Blood donation, also called blood banking, is a meaningful thing to do. It is an easy and direct way to contribute to social work and help the community. It helps to save lives and helps those who lose blood during operations or in accidents.

You are able to give or donate blood every three or four months. It is a great way to make a big difference to someone’s life and you can always be proud of it after making valuable contributions to society. Blood donation is not a big problem, but you need to keep a few points in mind.

Before donating blood, make sure that the ferrum（铁）level in your body is high enough and for that you should take a healthy diet. For making hemoglobin（血红蛋白）in your body up to standard, drink lots of juice and other drinks. Fruit juice, such as apple juice, is very good for increasing the blood level in your body. For a good blood flow in your body, drink at least 6—7 glasses of water every day. It’s not wise to drink wine before or after giving blood. Do not smoke half an hour before giving blood.

When you are going for blood donation, be relaxed, which helps keep the right blood pressure. While donating blood, take a deep breath and try to calm yourself. Don’t join in some other activities.

Blood donation is a very simple and fast process, but you need to take care of yourself after donating blood. Proper care helps to reduce bad effects. The following are a few tips that will help you out.

Take a rest for 15 minutes after the donation. It helps you to relax yourself.

Make sure that you have meals after donating blood. Smoking shouldn’t be allowed for one hour after the process. Don’t do any activities right away, for example, driving.

Finally, be proud of yourself because you have done a great thing in helping to save someone’s life. Blood donation is a very important activity.

Flora and her dad are moving to a new house soon. Next week, workers will turn the yard of the old house into a car park. The yard is full of beautiful flowers grown by Flora and Dad.

“My poor flowers,” Flora complains in a low voice, looking at the bright purple blooms(花朵) sadly. She sits outside, selling things she doesn’t want to take to the new house. Beside her hangs a sign that says Yard Sale. Several of her neighbours come to have a look.

Dad comes out, holding some snacks in his hands. “Here’s a snack for everyone,” he says. Flora’s dad loves sharing things.

Occasionally(偶然地), Flora digs her heels(鞋后跟) deep into the grass. Then she feels the soft earth move under her heels, and she knows what she can do.

She whispers her plan to Dad. He nods with a smile. Flora takes out some flowerpots(花盆) happily and finds a tool to dig with. Carefully she digs up the flowers with some earth and puts them into the pots.

She lines up the pots near her sign. Now she is ready to be a generous person, just like her Dad.

“How much is a pot?” asks Ana from next door.

“Zero cents!” she smiles and says, “Pick any pot you like!”

A warmer winter for “Ice Boy”

A photo showing a boy with icy hair once drew wide attention on social media in 2018. In that photo, a boy’s hair has turned icy white, as well as his eyebrows and eyelashes, and his face is red. The 9-year-old schoolboy, Wang Fuman, was then nicknamed “Ice Boy”. Living with his sister and grandmother, he had to walk nearly 5 kilometers in the snow to attend school. His father worked away from home and his mother had left the family. After the photo was taken and released online by his teacher, the boy’s story touched many people. One web user commented, “Boy, all that you suffer now will light your way in the future!”

Later, as social attention increased, Wang’s life has greatly improved. Having learned about the story of her son, his mother immediately returned to reunite (团聚) with her son. And Wang’s father also received a new job as a construction worker, with much higher pay. The family has moved to a new house, which is also about 10 minute-walk to school.

The local government and charities also offered money to the school for reconstruction. Now, not only can students learn in modern labs, those who live far can also sleep in the newly-built dorm (宿舍楼).

More importantly, beyond Wang and his family, many other ice boys and girls have benefited from China’s poverty alleviation (扶贫) efforts in the past years.

“I’m thankful to all those warmhearted people who’ve helped us. I’ll study hard to pay back their support,” the young boy said, with a smile on his red face.