Hebei millionaire who gave up her wealth to adopt over 100 abandoned children now battling cancer

This woman is a hero

Here’s a story to warm the cockles of even the coldest heart. In Shangquan Village near Wu’an City in Hebei Province, a 43-year-old woman named Li Lijuan has spent the past 20 years taking in abandoned children. She adopted her 118th child this year, but is now struggling with serious money and health issues. She was diagnosed with cancer six years ago, and worries about who will care for the children if she cannot.

Below, we have translated her story.

It all started when she was 27 and on her way to work at a new mine she had invested in. She passed a girl covered in filth and begging for food on the side of the road, and immediately took her home and cared for her. Since then, any abandoned children in the area have been sent her way, and she refuses to turn them away, earning her town the title of “Compassion Village” (爱新村).

Li started out as a self-made businesswoman in the 90s, dealing anything from clothing to pirated DVDs. She got married at 17 and had a child, and by the age of 20 she was famous in the area for her wealth and success.

That all changed when she was seriously injured and hospitalized in a car accident. When she was finally released from the hospital, she found that her husband had squandered much of their wealth to feed a drug habit. She divorced him, but he then sold their son to a child trafficker. She paid 8000 yuan to get him back.

Through it all she kept a positive attitude, and eventually managed to recover her losses. She invested in a new mine in the area and her life took a turn for the better. But the strain of raising so many children took its toll, and in 2008 she was forced to close down the mine. In 2011, she was diagnosed with cancer and had to sell her villa.

Now, with so many mouths to feed, she struggles to make ends meet. But despite her circumstances and her ailing health, she carries about her daily tasks with a smile. Each morning she sends the school-aged children off to seven different schools on three different buses. She cooks and cleans and cares for the others.

Among the children she cares for are several with disabilities and health problems. She worries most for these children, and what will happen if she can’t continue to care for them.

According to a China Daily story from 2015, Li has been deep in debt for years now due to her continued struggle with lymphoma, and her refusal to turn away children. Complicating matters even more is the fact that Chinese adoptive law is strict, and there are numerous obstacles to assigning new foster parents for the children.

As her health continues to deteriorate, she’ll no doubt need all the help she can get. If you’d like to contribute, there is now a Tencent Charity crowdfunding page (link in Chinese) set up for Li, although you can only pay via WeChat Wallet unless you set up an account. (You can read more about Tencent Charity here.)

This article was written by Jessica Colwell.

[Images via Netease]