Picture of young flood relief volunteer goes viral

A photo of a young volunteer resting against bundles of bottled mineral water during flood relief efforts in Shaanxi Province has gone viral online.

As the August 1 photo shows, the exhausted boy wearing glasses leans against bottled water to take a quick nap, with his mouth half open, in the Yulin city sun. A piece of cloth twisted around him was printed with the words: “volunteer from Yuanzhu Middle School”.

A total of 145,700 people were effected by a devastating flood that swept through the region on July 25. Volunteers have been recruited for disaster relief work since then. Hu Zhibo, the 12-year-old boy in the photo, was one of those volunteers.

Quite a few netizens applauded “the youngest volunteer” in the county for his flood relief efforts, while some others questioned why such a young boy should take on such physically strenuous work.

Hu’s mother Mei Liya said her son volunteered to participate in the flood relief efforts when he had his summer vacation and has helped carry rice, instant noodles and bottled water almost ten hours a day since July 28. She also volunteered in the county’s relief work, encouraged by her son.

Mei said the photo was shot after Hu carried more than 70 bags of noodles near Yuanzhu Middle School. He also helped residents shovel soil in severely affected areas.

Hu said it was worth the effort after he learned he had received the Internet's approval, he told the Beijing Youth Daily.