Read the following text and answer the quiz below.
[1] The story of a Chinese man who used his savings to support orphans and children has moved many online. Huang Meisheng, 65, founded De Ren Garden in 2008 for children whose families could not take proper care of them. Over the past 17 years, the house in Fenyi County, Jiangxi province, eastern China, has sheltered 348 individuals.
[2] Huang became a teacher at 20 and a secondary school headmaster 10 years later. At the age of 40, he became the deputy director of Fenyi Education Bureau and headmaster of a local primary school.
[3] Huang said he was motivated to establish De Ren Garden after noticing that many of his students were essentially orphans: their parents could not look after them, even if they were still alive. In one instance, a child’s father had died and the mother remarried and moved somewhere far away. Parents could also be disabled or in prison, Huang told West China Metropolis Daily.
[4] He founded De Ren Garden in an old factory building after receiving a 200,000-yuan (HK$218,300) subsidy from the government. After that initial amount, Huang used his own savings, pensions and the funds he received from kind-hearted people who supported its operation.
[5] De Ren Garden provides children with a home, a playground and life skills education. On weekdays, the children go to a regular school, and Huang and other staff sometimes pick them up like parents would. Children whose grandparents are still alive but are unable to look after them are also invited to visit the Garden. Huang asks the children to observe their wrinkles and wash their feet. Feeling, understanding and learning how to love are important lessons for children, Huang said.
[6] Over the past 17 years, De Ren Garden has raised 348 children. Of that number, 76 have gone to university. The facility currently shelters 57 children, most of whom are primary school aged. It also has three teachers other than Huang.
[7] Some of the its previous residents have come back to the Garden as adult volunteers. Yuan Junyu, one of the first batch of kids who grew up there works in another city but lives at the Garden for a few days every month, playing badminton and other sports with the children.
[8] Huang said the seed of helping children was planted in him when his secondary teacher gave him two fermented tofus when he was too poor to afford proper meals. Now, Huang requires the Garden to have leftover food at every meal because it means there is more than enough and all the children are full. He has even been spotted tucking into the leftover food several times.
[9] As Huang’s story went viral online, many people have donated money to De Ren Garden. Some have compared Huang with Zhang Guimei, the headmaster of Huaping High School for Girls. The school was China’s first public secondary school and provides free education for female students in China’s southwestern Yunnan province.
Source: South China Morning Post, August 17
Content provided by British Council
