Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet, as the saying goes.
For nine-year-old Zhou Dingshuang from China, she is literally the hands and feet of her disabled brother who has had difficulties using his limbs since birth.
The skinny girl carries her elder sibling to school every day in the rural Yunnan Province – rain or shine, snow or sleet.
Sister love: Zhou Dingshuang, 9, carries her brother Zhou Dingfu, 12, to school every day
Sibling bond: The girl, from China, helps her brother get dressed before setting out to school
Full of care: Dingfu (left) was born disabled and has had difficulties using his hands and legs
The siblings study at the same class in the Central School of Heizhiguo County, southern China
She told a reporter from the local Wenshan Television Station: ‘I will never leave him behind. I will be his walking stick forever.’
Dingshuang also carefully looks after 12-year-old Zhou Dingfu, who studies in the same class as her at the Central School of Heizhiguo County.
Every morning, she washes the hands and face for him, helps him get dressed before carrying him on her back to walk to the school, according to the TV report.
Determined: Dingshuang helps Dingfu go to school no matter how bad the weather is
Dedicated: The pair have to cross streets and climb up stairs to reach their classroom
Studying buddies: After they finish school, Dingshuang also helps Dingfu with his homework
The pair has to cross streets and climb upstairs to reach their classroom, but the incredibly determined girl has made sure that she and her brother are never late for any lessons – no matter how bad the weather is.
After they finish school, Dingshuang also helps her brother with his homework before doing housework for her parents.
Dingshuang has already become the backbone of her family at the tender age of nine.
According to the report, Dingshuang and Dingfu’s parents are both disabled. As a result, Dingshuang does most of the housework at home, including washing vegetable, feeding pigs, cooking and hand-washing clothes for the family of four.
Dingshuang does most of the housework too, including washing vegetable and feeding pigs
Dingshuang (right) says she also cooks for her brother and her parents, who are also disabled
Dingshuang’s story has touched millions of hearts in China and the school has offered help
After Dingfu reached school age, his parents worried that he couldn’t walk to school. Dingshuang didn’t want to see her brother being left behind, so she volunteered to carry him on her back every day.
Liu Yan, a teacher from their school, told the TV reporter that the school had arranged a dorm room for the brother and sister to live after noticing the difficult situation their family are facing.
Teacher Liu said the school had also reduced or canceled some of the fees for the pair in order to help the less-fortunate family.
DingShuang and Dingfu’s dorm room is about 500 meters (1,640 feet) from their classroom.
DingShuang continues to carrying Dingfu to school every day.
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