Liu Siyu talks with a leprosy sufferer in Qianjin village, Yunnan Province, on January 7, 2012. Photo: Courtesy of Liu Siyu

Nine years ago, when Liu Siyu was 12, he joined Xishuangbanna Volunteers' Association in Yunnan Province, not for some noble cause or faith, but out of a little boy's simple wish: to attract a girl's attention.

"At that time, I had a crush on a girl in my class, and I tried every possible way to attract her attention. I learned to write well so that the teacher could ask me to read my compositions in the class," he told the Global Times.

One day, Liu happened to watch some TV programs on volunteers and the red ribbon. He desperately wanted to have a red ribbon himself. "I thought a red ribbon could set me apart from the other students, and then she would notice me," he recalled.

Although writing and volunteering work did not win him the girl's favor, they turned later into the most important parts of Liu's life. Now a junior student from Shandong Institute of Business and Technology, besides his honorary titles, such as a member of the Xishuangbanna Writers' Association, the 21-year-old is a youth ambassador at the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund.

Determined to carry on

In fact, what makes Liu determined to serve public welfare as a lifelong undertaking is a young AIDS victim's request. In 2007, when Liu was 16 years old, he went to a village in Xishuangbanna to deliver food and medicine to the AIDS sufferers. One man was infected with AIDS because of taking drugs, and transmitted the disease to his wife and daughter. The family was expelled from the village.

When volunteers arrived there, the husband had already died, and his wife was lying ill in bed.

The little daughter was huddling up in a damp corner overgrown with moss, with several burn marks of cigarette butts on her skin.

When Liu was about to leave after putting down food and medicine, the little girl suddenly grabbed his shirt and gave him a little bag. Opening it, he found several coins, carefully wrapped with tissue paper. "Why are you giving me this?" Liu asked her. "I am giving you all my money. Can you save my mom?" asked the little girl. He was dumbfounded for a while. The little girl then asked whether her mother would die. "I was then choked with sobs and could not speak a word," Liu recalled.

After seeing many people at the bottom of society, Liu decided he must do something for them. "You have to see something with your own eyes, and the expression in their eyes can tell you a lot of things," he told us.

Power of public service

To call for more young people to join him, Liu founded Siyu Harmony Society in March, 2010. The society primarily consists of college students. Besides some 20 key members, thousands of volunteers have joined the society. The offices are established in five cities - Yantai, Chengdu, Xishuangbanna, Chongqing and Changsha.

Later, the Xishuangbanna government took the team's advice and organized a group of young villagers to protect the forest and wild animals in each village. The society's 2010 investigation on the floating population of Yantai, Shandong Province, was highly praised by Lu Yongzheng, secretary of the Central Committee of China Communist Youth League.

The investigation, to some extent, also prompted the policy implementation of the Yantai government concerning the children of migrant workers. "As a result, the government relaxed school enrollment restrictions on most children, and exempted them from sponsorship fees," said Liu.

From November 23 to 25, last year, the society gave lectures in Chengdu on AIDS prevention, advocating the public to get rid of discrimination against AIDS sufferers. "I have got in touch with a lot of AIDS patients. It would be a lie if I said I was not scared at first," commented Liu. "But after getting along with more and more patients, my attitude changed."

Almost every week the volunteers take turns to take care of solitary and poor elderly soldiers, chatting with them and trying their best to improve their life. "Last year, we went to an old soldier's house in Hunan Province. His house was freezing cold, without any valuable electric appliances. So we immediately bought him an electric stove," Liu said. Gingerly, the old man took out a bunch of medals for military merit. He slowly put them on and asked the students to take photos of him. "These veterans do not mind the poverty and physical pain. What they really care about is people's recognition and respect for their contribution to the country," said Liu. In a letter to Siyu Harmony Society, an old soldier from the expeditionary forces army wrote: "Because of your efforts, our decades-long grievance of being looked down upon was written off in one stroke."

Engaging more youth

However, for most college students whose lives are confined to campus, they could hardly empathize with Liu. "When I am giving lectures at colleges, sometimes the expression in students' eyes makes me despair," said Liu. "It seems my lecture could only provoke them to think a bit, but could not actually prompt them to make changes."

So he decided to launch a nationwide project earlier this year to engage 1 million youth in public service in 100 cities, giving them training and lectures. Through on-the-spot investigations, the project aims to cultivate a sense of responsibility in young people.

"As long as I live, I will keep helping those people in need. For me, public service is a habit, rather than just a career," he said.