Aynur Halik, a 24-year-old college graduate village official, has been caring for children with cerebral palsy in a house that she rented specifically for that purpose.
Halik’s youngest sister was born with the disease and she has been determined since young to help more people with the disease.
“I watched my mother take care of her. It is not easy,” Halik said. “She is 13 now, but still cannot speak or walk. My mother still looks after her like she is a baby.”
In 2012, Halik was hired as a college graduate village official at a village in Kashgar in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. She discovered that there were over 200 people there living with cerebral palsy and decided to do something to improve their situation.
She contacted Wang Fang, the founder of the Angels’ Home Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation Centre based in Nanning, capital city of southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Wang invited Halik to stay at her center for two months to learn about caring for children with cerebral palsy.
At the end of the two months, she rented a house near her work unit and moved her mother and sister there. At the same time, she invited three children with cerebral palsy nearby to stay there as well.
Within two months, one of the children, a 3-year-old boy who could not even move his head when he first arrived, was able to speak his first word. He called Halik ‘mother’.
“I love them so much and I feel so proud when they call me ‘mom’,” said Halik.
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