Woman Official Dedicated to Poverty Relief in Qinling Mountains

"Please offer me your evidence of dividends to impoverished households, bank bills, and the name list of the impoverished households receiving the dividends."

On May 16, 2019, while inspecting poverty-alleviation work of a technology company, Xie Yourong, a poverty-alleviation official in Lantian County, Xi'an City, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, quickly found the missing information among a large number of financial statements.

Serious, meticulous and professional in her work is the consistent evaluation of Xie by her colleagues.

Xie was born in East China's Shandong Province. To support her husband, Xie gave up the opportunity of working in her hometown after graduating from Xi'an International Studies University with a major in Japanese, and chose to settle down with her husband who works in a scientific research institute in Xi'an. In 2016, Xie took part in the civil service exam and joined the Poverty Alleviation Office of Lantian County. From then on, poverty-alleviation work has been her top priority.

Lantian is an old revolutionary area with a weak foundation. In 2015, nearly 100,000 impoverished people were registered, making the poverty-alleviation task extremely arduous. On her first visit to the households in mountainous areas, Xie cried. "There were so many disadvantaged people needing our care and immediate help. At that time, I felt it was my mission to help these people escape poverty," she said.

The poverty-alleviation work is very hard, but Xie always volunteers to undertake the hardest jobs. In May 2017, she applied to work in the county's poverty-alleviation command post, where she changed her office location eight times in three years. Due to shortage of staff, she also took up the writing work. There were no holidays and she had to work even when she was sick.

As part of her poverty-alleviation work, Xie spent a lot of time with a impoverished divorced family with three children in a local Village. Xie often brought the children stationery and articles of daily use when she visited their family, listened to their stories, and encouraged them to study hard.

Over the past two years, Xie has helped them get financial aid for education, and applied for housing for the family and 20,000 yuan (US $2,867) of fund to help their father develop white pine planting and bee breeding.

However, speaking of her own children, she said "I was too busy to take good care of my sons. Even when they were sick, I was not able to return home."

With deep feeling and commitment, Xie said she compares herself to a Malan flower in the Qinling Mountains, aspiring to blossom along with the smiling faces of the people in spring.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)