Recently, a programme called the Black Ribbon Initiative (乌丝带行动) is calling on people to donate (捐赠) their hair to make wigs (假发) for children with cancer. The programme was set up by Chongqing University Cancer Hospital in April. Twenty-three students first made their hair donations to help children with cancer. Those children lost their hair because of treatments.

In January 2020, three-year-old Liu Lizi from Guizhou Province got cancer. The girl was sad after losing her beautiful natural hair. What was worse, other children often. laughed at her for this. “For people with cancer, hair is hope,” said Lai Yun, a worker at a hospital.

By the end of last year, Liu had got 30 treatments. But she is no longer sad. In December, not long after a treatment, she got her first wig made of real hair.

One of the hair donors, Li Chaoyang, a student at Chongqing University, said why she donated hair:

“It happened to be my 23rd birthday that day, and I finally made up my mind to donate my long hair as a special gift,” said Li, “I hope my hair will be a light that can bring the sick children happiness.”

The programme has got 347 bunches (捆) of hair donated by people from 27 provinces across China, according to the hospital.

Eddie was filled with excitement, because the mountain bike race was going to start and he had been training hard for a long time. Perhaps, this year, he would finally win. The waiting people shouted encouragement, and Eddie’s dad was among them, smiling proudly.

The starter said “Start” and Eddie got away quickly. The road was bumpy (高低不平的) with lots of sudden turns, but Eddie was ready for them. As he went around the corner, he realized that his friend Riley was the only rider in front of him.

Eddie tried harder and he reached Riley. Then suddenly he was in the lead. He was going to win!

Eddie could see the finish line at the top of the next hill. Some people were watching the race, they began to cheer and Eddie heard his father’s voice supporting him.

Moments later, Eddie heard a cry. He looked around and saw Riley lying on the road with his bike on top of him. Any minute now, the other riders would rush toward him over the hill.

Eddie jumped off his bike and ran to Riley. He looked over his friend carefully and made sure that he was unhurt, then the boys quickly moved Riley’s bike off the road.

The other riders sped past to the finish line and Eddie heard a cheer go up for the winner.

Slowly, Eddie pushed his bike to the finish line. His eyes watered with disappointment (失望) .

Then, to his surprise, Eddie heard a sound and looked at the waiting people. He saw them cheering for him. And there was his dad, with the proudest smile of all.

After the bike race, his father said to him, “Well done, my boy! You are the winner in my heart! You have won people’s respect.”

Liu Xiao sheng is 73 years old. During the past summer vacation, he has been teaching children English every day except Sunday for over a month since he retired (退休) .

Before he retired, Liu was a foreign language teacher at a university in Chongqing. In 2012, he brought his family to a cool place in Guizhou to spend the summer. One evening, he saw a neighbor’s child learning English. He asked the child to read him a passage. He found the child had a bad pronunciation. As a teacher, he knew how important pronunciation is to learning the language, so he began to teach the child.

In this way, Liu had his first student soon, more and more people in the village knew the news that a retired university teacher taught students English for free, and more and more children came to learn. At first, Liu taught in his living room, and then moved into the corridor (走廊) for more space. But soon, the corridor was packed with students. One villager volunteered to leave his rice milling (碾米) room so that Liu can use it as a classroom. The village raised money to buy desks, chairs and a blackboard. Later, as the number of students grew, Liu setup a classroom in the courtyard (院子) of a village’s house. He is now known as the “courtyard teacher”.

Every summer, about 40 children come for English learning. This summer, more than 60 turned up. Many of his students are now university students. He said that teaching had become a part of his life.