Khaberni - Despite losing her arm and leg in a horrific car accident, a young Chinese woman managed to turn her ordeal into an inspiring story by establishing a project that provides employment opportunities for people of determination, and distributes tasks based on each person's ability, not their disability.
According to the "South China" newspaper, Wing Xinyi, aged 30, lost her left arm and left leg in 2020 after being involved in a car accident while with a friend who was driving a Porsche sports car.
The young Chinese woman underwent 14 surgeries and suffered three heart attacks that nearly ended her life, before miraculously surviving. During her treatment, her boyfriend left her, while her friend who survived the accident unharmed stopped paying for her medical expenses.
It took a full year for Wing to accept her new health condition, seeing that moment as the beginning of a new life, and she changed her name to "Yoyo," which means "correct.. correct," symbolically referring to her rebirth.
Yoyo sought to prove that her disability had not changed the essence of her strong and optimistic personality, and in 2022 she founded a yoga apparel project, appearing herself as a fashion model, challenging the stereotypes associated with body and disability.
Last year, she opened a shoe cleaning factory in Guangdong province, southern China, near her hometown in the autonomous region of Guangxi, and hired 10 employees, half of them with disabilities, with tasks distributed according to each person's abilities and health condition.
She assigned a person suffering from osteoporosis the task of sorting and digitally registering the shoes, while an employee with hearing impairment was tasked with operating the noisy cleaning machines, and a man suffering from polio took on the detailed cleaning, as he worked at a slower and more precise pace.
Yoyo said, "A disability does not define a person's limits, but distinguishes them," asserting that people with disabilities have their unique advantages, and all they need is a real opportunity.
Currently, the factory cleans between 700 and 800 pairs of shoes daily, with a monthly income of about 300,000 Chinese yuan, equivalent to $43,000 USD.
Yoyo aspires to open a new branch of the factory in her hometown, to be closer to her parents who have been her biggest supporters throughout her journey, a project that has received the backing of the Professional Services Association for People with Disabilities in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi.
Humanitarian Initiatives
Yoyo also works as a volunteer and public speaker on behalf of the Union of Persons with Disabilities, spreading positive messages through social media platforms, where she is followed by about 500,000 people.
She has leveraged her digital influence to support humanitarian initiatives, including raising 800,000 yuan for the treatment of a 12-year-old girl with leukemia, who later underwent a successful bone marrow transplant, in addition to promoting projects managed by people with disabilities, including a paralyzed woman and another survivor of severe burns.
Yoyo ensures she appears publicly without hiding her prosthetic leg or amputated arm, and sometimes chooses futuristic outfits that make her look like a "warrior." She firmly responds to those who offer marriage proposals out of pity, saying they are below her level.
One of her followers online described her as a pride for all women, affirming that she is more capable than many who enjoy full physical health.
