Heroes you should know: Lou Xiaoying

"I realized if we had strength enough to collect garbage how could we not recycle something as important as human lives.” –Lou Xiaoying


People become heroes in the most unlikely places. For Lou Xiaoying it was the garbage dumps of Jinhua in eastern China. There in 1972, while searching for recyclable rubbish to resell, she found her first baby. In total Lou has saved 30 abandoned babies, dumped like trash amidst the trash. She and her late husband adopted four, and found homes for the other 26 with family and friends.

Lou has not let her material poverty or advanced age limit her charity. She brought home and adopted her last child when she was 82 years-old, and is raising him with the help of her 49 year-old daughter. Now 88, and suffering from kidney failure, this great soul’s dying wish is for her little boy to be given the chance to go to school. It’s the one gift she hasn’t been able to give him.

What’s almost as stunning as Lou Xiaoying’s generosity is the fact that the Chinese government has allowed her story to be reported. Her life’s mission, and the lives she’s saved over the years while simply trying to make a living, has shed new light on the consequences of China’s one-child policy.

It is a conservative estimate that 36,000 abortions occur every day in China (a significant number of which are forced), and untold numbers of newborn babies are abandoned or simply killed as couples try to comply with the policy and avoid harsh penalties. Female infanticide remains a particular problem.

Lou Xiaoying’s initial goal was survival, not heroism. But by choosing to embrace life in the garbage dumps of eastern China and sacrificing to save what is most precious and valuable, she has challenged the culture of death in her country---and given the world a reason to hope in humanity.

She is a hero you should know.


To learn more about this hero, you might consider:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2181017/Lou-Xiaoying-Story-Chinese-woman-saved-30-abandoned-babies-dumped-street-trash.html