Wang Lanhua cleans a garbage bin in her community in Wuzhong, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

For those who knew her, Wang Lanhua always came across as a person who was constantly immersed in endless chores in her neighborhood — taking care of the elderly, mediating conflicts between couples, or even helping fix broken sewer pipes or heaters, to name just a few of her activities. 

Wang, the Party chief of a volunteer group in the city of Wuzhong, in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region of northwest China, has long considered solving problems for community residents as her life-long mission.

“As long as people ask us for help, whether they are of Hui or Han ethnicity, we will try our best to help them,” she said. “We are willing to exhaust ourselves in every possible way to help them.”

Wang has done her best, on many occasions, to raise money for people who were seriously ill or disabled, and she offered to help vulnerable groups without asking for any reward. During holidays, she would use money saved from her meager income to take care of lonely seniors.

Wang was well-known for her concern for the 3,000 households in her community. The woman, who is now aged 71, joined the Communist Party of China in November 1995, and she always thinks that Party members should be the first to serve the people, whenever and wherever they are.

Wang served residents in a community in Wuzhong’s Litong district for nearly 20 years before retiring as director of the community in 2004.

Since then, she has been doing volunteer work. Unable to get used to the idea of retirement, Wang founded a community volunteer group in Wuzhong in 2005 in order to keep serving the people.

“I have undergone surgeries five times, leaving many incision scars on the right side of my body. But I’m in a good mood and have a good mentality, and I also work hard as a volunteer,” she told Xinhua News Agency in an interview in July.

In the beginning, the volunteer group had to rely on Wang’s meager insurance fund payout to operate. Although the monthly income of her whole household at that time was only 360 yuan ($55) she would still spend it to help others.

Later, she began to receive relief funds from the Party. Before the Spring Festival of 2012, Wang received a total of 3,000 yuan in bonuses and relief, but she did not keep a penny. Instead, she spent it on food for the elderly in need while her neighbors noticed that she only ate white buns and pickles.

There were originally seven volunteers in her group. Lacking proper office space, they worked out of Wang’s 70-square-meter apartment.

“So many people came to ask for help, and sometimes they couldn’t all squeeze inside,” she said.

And Wang’s personal mobile number became the group’s hotline that received dozens of calls every day, taking them to all corners of the community to help out. 

Wang (first from left in front) makes zongzi, a festive food for the Dragon Boat Festival, with fellow community residents in Wuzhong, in June last year. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The community service team assists residents in resolving problems, mediates disputes, and promotes welfare policies for people of all ethnic groups. Volunteers strive to create a comfortable environment for people from Han and Hui ethnic groups living and working together in the community.

Wang and her team often helped vulnerable people with difficulties. She went to the homes of lonely seniors to help them shower, cut their nails and wash windows, and she also brought food and medicines for the elderly. The volunteers also look after left-behind children, and help with public security patrols.

Wang has known 91-year-old He Xiuying for 30 years. 

“It was not easy for her as a widow to raise her oldest son, who suffered from polio. It was sad when he died, and she was too ill to leave the house,” Wang said, talking about the resident she often cares for.

“Whether trivial or major, ignoring a problem or failing to resolve it means different things. I should not break their trust,” she said.

Last year, a neighborhood was undergoing renovation work that included digging up the ground to lay out pipes. But, a resident in his 80s was reluctant to have vegetables planted by him in front of his home removed, so he lay down in front of the spading machine with the intention of stopping the construction work. 

After hearing about this, Wang rushed to the scene and persuaded the man by explaining to him, with great patience, the benefits of the transformation work. The old man finally agreed to end his protest.

Wang’s volunteer group is located in a community that hosts more than 10 different Chinese ethnic groups including Han, Hui, Manchu and Mongolian. 

During every traditional Chinese festival, residents of all ethnic groups in the community would celebrate with each other in events organized by Wang and her volunteer service team. On Community Neighborhood Days, neighbors of all ethnic groups gather together to learn each other’s cooking skills and create a grand banquet with cuisines of different styles.

As a member of the Hui ethnic group, Wang has united people including the Hui and Han ethnic groups in the community.

Her group often organizes activities throughout the week, such as a flag-raising ceremony on Mondays to enhance patriotic awareness, and a concert with various ethnic groups on Tuesdays.

“Ningxia is our lovely home, it is united and socially stable,” Wang said.

“Here, the Hui and the Han cannot live without each other. As President Xi Jinping said, people of all ethnic groups are tightly bound together like pomegranate seeds. Everyone respects each other, understands each other and cares for each other.”

She takes care of Han people who are dealing with life difficulties and helps them find opportunities to earn a living, such as opening a barbershop or a fruit store.

Shu Hongyong and his younger brother, both Han, had a difficult life due to family changes.

After Wang learned about their situation, she insisted on taking care of them, frequently bringing them food, washing their clothes, and contacting a school to reduce their tuition fees.

Now Shu has opened a plumbing repair shop and is also an important member of the volunteer group.

Because there have been endless calls for help, Wang has over the years walked so much that calluses have grown on her toes, and her big toe has become so deformed that she can only wear soft-soled shoes. 

She once said that there are two greatest gains in her life: one is the honor added to her name, which is given to her by society; the other one is the good deeds that follow her name, which are in need by people with difficulties.

Guo Shuling, 64, is a veteran volunteer who joined the group in the second year after it was established. 

“At first, I was moved by Wang’s behavior, so I followed suit, but then I just couldn’t leave this post,” Guo said. A few years ago, the former cotton spinner suffered from breast cancer and underwent three operations. Now she still takes long-term medication, but Guo said that she has never thought of leaving the volunteer team. 

“Although we are doing small things, this actually means big for all the residents and their families,” she said.

In 2008, a child in the community was diagnosed with leukemia. Wang mobilized members of the volunteer group to donate money while working with local media to collect public donations. 

“Every time we raised 1,000 or 2,000 yuan, we rushed to the hospital to pay for treatment, and we finally collected more than 130,000 yuan for the child,” Wang said, adding that the child was successfully treated.

The group she set up in 2005 has taken part in 9,000 charity activities and resolved more than 7,000 problems for residents.

As their activities increased, Wang moved the group’s office from her house to a 1,400-square-meter volunteer service center.

For quite a long time, Wang’s volunteer service group did not have any fixed source of funds. Whenever she received requests for help, she organized volunteers to raise money from the public. In 2016, she established a charity group on WeChat that enabled her group to receive donations from the members of the social media platform. 

However, since the amounts raised were still limited, Wang’s group could usually offer only 1,000 yuan to any single individual as temporary relief.

Over the past 16 years, Wang’s group has collected total donations of 980,000 yuan to be used for charity.

As the volunteer services gained ground, many young people have joined the group, reinforcing Wang’s cause of serving the people. Some of the people Wang helped also became part of the group, which in turn helped the team to step up its services. 

Inspired by Wang and her group, Litong district now has 60,000 registered volunteers, with nearly 90 percent of them being women.

She once said, “The more volunteers there are, the fewer difficulties residents will face. I will keep enriching volunteer activities.”

Wang was presented with the July 1 Medal, the highest honor for a member of the CPC, on June 29. 

She believes that being an honest, down-to-earth person was the reason why she had been chosen to be one of the 29 recipients of the medal. 

“As volunteers, we do selfless deeds without rewards. Helping others makes me feel fulfilled,” Wang said.

“The medal is full of responsibility and honor, and it means a lot to me. It reminds me of the struggles and difficulties the CPC experienced during the 100 years it spent leading the Chinese people to live a happy life. The medal is a symbol of the greatness of the Party and the country’s prosperity.”

China Ethnic News and Xinhua contributed to this story.