MA'S STORY

Ma Fuxiu is from Beitai Village, China

"Usually we have three days holiday for Eid. Before Eid we clean our house and prepare all kinds of delicious food, such as deep-fried dough cakes and twists and a little meat. On that day, we wear new clothes and visit our relatives.

Normally we eat noodles with potatoes and beans which are grown by my father. We cannot eat eggs and meat even in the month of Ramadhan, except on the Eid day.

Meat is my father’s favourite food, so this Eid I spent RMB 12.8 Yuan ($1.87) from my scholarship to buy 0.5 kilogram’s of beef for my family.

My family breed sheep to make money. Where we live we depend on planting crops or raising livestock for a living, but in the arid years, the food we grow does not feed my family, so my father has to go outside and do some part-time jobs.

I have known about Islamic Relief since the Girl’s Student Home Project was implemented. With the completion of this project, I need not pay the accommodation fee of 80Yuan each semester, which has eased my family’s financial burden.

I have also received a meat pack twice now, in the Qurbani programme this year and last year.

The meat parcel is great and it helps me and my family quite a lot; it represents a rare occasion to add meat to my diet and provide nutrition for my body. With Islamic Relief’s help now I can join in this big and warm family, feeling the warmth of the world, enjoying learning and life and striving for a bright future.

It is harder for a girl to get an education. Many female Hui students have to drop out of school because there is no school accommodation available or because of unaffordable school fees. They leave school at an early age and learn to be a housewife, get married and become a young mother. This seems to be a common way of life for girls here.

My sister had only two years of schooling before marriage; my brother studies in the Northwest Institute for Ethnic Minorities in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, which is more than 400 kilometres away from my home. I study in the Middle School of Haiyuan County. I enjoy school very much. I am interested in English and Mathematics.

I really want to continue my studies. I have a strong will to get into a good college and walk out of the mountains where I now live.

I am extremely grateful to those kind donors who provided me with a free meat packet and a comfortable place to live so as to give me the courage and motivation of life. I have a strong will to realise my life value as a reward to those kind-hearted people."