‘Green Miracle’: US Teacher Returns to China after
26 Years to Find Donation Grew into Forest
Zoey Zhang / South China Morning Post

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3365725/green-miracle-us-teacher-returns-china-after-26-years-find-donation-grew-forest

(August 30, 2026) – A retired American teacher has reunited with a Chinese farmer 26 years after their initial encounter, returning to the once-barren sandy landscape transformed by his generous donation into a lush green environment.

In 1999, Ronald Sakolsky, now 67, was teaching English in Luoyang, Henan province, central-eastern China, when he discovered Inner Mongolian farmer Yin Yuzhen’s efforts to combat desertification. Inspired by her dedication, he donated US$5,000 to support her mission.

The pair first met during a donation ceremony in the Mu Us Desert in 2000. Afterwards, Sakolsky returned to the US, while Yin used the funds to plant over 50,000 trees.

Today, vegetation covers more than 80 per cent of the Mu Us Desert, which is one of China’s four major sandy regions.

In May, Yin, now 60, reconnected with Sakolsky via video call and invited him back to China to witness the “green miracle” that his contribution had helped foster.

Comments
Coleen  Rowley
Wow!  The true story below is so inspiring, exemplifying the need to just try!  And you never know what great result you might spark!  When you take a first good step towards mutual benefit and lawful decency, you never know if there will indeed be the good result you hope for but at least you can count on the fact that once in a while, the arc of the moral universe DOES bend towards the light.

(Note how this kind of trying and making the effort is quite the opposite of the terrible “ends justify the means” type mindset that has come to dominate and justify all the illegal U.S.-Israeli-NATO powermongering with our wars of aggression, militarism, torture and genocide programs that simply concoct their hypothetical good outcomes as long as illegal atrocities are committed, i.e. saving NYC from a ticking time bomb; bringing “democracy” to the world if we just kill more people; rationalizing the use of nuclear bombs to bring “peace,” etc).

The miracle story of growing a forest in the previous China desert also reminds me of the persistent non-profit efforts of our friends Tom Dickinson working for over 3 decades to build friendship and “Siberian Bridges” and Gary King’s similar decades-long efforts in founding/sustaining the ever-successful “Philippine Scholars” program despite all the challenges in working with groups of people on the other side of the world!