4 . Helping others is a great thing to do. You can learn new things and have fun. How can you help?

Charities (慈善机构) are organizations that help others, for example, UNICEF or the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). You can help charities by giving your time, money or things that you own. You can also help people or places you know.

Volunteering

Volunteering is when you give your time to help others. Some ways of volunteering are:

● Visiting old people to talk to them or help them.

● Walking dogs at an animal shelter (避难所).

● Cleaning up a park.

Fund-raising

Fund-raising is when you collect money to help others. Some ways of fund-raising are:

● Making cakes or biscuits to sell.

● Doing a sponsored (赞助的) activity. For example, family and friends give you money if you finish a long walk.

Donating (捐赠)

Donating is when you give your things to help others. Some ways of donating are:

● Giving your old toys or clothes to a charity that helps sick children or poor people.

● Giving your old books to a library.

So, what can you do to help others?

6 . In warm sunshine, a group of students are playing the accordion (手风琴). The music sounds like nature itself. They are students at Shuangshiping Middle School in Shegang town in Hunan Province.     1    

68-year-old Guo used to play the accordion at the Hunan Provincial Opera and Dance Drama Theater. After retiring (退休) in 2014, he told a friend that he wanted to become a volunteer teacher. “Not all the children have a gift for playing an instrument. But music can influence their life and study greatly,” he said.     2     Then Guo visited the school and discovered that most of the students there had never learned to play the accordion. “The infrastructure (基础设施) at the school was poor.     3     I wanted to do something meaningful after retirement,” Guo recalled. In 2014, he spent 30,000 yuan on 20 accordions. With another 10 bought by his friend and 10 more donated by a company, Guo drove for two hours to give free lessons, twice a month from his home in Changsha to the school 122 kilometers away.

    4     He hopes that they can teach students when he is not available. Now, the students also learn to play other instruments, such as the hulusi and guzheng. “Every time I come to teach them, I enjoy myself and I feel young again,” he said.

Small actions could make a big difference. Tina’s story is a good example of this.

Tina is only ten years old but she has a heart as big as the sky. ①She has always been interested in helping others. It all began when she joined a winter camp at the age of eight. During her stay in the camp, she went to visit some kids in poor areas. She felt sad when she found the kids there didn’t have new clothes to wear and toys to play with. After she returned home, she kept thinking about how to help those kids.

One sunny morning, Tina saw some elder kids selling lemon juice by the street. They wanted to raise money to help their friends. ②然后她想出了一个好主意。With the help of her mother, Tina set up her first lemonade stand (摊位). In a week, she made $52 with it. Although it was only a little money, she bought some books for 12 kids with it! She felt very excited when she saw smiles on their faces.

Encouraged by her first success, Tina and her mother started a program called Tina’s Lemonade for Love. Up till now, she has already raised more than $17,000! She is going to spend the money on clothes, toys and books for the poor kids, spreading love and hope where it is needed most.

8 . Zhang Gui mei is the leader of Huaping High School. The school is the first high school to offer free education to girls from poor families. Many students’dreams come true with her help.

When she was a common teacher in a mountainous school in 2002, she decided to build a free high school for girls. She wanted to give them free education. Since it opened in 2008, it has seen more than 1,800 students going to universities and colleges.

Zhang’s husband died in 1996. She doesn’t have children or a house, so she lives in the dormitory (宿舍) with her students. Every day, she gets up at around 5 a.m. to turn on the lights of the teaching building, and wakes students up. She accompanies (陪同) students to classes and sleeps after students’ study ends at midnight. She has serious illness because of hard work.

“We always say, each child should stand on the same starting line, but these girls from mountains don’t even have a chance to get on the way.” she said.

All her dreams are to make these poor girls depend on themselves, to let them live better. She donated most of her money to education. She left nothing for herself. She was given the honor of the country’s “role model for teachers” “advanced (先进的) worker” and “outstanding (杰出的) woman”. Her moving stories have a great influence on thousands of people.