A Child Laborer's Story

(Clearwisdom.net) I am a little Dafa practitioner from Shandong province. I am 14 years old right now. Ever since the President of China began persecuting Dafa, our entire family could not escape it.

Neither of our parents could earn money to support our family. Only my eldest sister had outside work to support the family and my tuition and fees. But later, the police would not allow my eldest sister, who practices Falun Gong, to work any more. If she could work, it had to be under their surveillance, or she had to give the money she earned to them. Eventually, my sister was arrested by the police, and was forced to become homeless to escape further persecution. Thus our entire family lost its only source of financial support. Both my second eldest sister and I had to discontinue our studies. Our entire family has not seen our eldest sister for one year. Nobody knows her whereabouts. During the year, our financial difficulties had made my elderly father very worried. He finally thought of a way to make money, which was to go to remote towns to pick up waste materials. (I had not been able to find jobs during that time, since I was too young, and nobody wanted to hire me.) Unfortunately, my father then had an accident and passed away. All of the living responsibilities fell upon my second eldest sister and me. I cannot describe how much mental pain I felt. If I had not studied Dafa, I could not have faced all of that. Now I know that I must be strong!

I am doing odd jobs for a self-employed person. Room and board are not included. My salary is only in the tens of Yuan [Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan]. Spring has come. My second eldest sister is only three years older than me. Both she and I have to go to a huge liability field [In China, peasants are forced to farm a certain area of land, depending on their family size, and turn in a certain amount of grain or money. Usually they can earn little money from the farming, so they have to do something else to support themselves. But they have to farm the land, otherwise they will be fined.], which is about three to four mu [about 0.5~0.65 acres]. I don't even know how to sow seeds, apply fertilizer, water or harvest. I don't know what to do.

"The Protective Law for Minor Children " says that I should be able to enjoy the rights of family protection, school protection, social protection, judicial protection and the right to be educated. Now all of these rights have been denied.

Finally, I appeal to all kind people from all over the world, to show concern for the tens of thousands of Chinese children who are being persecuted, like me. Thank you!

January 26, 2002

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