Wang Qi Lin's family

A team of three of us made our annual trip to China, Shandong and Henan in April this year. It was a good time of seeing familiar faces and catching up with old friends. Some of them have settled and coped relatively well with life after their injuries, having managed to find suitable jobs and even start businesses of their own while others still struggle to find their feet or are still waiting for resolution of their cases in Singapore. But of all the updates of the people we have managed to gather, one in particular griped my heart.

Wang Qi Lin, was injured on the job, found out that he had throat cancer, battled it, got better but finally succumbed to it in December 2012. Jeffrey (my colleague who visited Qi Lin last year right before he passed on) still keeps close contact with the family, so this trip we decided to visit his wife and children to see how they are getting along.

The journey from the city to their home was about 45 minutes long, as we arrived at the dirt road junction that led to her home, Mrs. Wang was already there and greeted us cheerfully. We trooped into her home and settled onto the couch and little wooden stools. She offered us water. Their home seemed emptier somehow… compared to my memory of it just a year ago.

In the simple exchange of pleasantries and asking how the children were, we were able to clearly see that the family was barely managing to make ends meet. Three out of the five children were working in the same shoe factory in He Bei, the youngest of which is only thirteen. Mdm. Wang herself was doing various odd jobs like making goods deliveries and weaving wicker chairs while taking care of the remaining two school-going children, 14 and 7 years.

Though none of us said anything while Mdm. Wang was talking, I believe all our hearts sank when we heard about how even the thirteen year-old had to quit school and go off to work. As we spoke to her and mentioned the importance of education for the children, her tears started to flow. She told us she knew its importance but she simply did not have a choice. Most of their savings were spent on Qi Lin’s chemotherapy and medical fees. She could not work full time as the youngest was still too young to be left alone. Even as she related the situation, I could feel the desperation she must have felt.

After making some calculations, we figured that if we could get the eldest child a job in Singapore, the salary that she would get will be equivalent to the combined amount of money the three children are currently getting. As we offered a possible solution, discussed the logistics of getting a job overseas, we could see Mdm. Wang slowly lighting up, becoming a little more hopeful. The road ahead for the Wang family seems long and arduous. I hope our little efforts will somehow help ease the family’s burden.