China turns to the child who walks 9 km a day below zero degrees to go to school

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Internet users have donated 1.9 million yuan (243,000 euros), and yesterday the state broadcaster CCTV reported that the first 100,000 yuan have already reached the school.

His photo has gone around the world, and it is not for less. Wang Fuman is eight years old and every day he walks for almost three hours, at temperatures of up to -10 degrees, to go to school. By the time he reaches the center, in rural Zhaotong, his hair has frozen. His teacher portrayed him a few days ago with his head and eyebrows full of ice and his hands dry and numb from the intense cold. He published the photos on social networks, the Chinese press echoed the story, and the debate has exploded.

Wang is one of the hundreds of thousands of children "left behind", as it is known in China to the kids who have been left in charge of their grandparents or who live alone because their parents have migrated to the city to find work. The system of segregation of the population prevents rural citizens from accessing urban services, such as health and education, and encourages these children to be separated from their parents, who send them money to subsist.

It is a phenomenon that is too common in poor provinces such as Yunnan, in the center-south of the country, but it is rarely mentioned in the official press. The photos of Wang have revived the debate on the matter and have touched the sensitive fiber of the population. Internet users have donated 1.9 million yuan (243,000 euros), and yesterday the state chain CCTV reported that the first 100,000 yuan that will serve to improve the conditions of the center have already reached the school, in whose classrooms heating will be installed. In addition, all students will receive an aid of 500 yuan (65 euros), because many are in the same situation as Wang.

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In new photos released yesterday you see the boy with clothes more suitable for the cold and with two young people who put on donated gloves. "I am very happy because people are helping me and have given me many gifts," Wang said. But the most important thing is that a company has offered work to his father in the area so that he does not have to leave it to his grandmother and of his sister. The mother left the family more than a year ago because, according to the father, they were too poor.

In cyberspace many have begun to wonder if this warm response from the public does not seek to shake the bad conscience by the lack of attention to the serious social problems hidden in the Chinese countryside. "How many Wang are there in the country? We help one, but there are thousands in the shadow." A reform of our social system is necessary so that there is greater equality ", requested a Weibo user. Of course it is better to help one than none.