Perseverance offers path to better life

One of Bamuyubumu's daughters saw the photo taken in 2010 online and accompanying information asking for help to find the woman in the picture.

Last month, photographer Zhou and Bamuyubumu met each other face to face for the first time when Zhou went to her village. "I was nervous and excited when I met her", he said.

"She looks much younger than I imagined. Her silver earrings make her fashionable."

Bamuyubumu is always cheerful now, Zhou said, adding that her dimples show when she laughs.

As a result of the much-needed help and resources mobilized during the poverty relief drive in her home county, her family now has a stable income.

Bamuyubumu lives in a concrete house instead of the leaky adobe home the family used to inhabit. She eats rice, meat and vegetables each day and, more important, she makes a good living from planting tobacco with fellow villagers.