Jia Wenqi, Jia Haixia

Jia Wenqi(left) and Jia Haixia(right) plant trees together.[photo/china.org.cn]

Recommended by: Hebei Disabled Persons’ Federation

Reason for recommendation: Both people suffer from severe disabilities, but they never gave up on life and maintained a positive attitude. They planted trees in their hometown for 14 years to help protect the environment.

Jia Wenqi and Jia Haixia.[photo/china.org.cn]

Jia Wenqi and Jia Haixia were born in a village in Hebei province. Jia Wenqi lost his arms due to electric shock; Jia Haixia’s left eye was blind due to congenital cataract, and his right eye was hurt accidently in 2000.

Though Jia Wenqi lost his arms, he grasped many skills, including swimming, playing chess, singing, calligraphy, and washing clothes and cooking with his feet. He always wanted to help others. In 1983 and 1989 he saved two children who fell in a river in his village. One of Jia’s articles when he was in the 7th grade was collected in an article book by students.

Jia Wenqi and Jia Haixia plant trees together.[photo/china.org.cn]

After graduating from junior high school, Jia worked as a forest guard in his village. In 1988, he bought a wasteland to plant trees, but a flood in 1996 flushed all his 1,000 trees away. Jia did not lose confidence in life. He joined several art troupes for people with disabilities in Hebei province and performed across the country.

In 2002, Jia went back home to look after his father, and met Haixia, who was depressed from losing his vision. Jia encouraged him and he gradually escaped the sorrow of his blindness.

Jia and Haixia found the courage to live on. They decided to plant trees on some waste land in their village.

Jia Wenqi was in charge of identifying tree branches for planting, and Jia Haixia was responsible for climbing trees and cutting them off. They cooperated with each other closely.

Some villagers laughed at them for planting trees on waste land covered with stones and sand, but they ignored all the doubts and laughter and insisted on their dreams. However, only two trees out of 800 survived after one year, which was a heavy blow to them. But they did not give up, and managed to build a ditch on the wasteland to bring water to the trees. They kept working for 14 years and now the wasteland is home to more than 10,000 trees.

Instead of selling the trees, Jia Wenqi and Jia Haixia maintains them to improve the local environment. Since March 2014, many media outlets have reported their story, and people from different places have donated to them voluntarily. The government also supports them as they plant more trees.