Life lessons

Despite being paralyzed from the waist down, a 68-year-old is still extending a helping hand to the children in her Sichuan village

Zhou Xihe's passion for teaching has not diminished, despite her age and the fact she is paralyzed from the waist down. Happiness for the 68-year-old resident of a mountainous village in Sichuan province comes from the private classroom she operates during vacations. She hopes the schooling she provides can be a launch pad enabling the village's children to reach out to the outside world.

The parents in the village are grateful for the free extracurricular classes and care she offers their children. Zhou says she is grateful to the students, because being with them has brought her joy and hope.

The idea of opening a home classroom first came to Zhou after her retirement in 1997.

Zhou and her family live in Deyu village, Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, whose youthful laborers eke out livings in cities. They entrust the care and education of their children to grandparents, who are sometimes too busy with farm work to pay attention to the safety of their grandchildren.

The children are often at risk when they play in the mountains and on the streets without adult supervision.

Zhou saw three young children killed when they were hit by cars near her home.

In 2000, Zhou started to offer extracurricular lessons at her home and eight students attended. Her kindness then spread by word of mouth, and more villagers sent their children to attend her classes.

At times she has had 100 primary and secondary school students to take care of.

But Zhou's classes came to a halt in 2007 and 2008, when she fell down the stairs in her home and fractured bones in her chest. She was diagnosed with a comminuted fracture.

Later, she fell during her rehabilitation, shattering her thigh bones. She was told that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

Zhou made it through the time-consuming recovery process and wheeled back into the classroom a year later.

In 2012, Zhou and her family started to enlarge their courtyard so their home classroom can provide a better learning environment and accept more students. They are turning the family paddy field, which brought them an annual income of 3,000 yuan ($483), into an additional classroom. Until construction is finished at the end of the year, they are using a brick structure as a temporary classroom.

"My mother loves teaching. Also, she knows how to teach well," says Deng Dong, Zhou's son, who is also a teacher.

"She can always excite the children's interest in learning."

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(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/25/2014 page4)