Woman volunteer lights up city with love

Sun Yanfei (R), a volunteer from the State Grid Huaibei Power Supply Co, teaches children about electricity use in a primary school in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui province. [Xinhua/Wang Lei]

Over the past 10 years, Sun Yanfei and her volunteers' team have helped 24 impoverished or disabled children and 143 "empty nest" elderly people whose children are far away from home, providing them with more than 100,000 yuan (US $14,913) and over 2,000 books.

Keeping brilliant at ordinary post

Sun Yanfei is a staff member at the State Grid Huaibei Power Supply Co in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui province.

"She loves using her brain." Many colleagues mention this when talking about Sun. During her time as an electricity bill accountant, she adopted a memorandum of electricity fee error details, which ensured the accuracy of bill calculations for 420,000 households in Hefei each year.

A few years ago, before the fast delivery method for electricity bills had been developed, Sun led a volunteers' team to take POS machines into communities to offer convenience to customers. Such service greatly increased the charge rate of electricity bills.

Since Sun started her job, she has always acted on a customer-centered principle, serving them with a smile and calmly dealing with their difficulties.

"Sun considers customers' complaints a good thing. Not only can we find shortcomings in our work, but also have the opportunity to help customers solve problems and maintain the company's image. She can always make an angry customer return with satisfaction," Zhang Mei, a colleague, wrote in an article.

Taking pains with public welfare

Sun and the team members thought of many ways to help the local left-behind children. They launched popular science classes, made interesting animations and course materials, and devised electric shock simulations, so that the children could improve their safety awareness.

Due to its remarkable results, the "Yanfeilai" care project of electricity use security for left-behind children won the gold medal at the 3rd China Youth Volunteer Service Project Competition in 2016.

"Sister Yanfei is dedicated to the public welfare undertakings. She doesn't just donate something. She will take the children to visit parks, read books, see movies and eat food, opening up their horizons in a subtle way," said He Ning, a "post-90s" member of Sun's volunteers' team.

Driving more people to help others

"Have I done anything considerable? I just want to do my best to help people." Although Sun feels that what she has done is nothing special, she has already affected more and more people.

Her son Qiqi is one of them. At first, he did not understand his mother. But later, when he got in contact with these children, who lived far away from their own parents, he understood the meaning of his mother's efforts. Qiqi not only shares his favorite toys, but also teaches the children English with his classmates.

In Sun's company, many peers have applied to join her volunteers' team. Zhang Mei said that after she met Sun, she realized that "every ordinary person can help many other people if he or she wants."

In the city, many people have changed themselves because of Sun. Xu Bang, a policeman from the Huaibei Public Security Bureau, often saw Sun carrying out activities whilst he was on duty. He was deeply moved, and it also gave him the idea of establishing a law-popularization volunteers' team.

"A wild goose can fly higher and farther only if it is in a team." With the increasing number of "post-90s" and "post-00s" workers in the team, Sun is now working on how to give full play to their innovative strengths and better contribute to public welfare.