Yu Yinhua (L) at work

As a gynecologist, Yu Yinhua, a doctor with the Obstetrics & Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University (or Shanghai Red House Obstetrics & Gynecology Hospital), felt obliged to do something to help women in poverty-stricken areas improve their health. So, she and warmhearted people from Shanghai, Beijing and Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture (in Southwest China's Yunnan Province), in March 2015, established a salvation station in the prefecture. With the support of the prefecture's women's federation, the station continues to provide both financial and psychological assistance to rural women who suffer from cancer. Yu is president of the station. During the past six years, the station has provided financial support to more than 800 women in the prefecture.

Li Yan, associate professor with the School of Basic Medical Sciences, under Dali University, and who is vice-president of the station, recently told media about the station's work system.  First, donors, who helped Yu establish the station, discuss the target areas the station's workers and volunteers will visit, to learn about women patients' physical and family conditions. After the workers and volunteers visit the women, the donors decide, through consultations, the amount of money they will offer to each woman. Finally, the station's workers and volunteers give the money to the women, when they visit the women again.

Influenced by the station's workers, many of the patients stay positive and face the reality rather than complain about their fate. "I'm deeply touched by the station's workers' concern for me," says one woman. "With the support of so many warmhearted people, I have stronger confidence in overcoming the disease."

Given the support of the women's federations, at all levels in the prefecture, the station during the past several years has provided courses to popularize information about tumor-related diseases. The courses are intended to help rural women (in the prefecture) raise their awareness of the importance of healthcare, and the need to detect the diseases early, so they can receive timely medical treatment.

In 2019, the station invited members of the lecturers' group of the Obstetrics & Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University to provide lectures to rural children (in the prefecture), to help them increase knowledge about physiological development during puberty. More than 1,000 teachers or students with several primary and middle schools attended the lectures. The activities were well received.

Photo Supplied by the Interviewee

(Women of China English Monthly December 2021 issue)