of the provincial Disabled Persons' Foundation, expressing the gratitude in her heart and saying that in the future she too would do her best to help people in need.
Speaking of the future, Cai Yule wants to continue expanding the scale of his operation so that more disabled people can find employment here. At the same time, he also hopes to use his own abilities and skills to help local impoverished disabled people develop pig farming and prosper together. Cai Yuchuan said he also plans to fund impoverished disabled university students in their studies. He believes that the spirit of self-reliance and diligent study of impoverished disabled university students can inspire and drive more disabled people to strive upward.