| Abstract | Like most teenagers, Jiang Shuqin was full of dreams in her green years, simple and not too ambitious fantasies for a girl living in a barren, poverty-stricken mountain valley 200 km north of Beijing. Dreams that she and her family would one day become prosperous - her friends too. She also dreamed of becoming highly respected by her fellow villagers. But never in her wildest imaginings could she have anticipated that, at 18, she would be appointed family planning assistant in Kulongshan township, Hebei Province. Today, the 860 women of child-bearing age among the township's total population of 4,304 regard 44-year-old Jiang in three lights: as a doctor to whom they can turn for help, a friend in whom they can confide, and as a family-planning expert who has the means to help rid them of poverty. |
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