In China, with one or both parents going out to make money, many children are left in their hometowns in the countryside. These children are called “leftover children”. A report showed that in 2021, China had a total of 9 million leftover children in the countryside. Usually, the children’s grandparents or their parent’s friends or relatives look after them. Sometimes these children are brought up by one of their parents at home. Most of their guardians（监护人） are not quite educated. To them, making sure that the children are healthy and fed well is the most important task. If the children are safe and fit, they are considered to have done a good job. Guardians seldom care about children’s study, their psychological needs, or mental demands（需要）. Neither do they spend some time to teach kids how to develop good habits. In fact, these leftover children need more care.

The survey below is from some villages in Central China. Three hundred children were chosen to answer the questions. Among the six questions, communicating is the biggest problem. Only 46% of the children could communicate with their parents freely. And when they answered the question “Who to talk with”, 27% children chose “oneself” and 18% children chose “no one”.

I’m a teacher. I’m teaching in a poor area (贫困地区). Now, it’s cold in winter. But my students don’t have many clothes to keep warm. Can you give them some old sweaters? They walk to school every day. A pair of shoes is good for them.

The students can’t eat very well. For breakfast, they have some porridge (粥). And they only eat some rice and vegetables for lunch. They need eggs and milk most.

The boys in my school like playing sports after school. They play soccer very well. But these days they can’t play it because the only soccer ball is too old.

What about the books? We don’t have a library. But the students here want to read books very much. They all think reading is fun.

Can you help them? I’m sure my students will be happy if you can help them.

Thank you!

Lin Tang