Many people volunteer to help look after others. For example, some high school and college students in the USA often spend many hours as volunteers in hospitals, orphanages (孤儿院) or old people’s homes. They read books to the people in these places, or they just visit them and play games with them or listen to their problems.

Other volunteers go and work in the homes of people who are sick or old. They draw pictures, clean up or repair their houses, do their shopping or mow (修整) their lawns (草坪). For boys who don’t have fathers, there is a group called Big Brothers. College students and other men take these boys to baseball games or on fishing trips and help them to get to know things that boys usually learn from their fathers.

Each city has several clubs where boys and girls can go to play games or learn crafts (工艺). Some of these clubs show movies or organize short trips to the mountains, beaches, museums or other places of interest. Most of these clubs use a lot of high school and college students as volunteers because they are young enough to remember the problems of younger boys and girls.

Volunteers believe that people who help to bring happiness to others are the happiest in the world.

Over the past 6 years, Zhang Chaofan has given away 1.35 million yuan and raised 5.2 million yuan from the public to help more than 400 people with health problems-including teachers with cancer(癌症)and disabled children in poor families-learn traditional Chinese culture.

Zhang, 29, was born without a left arm in Changchun, Jilin, but her hard work to become stronger has encouraged many people. She was chosen along with 67 other honorees(领奖人)to receive the Eighth National Ethical Role Model award(第八届全国道德模范提名奖)at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 5th, 2021.

In 2015, Zhang set up a handwriting and painting school in Changchun. When she found that some parents were unable to pay for their children’s education, she made the lessons free and began providing 300,000 yuan every year to help them.

In early 2020, her school was made to suspend all courses because of COVID-19(新冠肺炎), but it didn’t stop her from helping the poor families. She raised more than 8.9 million yuan and gave them away to Hubei hospitals.

“Women in the new times should have the courage to create value and also have a sense of social duty,” she said. “ It is my great honor to be chosen as a model. This will become a driving force for me to move ahead and keep helping the poor and the disabled.”

Zhang Guimei show us how to be a good teacher and the importance of a teacher in students’ lives.

In 2009, Zhang Guimei founded the Huaping High School for Girls in Lijiang, Yunnan Province. This is a special high school which did not ask for tuition fees (学费) from girls in poor families. In 2003, Zhang began to raise money for the school, but her efforts were often met with suspicion and even misunderstanding. During 2003 and 2007, Zhang spent her spare time asking people to make donations (捐款) for her school. However, the money she got was not enough. In 2007, after her dream was reported by the media (媒体), the government promised to help her project.

Zhang carries on strict school rules. She plans every minute of her students’ timetable. At 5:20 a. m., she wakes up all the girls. They must take a nap in the afternoon. They are only allowed three hours a week outside of the school. And long hair is not allowed in school. She wants to change the lives of many girls from poor families through education.

Eleven years later, over 1,600 girl students have graduated from the school and received higher education-including many famous universities in China.

When people asked why she made so many efforts to help girls in the mountains to receive better education, she just said, “I believe it is really important for girls to receive education. I hope they can live happier than me. And it will be the greatest comfort to me.”