This document summarizes an interaction between two boys in a remote village in China that receives aid from Heifer International. A young boy from the visiting group engages an older local boy in conversation about books they both received as gifts. Their discussion is interrupted when a local woman points out that the older boy, A-Qiang, does not have a mother like the other children. It is revealed that A-Qiang's parents left him and he lives with his grandparents. The document argues that poverty and desperation, not lack of love, drive parents to abandon their children. It advocates that Heifer International's approach of teaching skills like animal husbandry is better than temporary donations, as it provides people with livelihoods and

1. A true story happened in a Heifer project site in Dabie Mountain in Anhui, China Dialog Between Two Kids

2. This is an ordinary village located in the depth of Dabie Mountain in Huoshan County of Anhui , where the annual income of a family is roughly between RMB 2000-3000 and living here mainly depends on tea growing and raising of pigs and chicken.

3. On the afternoon of Jul 2, 2011, a visiting group organized by Shanghai Haihui poverty alleviation program broke the tranquility of this remote village, because this village had just applied for aid from Heifer poverty alleviation program.

4. After meeting each other, some visitors handed over some gifts they prepared for the villagers, including some children books, which were soon distributed.

5. People barely noticed that a boy at about 6 or 7 didn’t go home after receiving his gift. Instead he became wholly enraptured with the book, crouched by the side of the road with his nose in it!

6. Another little boy at the age of 4 from the visiting group came to his side. The two boys started to chat. The younger boy: What are you reading? The elder boy: “The chick smiled contently”... The younger boy: No, it should be, “the chicken smiled contentedly”… The elder boy concurred: Mmm…

7. The younger boy: Do you like this grass? The elder boy: No,. The younger boy: I have this book too. I also have “bunny’s trip”, “A little tadpole’s trip to look for her mother…” The elder boy: I have them too… The younger boy: The chick’s mom has got a scarf. My mom’s got one too… The elder boy: My mom has one too…

8. “A-Qiang, other kids all have moms. Where’s yours?” a local woman said when passing by the boys. After the woman left, the elder boy turned around and made no more responses to the younger boy’s endless noises.

9. Is A-Qiang an orphan? Yes. And no. His mother left the family soon after his birth. His father had moved to a big city and was said to be married again. Now A-Qiang is living with his grand parents, who were old and sick.. So A-Qiang’s parents are both still alive. But A-Qiang is an orphan.

10. What kind of force is so powerful, that can break love and bond between mother and child? Is it poverty? Or deficiency? I do not think so. I think only ultimate desperateness for life and future can do. Let us think:

11. What can we realistically do? Donate books? He has them. Donate money? It'll run out sooner or later. Get him out off the mountain and set him up with a good life in the city? Yes, we can. But how many? Support him to go to university until his fate is fundamentally changed? Yes, we can. But how can you erase the scars of a broken childhood? Let the thinking continue…

12. Byproviding livestock and invaluable skills; we are providing a living instead of temporary supply. As the saying goes: If you give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he'll never go hungry. Living means hope. So that the mothers do not have to fear for life or future. Living means dignity. So that the fathers do not have to leave the families for big cities. Heifer Projects Can Help

13. P.S.: The aid that the village applies for is to receive pig offspring from the neighboring Heifer-aided communities as a business to grow by themselves, instead of additional material or monetary donations. We wish every kid a childhood they deserve.

14. Not a Cup But a Cow to End PovertyHeifer China- Haihuiwww.HeiferChina.org Join us as a Volunteer to help the needed. Phone： 021-33130859（Shanghai）028-85373997 （Chengdu） E-mail：info@hpichina.org