Escaping poverty with hard work and a helping hand

Editor's note: In the run-up to the 19th Communist Party of China National Congress, China Daily sent six reporters to live for a month in poor villages to see how China's poverty eradication plan is improving people's lives.

Although suffering from frequent broken bones and fractures while growing up, as a result of brittle bone disease, an iron-willed sister and brother in Hubei province are now able to support themselves as teachers after studying hard and graduating from university.

Cheng Shuangjia and his elder sister Cheng Xiangxi grew up in a village in the mountains of Macheng county of Huanggang, Hubei. Their parents gave them home schooling at first because the sick children had to lie on the bed most of the time.

"Our parents kept taking us to doctors to try to find out what disease we were born with," said 27-year-old Cheng Shuangjia.

"We were eventually diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta in 1998."

Although there is no cure for the genetic condition, there are treatments and medicines that can help sufferers. However, the family lacked the money for any treatment and the two children were sent directly to a grade-three class at a primary school.

"Since then, my sister and I knew that studying was the only way to improve our situation," said Cheng Shuangjia.

"We often went to school with the pain of fractures," he said.

If they suffered minor fractures, their father would set their broken bones on a board or in a cast, and they went to school without a day of rest.

"We knew that if we went to hospital, we would have to spend a lot of money on treatment and waste half a year, which would mean missing classes for a whole semester," he said.

"They showed great perseverance," said their father Cheng Yongbai.

The children's medical fees increased the economic pressures on the family, which struggled to survive on the crops and peanuts the mother grew on 0.66 acres of land and the father's humble wages.

The family's harsh life only made the brother and sister even more determined and both were eventually admitted to universities.

They led a frugal campus life, but both of them cherished their hard-won university experience.

Then their mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and their grandfather died in a fire which destroyed the family's house. "It was so stressful that my hair started to fall out," said Shuangjia. After many sleepless nights, he finally figured out what he should do.

"My family was most in need of money at that time. Only by winning scholarships through hard study could I support my family," he said.

The sister and brother's story moved many and got much media coverage, and with the help of the government of Chengmagang town, Chengmagang Center School provided an internship for Cheng Xiangxi when she graduated in 2013. Shuangjia took the same test afterwards.

"They got high scores in the test," said Jiang Zhengqing, president of Chengmagang Center School. "They ranked top among all the candidates."

In the latter half of 2015, when a targeted poverty relief move was conducted in Hongxing community, Cheng's family, through a democratic election in the village, was included into the poverty-stricken households list recognized by the central government.

According to Macheng county's poverty relief policies, Cheng's family was given a house free of charge to ensure that they have a place to live. They can also apply for reimbursement of 90 percent of their medical fees to ensure the family does not slip back into poverty.