O. Henry was a pen name of an American writer. He wrote short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he tried to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas. There he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. When some money was lost from the bank, others believed O. Henry took it. So people sent him to prison﹡. He stayed in prison for three years. There he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and went on writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because they always finished with a sudden change at the end, to the reader's surprise.

    A man in Pakistan is now working to help children get an education. When he was a child, he did not go to school because he was too poor.

    It is reported that Pakistan has 25 million children who do not go to school. That is the second ­highest number in the world. Only Nigeria has more. Many Pakistani children must work to support their families.

    Mohammad Ayub was once one of those children. He is now a firefighter. He also manages a small school. VOA recently visited the school in the capital Islamabad.

    Ayub started with just one student in 1982. He saw a boy cleaning cars for days. He asked him, "Why don't you go to school?" The boy answered that his parents were dead and he had to work to help support his five brothers and three sisters.

    Ayub was also an orphan and he, too, had to work to help support his five brothers and three sisters. He said, "When my father died, everyone who came to the funeral said they were sorry, but no one helped." He sold newspapers and did other work to earn enough money to pay school fees for his brothers and sisters.

    Ayub wanted to help the young boy who washed cars, but he did not have enough money to pay the boy's school fees.

    Today, Ayub teaches many children at his school in a public park. Some of the children attend other schools in the morning, but come to Ayub in the afternoon to get help with their homework.

    Ayub has helped a large number of poor children since he began teaching. Many of them come from very poor areas near the park.

    Ayub said," I used to argue with kids who worked ' Why are you washing someone's dishes or their clothes? Why don't you study? ' "

    One of the children he advised to attend classes was Farhat Abbas. Ayub found him working with his friends about 12 years ago. "He followed us back home. He told our parents he wanted to teach us and asked them to send us to his school, "Abbas said.

    Today, Abbas is taking classes at a college and is helping Ayub.

    Many children are out of school, and those who do attend classes often get a poor education. Information gathered by an organization shows half of all Pakistani children in the 5th grade do not understand basic mathematics and cannot read a story in their language.

    A group in Islamabad reports Pakistan spends less on education than any other country in South Asia.

I live in Taipa, a community (社区) in Macau (澳门). My house in Taipa is very good. There are two large stores, a bank and a post office in the community. And there are a lot of great restaurants. The Sichuan restaurant is my favourite. I can get a bowl (碗) of noodles with chicken for about ten yuan in that restaurant. There is a park with a small river, gardens and trees near my house. It's very beautiful. I go running in the park every morning.

I wasn't in Macau in 2012. I was in Hong Kong at that time. My apartment (公寓) in Hong Kong was quite small. The apartment was on a busy street. There were many cars on the street. And there was no supermarket near my home. And the people there were very busy. I don't like to live in that place.

I am happy with my new house.

To many in the Gulf （海湾），Ghanim Al Muftah is a well﹣known face. Ghanim was born in May 2002 in Qatar，without the lower half of his body because of a serious illness. Even though the young boy was only given 15 years to live by his doctors，his parents didn't give up on him. 

Ghanim was often very sad when he was at school. No one liked to play with him. His mother comforted him that his classmates were just afraid of hurting him，not scared of him. She also encouraged the boy to communicate more with his classmates and let them know more about his illness. His mother's words cheered him up and made him become more optimistic（乐观的）. 

Now，21﹣year﹣old Ghanim is an example to the world and especially to those fighting with physical disabilities. He used his weakness to develop a strong will（意志） . A surprising fact about Ghanim is that he loves sports and actively takes part in football，skateboarding，ice hockey and even scuba （潜水） . 

Ghanim is also one of the youngest businessmen in Qatar. His ice cream business provides jobs for the people in the city. At the same time，with his family's support，Ghanim has also set up an organization to give away free wheelchairs to those disabled people in need. 

The young boy lives up to the meaning of his name. "Ghanim Al Muftah" means "the winner" in Arabic. He is an example of strength and courage who teaches the world that no difficulty is big enough to prevent someone from living the life of their expectations.