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GIRLS STORIES: Huan Qing Hua, age 14 Huan Qing Hua and her younger sister, Huan Qing Mei, age nine, are two of GGEF's scholarship recipients. Both attend Tang Lian Primary School. Huan Qing Hua is in fifth grade, while her sister is in first grade. We met them on a rainy day in Tang Lian. They sat side-by-side, expressionless. Provoking smiles became part of our mandate - the smiles eventually did come, but so did a few tears. Like most of their peers, these girls spend their days cooking for the family, feeding the pigs, doing laundry, and carrying water. These are not unusual aspects of rural life. Ask a little girl what she does for fun in Na Ma or Chong Tao or any rural village and the answer will often be, "Sweep the floor." Fun feels like an extravagant concept when you are visiting villages that depend so heavily on weather conditions, surviving health mishaps, and harvesting rice and sugarcane. Children, in their spare time, work. Huan Qing Hua and Huan Qing Mei have three other sisters. About five years ago, their mother abandoned the family and never returned. She left out of shame because she had given birth only to girls. In five attempts, she had never produced a son. Now, because none of them were boys, they are without a mother. Huan Qing Hua lowers her head when this is explained. There are tears in her eyes, but these tears will never make it down her cheek. In an instant, this fourteen-year old, accustomed to struggle, blinks them away. Hers is a face not just full of sorrow, but of restraint. She is a child without a childhood. Girls like Huan Qing Hua may not have the language to express their dreams or dreams to express, but they are unequivocally aware of the pain that is theirs. NEXT STORY ____________________________________________ YOU CAN HELP CONTACT GIRLS GLOBAL