Volunteer doctor provides free services in poor counties

Doctor Eckehard Scharfschwerdt has spent 15 years in some of the poorest counties in Southwest China's Yunnan province providing free medical services and training village doctors and nurses.

The 54-year-old from Baden-W��rttemberg, Germany, sometimes even paid for patients who could not afford their medical bills.

Besides being a volunteer doctor, he was also an English teacher to middle and primary school students. He offered an English corner for village kids at a high school in Honghe prefecture for over two years to stimulate their interest in studying, broaden their vision and give them personal encouragement.