"Courage": Jin Yong -13 year old teacher
"My name means Golden Courage. I gave myself this name."
When JinYong's mother became too ill to care for herself, the young girl told her mother that she wanted to quit school for a while, but assured her that she would return after her mother and her HIV-positive brother got better.
Once she left school, a neighbor, whose wife had died from AIDS, approached JinYong about teaching in a preschool he had started for children affected by AIDS. JinYong, a former honor student, became a pre-school teacher at age 13.
The young teacher was serious and mature while in her teaching mode. But after class, she was a child again, playing games with her students. "My biggest dream is to go to college one day," JinYong told us during her first interview, "and then to become a doctor. I will make it to college, some day, somehow."
JinYong's name means Golden Courage in English. During a second interview, researchers recorded that Courage, now 14, was "pale and very thin." Courage reported that, since the first interview, she had lost two family members: her niece from AIDS and her sister-in-law, who had committed suicide. Her mother was still HIV positive, and her brother was suffering from advanced stages of AIDS.
When asked by our researcher about the dream she had spoken of during the first interview, Courage responded: "You mean go to college? Oh, I was a child back then. I don't dream, anymore."
Three years later, she is dreaming again. Her courageous spirit now gives hope to other children. Recently, she told Dr. Luke in a phone conversation: "Dr. Luke, you don't need to help me any more. I am fine now. I now want to help you bring hope to other children."