Current location:Culture Compass news portal > business
'Sister Shoulder
Culture Compass news portal2024-05-21 15:44:41【business】3People have gathered around
IntroductionContact Us HomeNewsHighlightACWF NewsSocietyWom
- Home
- News
- People
- In-depth
- ACWF
'Sister Shoulder-Pole' Warms the Residents' Hearts
February 11, 2022Mai Qiongfang (R) does volunteer work. |
Mai Qiongfang is well-known in Baise, a city in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Since 1979, Mai has been providing volunteer services, such as taking care of elderly locals, who live alone, and supporting children so they can receive an education. Mai often uses a shoulder pole to carry donations (food and clothing) she has collected when she visits people living deep in the mountain. As such, netizens like to call her by a nickname, "Sister Shoulder-pole."
Mai remembers clearly something her mother taught her when she was a little girl. "Mom said a person is generally born with two hands, one for helping others, and the other for supporting him/herself. If we lend a helping hand to people in need, we will feel happy ourselves." Mai says her warmheartedness is the result of her mother's positive influence.
In 1979, then-19-year-old Mai worked at People's Hospital of Baise. She met an ethnic Yao woman, who was hospitalized, but who did not have a relative looking in on her. Mai volunteered to deliver meals to the woman every day. She visited the patient after she recovered and returned to her hometown, in a village on a mountain. Mai noticed many of the elderly people and children in that village did not have adequate clothes or shoes to wear in winter. She asked her family members and friends to help her collect donations of clothes and food. Then, Mai used a shoulder pole to carry the donations up the mountain and into the village.
Using the simple shoulder pole, Mai carried two big bags, filled with goods, each time she entered a village hidden deep in the mountain. In addition to delivering the donations, Mai invited children from impoverished families to live with her, so it was easier for the children to attend school. During the past 40 years, Mai has supported more than 100 children, and she has helped look after 40-plus elderly people. Since a photo of Mai using the shoulder pole to carry goods up the mountain went viral, netizens have referred to Mai as "Sister Shoulder-pole."
Mai established a WeChat group to help children from poor families. She tells the group's members when she is about to visit a village on the mountain. Members in other regions send clothing and/or other goods to Mai in advance; someone offers to drive, to help Mai deliver the goods; and, food vendors offer her the "best price," so she can purchase more foods. Mai is happy so many of the children, whom she has helped, have grown up to become volunteers.
Ethnic Zhuang people, who live in Baise, like handmade craft known as "mo mie" (麽乜). It is an ornament that has the auspicious meaning of "safeguarding the sun and embracing hope." In 2007, Mai established a team of 20-plus women in Baise to inherit the traditional mo mie hand-making skills. By organizing training sessions, teaching the skills and looking for orders to guarantee good sales, Mai has encouraged more than 300 women to participate in production of the craft. She has helped women from 84 impoverished families increase their incomes — and shake off poverty. Mai also does her best to raise the younger generation's awareness of inheriting the culture of their nation. She volunteers to "teach special lessons" at the city's library, during which she demonstrates to primary school students the various methods of making traditional snacks and crafts.
Under the guidance of the local women's federation, Mai in 2020 established a women volunteers' team. She has since organized women volunteers to provide training sessions in villages to teach traditional mo mie hand-making skills.
Photo Supplied by the Interviewee
(Women of China English Monthly December 2021 issue)
32.3KPlease understand that womenofchina.cn,a non-profit, information-communication website, cannot reach every writer before using articles and images. For copyright issues, please contact us by emailing: [email protected]. The articles published and opinions expressed on this website represent the opinions of writers and are not necessarily shared by womenofchina.cn.
Comments
Magazines
Projects
- 2023 Women Science and Technology Innovation Pioneer...
Photos
- People Enjoy Blooming Tulips in Jinan, East...
- Flowers Bloom Across China in Spring
Special Coverage
Address of this article:http://burundi.liveandunplugged.org/news-26a399963.html
Very good!(2983)
Related articles
- Ship that caused Baltimore bridge collapse has been refloated
- Move over Mykonos! Paros is far more laid
- HKFP Lens: Hong Kong press group announces winners of annual news photo contest
- From caves to lagoons and lost
- Strictly star Giovanni Pernice's former partner Rose Ayling
- 'This HAS to be the world's best business
- Revealed: The pernickety passport rules Brits NEED to know before the Easter getaway
- Brutalist
- Storms damage homes in Oklahoma and Kansas. But in Houston, most power is restored
- Best credit cards rated: Top for cashback, rewards and clearing debt
Popular articles
Recommended
Tom Brady and Jay
More than 214k vehicles seized by police forces last year
Greece gives away 25,000 free holidays
DMV experienced nationwide outage for nearly 3 hours
Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to Maryland ban on rifles known as assault weapons
How to invest to beat tax raids
'This HAS to be the world's best business
Mercedes upgrades its electric EQS to give the EV a huge 511 mile
Links
- GLOBALink
- New Suzhou Youth Symphony Orchestra established
- In pics: cultural and tourism services exhibition at CIFTIS
- Roundup: Chinese FM Expounds on China
- An epic tale worth telling
- Carriers sanguine on travel season
- New completion rules released for China to optimize the business environment
- COSCO Shipping to bulk up with 80 new vessels
- China's PLA aerobatic team to perform at world defense show in Saudi Arabia
- Ceremony of resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Nauru about to begin