For a large community that is home to more than 1,600 households, it's never easy to know every one or make friends with all the neighbors. Yet, 76-year-old Jin Guofang has succeeded.

She remembers who's old and ill in which household, and which couple quarreled and may need her help to patch things up. Most of the folks can recite her telephone number by heart, and they'll call her without hesitation when they need help.

Jin needs no special gifts or an exceptional memory, and all this is just part of her job as the head of the residents' committee in Jiannan Community at Shijiazhuang, Hebei province. She has served as a volunteer here for 21 years.

"I'm the person who's always helping, like Lei Feng. And the neighbors trust me now, after all these years," she says, referring to the role model known for his kindness towards others. Jin laughingly adds that she is three years older than Lei Feng when he died.

"I understand his motivation in helping others in need. It's perhaps the common features of our generation," she says. "So I made up my mind to help others as long as I can."

After she retired from the army as an artiste-solider in 1992, she continued her passion for art, learning traditional Chinese painting and organizing choirs at her home every night. Many women in their 40s would come to her home whenever they were free.

"At that time, our common areas were quite dirty with rubbish scattered around," she says. So the choir members began to clean their community, which led to the start of their volunteer work.

Jin is a very energetic person, always smiling, and her warmth has infected the residents and won their respect. In 2004, she was elected head of the residents' committee.

She gave out her telephone number, and it soon became a hotline, frequently ringing day and night. Her home became her office.

Some calls came at odd hours, like the time when an 80-year old called her at 2 am and complained about strange noises keeping him awake. Jin went to his house to investigate and discovered that it was the sewage pipes. She went home in the early hours of the morning and spent the rest of the night awake.

Her cooking would sometimes be interrupted, and she had to leave the house midway. Her husband has since learned how to cook.

"My husband didn't know how to cook at first, then he found he'd better learn, or starve. I felt sorry for him," she says.

"Sometimes, she goes out for a whole day and comes back with an empty stomach, and exhausted. I cannot ask her to cook," her husband, Guo Pulin, 79, says. "She is the focus of our family. She helps others, so I help her."

Guo takes down every call they receive while his wife is out of the house, and they have four telephone extensions in their apartment, one in every room, because the old couple finds it difficult to rush to the phone when it rings.

Their two children also support her volunteer work, and they contribute necessary items such as food and clothes every year.

Jin's team has grown to about 370 elderly volunteers members, and their fame has spread. In 2012, students from local middle schools joined her team.

She leads students on home visits to poor families, and on street-cleaning duties.

Li Pengchu, one of their teachers, had high praise for Jin.

"The students grow through learning about the difficulties of others," the young teacher says. "Many of their grandparents tell me the children have changed, and they show more respect for the old."

As for Jin, she says she encourages more young people to join them, so the young blood will re-energize the community.

zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/26/2013 page20)