Teacher dedicates life to helping deaf-mute children

Yuan Jinghua's brothers and sisters all got married before they were 20. Yuan, however, didn't get married until she was 25 as many young men were frightened away by her special "dowry": 45 deaf-mute children.

"If they wanted to marry me, they had to accept the 'dowry'," said the woman from Xiajin county, Shandong province, and also a deputy to the National People's Congress. The children were her students she had taught to speak.

After failing the College Entrance Examination in 1992, Yuan saw two deaf-mute girls driven out of a local primary school in tears after they sneaked into the school and looked into the classroom.