The lives of the children with holes in their hearts are shrouded in mystery. While the student body of YCIS Shanghai has donated money to several of these children through Heart to Heart Foundation, almost none of us had seen the result of our hard work. That is, until a chance for the Student Council to meet these children arrived.

We quietly embarked on our journey, four of us holding gift baskets, none of us knowing what to expect. We had spent weeks forming plans to raise money for these children, yet we had never seen them before. When we finally arrived, we were filled with anticipation.

The visit was quite an experience for both their families and us. As we entered the first room, we saw one of the children for the first time. He was only three years old with a round face and a pair of watery little eyes. We were all relieved to hear that the surgery was successful and that he was going leave the hospital shortly thereafter. As we said farewell, the child’s grandmother thanked us for helping her grandson and giving him a second chance at life. Until then, I did not grasp how much we had changed this little boy’s life.

The second family we visited was rather emotive. As we were speaking to the father, his voice cracked as he spoke. “How can we ever thank the school for this? You gave our son a second chance to face the world. Without him, how will we manage in the future?” And with this sentence, tears started falling from the father’s face. Seeing this, all of us were dumbstruck. We had only heard that the money was raised successfully for people in need; however, the experience of standing in front of these people, seeing their lives changing before our eyes, was quite different.

Later, sitting on the bus coming back to school, I came to the realisation that people, can make such a difference in each other’s lives. It is the responsibility of the more fortunate to help fellow brothers and sisters in need. It is only when we are united that we are strong.