The Friends Who Planted 10,000 Trees

Jia Haixia and Jia Wenqi plant trees together in northeastern rural China in the village of Yeli. Haixia is the elder and was born blind in his left eye because of a cataract. Later, in 2000, he had a work-related accident in a factory and lost his right eye. Today, Haixia is completely blind. Wenqi, at the age of 3, touched an unprotected electric cable lying on the ground. The high voltage shock he received made him a double amputee. He adapted to life without his arms. They went to school together in the same village and have been friends forever.

As disabled people, it was difficult to find jobs, so in 2002 the two old friends got together with a goal of planting 800 trees to support themselves economically. Instead of giving up when drought destroyed their trees, they decided to continue their tree planting dream using their disability assistance from the government. After a few years of hard work, trees grew, and the land became greener. 

Impressed by the success of Haixia and Wenqi, villagers started supporting them by giving them tools, watering the trees, weeding and buying tree saplings. 

When they started their tree planting, they were hoping to get the financial benefit from harvesting the trees.  Gradually their goal has evolved as they started to see the benefits of green space for the local community. They live in a heavily industrial and coal-burning province, which motivated the local village committee to grant them additional land and tree seedlings as motivation for their contribution to the community. They went from the original 800 trees to 10,000 trees.

The friends believe fate brought them together to complement each other. Each morning, they wake up at 7 AM to go to their plot. Wenqi leads the way guiding his blind friend. When they reach the shallow river, Wenqi carries Haixia on his back so his blind friend will not fall on the fast-moving water. Haixia climbs trees to prune them. Wenqi digs holes for the cuttings, tucking a shovel between his cheek and shoulder to aim it and then using his feet to drive into the ground.

Beyond generating a modest income from the government, their regeneration work has saved the village from flooding and has reestablished green space for the population of this heavy industrialized area.