It is the simple gratitude of the people that encourages me to persist in making efforts and progress. It is their affirmation that gives me strength in my work.”

Li Jiyue has worked in maternity and childcare for 22 years, traveling to the homes of poor peasants in the mountainous area of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. By popularizing maternity and childcare knowledge, training health personnel, and performing health checks, she has contributed to the improvement of the quality of life and health levels of women and children in the countryside and they have become her friends. She is loved and respected by the locals.

In 1983 Li Jiyue, who had just graduated as a Maternity and Child Care major from Ningxia Health School, was faced not only with the extreme poverty of the remote mountainous area of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, but also the challenge of traditional ideas and practices, and poor natural living conditions. The two colleagues who went with her to a village in the area left the same day. However, Li has retained her position for 22 years. She has popularized maternity and childcare knowledge, training health care personnel, and performing regular health checks for women and children. Her work has contributed to enhancing the quality of life and health levels of women and children in the countryside. Traveling long distances to the peasants’ homes, working with them, making friends with the women, and getting to know their thoughts has stood her in good stead. She is loved and respected by the locals. After 20 years’ of effort, conditions such as prolapse of reproductive organs, urinary fistula, and fecal fistula are now rare, and so she has shifted her focus to improving the quality of life of women, preventing and curing common and frequently-occurring diseases, and conducting a general survey for cancer. The health levels of local women and children have since improved greatly. During this time Li has progressed from being an ordinary health worker to being head of the bureau , as well as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee of Yongning County and Yinchuan City. No matter how her identity has changed, or how tired or difficult it is, as long as she sees that the mothers and the children are safe and sound, she is happy. Her persistence and her love for maternity and childcare work have ensured the continuity of endeavors in this area. And this has earned her the praise that she is “dearer than our relatives.”

Maternity and Child Care Center, Yongning County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region