A teacher of Daijiapu town's primary school in Jiangxi province writes the title of the bedtime story of the night on the blackboard.[Photo provided to China Daily]

"It's about a volunteer who insisted on reading aloud healing bedtime stories to young offenders in the rural United States, which helped rein in their aggression or prevented them from self-harming," Du says. "That inspired me to think of the feasibility of using stories to soothe these fragile children through the long winter nights."

To put this into practice, the Growing Home foundation developed its "New Tales from a Thousand and One Nights" project the following year, sending a series of 15-minute bedtime stories to the bedsides of left-behind children in 30 primary schools via a system of loudspeakers hanging on the walls of every dorm.

"Generally, parents keep their children company after school. But for those young boarders who weren't able to stay with their families most of the time, we had to offer them some hope," says Du. "By launching the project, the stories recounted in a soft, soothing voice turned into their daily companion."