Qingqing’s Dream

Qingqing comes from a remote mountainous area, a family of eight. Because of employment opportunities, they moved to a small city. Her father is a truck driver and her mother works in a factory. She has an 80-year-old grandma, a younger brother, a pair of twin sisters in junior high school, and a sister in the sixth grade. Each of the four sisters suffer from albinism with only 0.1 vision.

As a left-behind child, Qingqing grew up in her hometown and attended a regular public school. Because of terribly poor vision, her nose was close to the paper while she read and wrote. None of the four sisters knew about schools for the blind, let alone knew blind people could have different options for careers besides massage and music.

The impact of poverty and being visually impaired are challenges Qingqing faced every day. Strange looks from others, the uncertainty of the future, and inexhaustible helplessness was all she knew. After many hardships, Qingqing graduated with a university degree related to education in 2018. She had the opportunity to go to Hong Kong and participate in a vocational training course set up by the Dialogue in the Dark Foundation. During that six-month training and internship, she learned about the lives of other visually impaired people for the first time. She discovered visually impaired individuals can also have regular and professional jobs. Uncle Peter, the founder of Rainbow Missions, was one of her mentors. During her stay, she visited many institutions and organizations run by individuals with visual impairments. These visits opened her eyes to opportunities and broadened her perspectives.

After the internship, Qingqing returned home and contacted local charities for the disabled. Her experience and professional training not only helped Qingqing secure her current clerk job in a foreign bank but also nurtured and strengthened her dream of supporting the education of visually impaired children. To realize this dream, Qingqing used her spare time over the past two years to visit a school for the blind and establish a trusting relationship with teachers and parents. Her focus is helping visually impaired children improve their ability to live independently. In addition, she also helps care for a child with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). She successfully established a stable relationship and spends time to accompany and guide the child. Utilizing her university training, she partners with a charity to provide online homework tutoring for disabled children. Occasionally she helps promote employment opportunities for them as well.

When it comes to her dream, some people say Qingqing is a bit naïve because there are few special education institutions and most are under development. It is challenging and difficult. Frankly, Qingqing does not know what she can do to provide better education for disabled children in the future. What she does not want to see is a repeat of her family’s tragedy: Her father had hearing problems a few years ago and the family spent a great deal of money seeking medical treatments. Eventually, an expensive hearing aid was purchased. That same year, her 14-year-old brother was forced to drop out of school due to their financial crisis. This was painful to her and her brother. Like her brother, she doesn’t want to see more disabled children lose opportunities for an education, so she tries to do everything she can to help them.

In addition to working hard and enthusiastically participating in helping disabled children, Qingqing is also taking IELTS exams in preparation for going abroad for a master’s degree in special education. To reduce her financial burden and allow her to prepare for further studies with peace of mind, her visually impaired twin sisters received funds from the Rainbow Missions’ sponsorship program. As such, Qingqing can continue to work hard and focus on actualizing her dream to provide better education for disabled children.