The man who’s tutored 300+ left-behind children for free

Ye Haitao, a 42-year-old man living with paralysis has helped over 300 children with school lessons and homework for free over the last 20 years, Yangtze Evening News reported on Wednesday.

He's tutored them from his home in Huaian city, East China's Jiangsu province.

When Ye was a young man, he dreamed of being a teacher, because he thought educating people to be the greatest thing in the world. In 1993 he entered Huaian Normal School (which was integrated into Huaiyin Normal University in 2000) and worked hard to prepare himself for his dream career.

Illness however got in the way of his study and life. In the second year of Ye's time at university, he occasionally felt a slight pain in his legs, but did not give it a second thought.

It wasn't until he could not bear the increasing pain that he went to the hospital and was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis characterized by long-term inflammation of the joints of the spine.

Treatment did not stop Ye's health from deteriorating. He gradually lost the ability to stand, walk and sit upright.

Ye dropped out of school, and in the first years of living with his condition, he suffered both physically and mentally.

One day some countrymen came to his home and asked whether he would help children with their studies, due to his initial experience at school.

At the time Ye had heard that there was a number of left-behind children in his village, in which many parents were migrant workers.

Ye opened a free tutoring class in his home in the summer of 1999. The students would come here after school and during summer and winter vacations.

Sitting at desks placed around his bed, they would listen to his teaching. There were also ten sets of desks in the living room for the children to do school assignments.

When Ye would teach his students, he had to lie on his side and hold the whiteboard and pen. He would feel numb and acute pain over time. Despite this, he has continued his good deeds for almost two decades.

Ye has now tutored over 300 left-behind children without charging a fee. Many of his students have entered key high schools and even become college students.

One child, surnamed Yang, used to struggle at school. Ye encouraged the child to study hard and praised every small bit of progress he made to inspire the child.

Ye also spent time talking with him heart-to-heart. After a while Yang's grandmother noticed that her grandson was performing much better at school, and said with tears that the huge changes in her grandson were down to Mr Ye.

Seeing the children improve with his help, Ye is happy from the bottom of his heart, and considers his work meaningful and worthwhile.

"It is the smile of these left-behind children that abates the pain and suffering brought by my illness. Their smiles accompany me all the time," Ye said.