“Yubi” was four months old when our fieldworker found out about her. She is the second girl in her family. Many families feel that a first daughter is acceptable so long as the second child is a boy. Second daughters, however, are often aborted or abandoned.
As is often the case in rural China, Yubi’s paternal grandmother is the matriarch of the family and in charge of family decisions. Instead of being overjoyed, the grandmother was extremely disappointed when Yubi was born, because she wants to have a grandson. The grandmother has high blood pressure and worries that she may die any moment. She fears she will die before being able to hold her grandson.
When Yubi was born, the grandmother turned a cold shoulder to Yubi’s mom. The grandmother even urged Yubi’s mom to stop breastfeeding — hoping to speed up the time Yubi’s mom could get pregnant again.
Yubi’s mom couldn’t stop crying when our fieldworker came to her door and offered help: $25 each month for a full year to support her second daughter. She was amazed that someone she didn’t know would want to help — because she has a daughter. She said that when she was a young girl, she would go with her own grandmother to church; but she never thought about whether God existed or not. Yet because of our Save a Girl Campaign, she now feels that God sent an angel to help her, and that has awakened the Holy Spirit in her. Now she wants to go back to church and learn more about Jesus.
