One dedicated teacher turns lives around, with a football

WHEN 11-year-old Azuowule finished his football practice, the rain that had lasted for three days finally stopped and the cloud which surrounded his Wawu primary school dissipated.

Wawu primary school is 2,700 meters above sea level in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, a place once in deep poverty and ravaged by drugs.

Azuowule grew up with his grandmother. As the only certified teacher in Wawu primary school, Qubishigu still remembers how Azuowule looked like when he saw the little boy for the first time.

“He was thin and preoccupied with his head always down,” Qubishigu said.

“Come on boy. Let’s play football together!” Qubishigu said to Azuowule one day.

From then on, the little boy stuck to football training almost every day. After two years, Azuowule grew taller and stronger, and his smile became a regular feature on his face since football has always by his side.

For the students in Wawu primary school, football is not only a sport but also a bridge connecting to the outside world. Forty-year-old Qubishigu is the dream-maker of Wawu primary school.

When he graduated from college in 2003, this school was a teaching site that could disappear at any moment.

At that time, the classroom was modified from a cowshed, with barely any equipment or supplies.

“We have no need for teachers,” a villager said with contempt when Qubishigu arrived.

“Even herding cattle and sheep is better than studying,”

Qubishigu felt more sad than angry when he heard that.

But he stayed and renovated the classroom, retrieving children who dropped out of school from door to door.

Except for the study, life at school can be dull.

The Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture is next to Yunnan Province and borders the Golden Triangle.

To a certain extent, football has helped the children here walk out of a past of poverty and drugs.

“I believe that football will change students’ lives,” Qubishigu said. “Football is a kind of education which teaches them to be strong and responsible for every one of their choices.”

(Xinhua)