Female hands: Power against poverty

Luo Ning, a deputy to the National People's Congress, director of the Department of Civil Affairs of Guizhou Province, introduces handmade embroidery  [File photo / chinagate.cn ]

Luo Ning, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), gave a full description regarding the "Women's Entrepreneurship against Poverty" initiative in southwest China's Guizhou Province, as she received an interview from China.org.cn during the "Two Sessions" in Beijing this year.

Guizhou has long been considered as one of China's poorest and most disadvantaged provinces, featuring a rich population of ethnic minorities scattered in large hilly and mountainous areas. Years of poor transport connectivity has worsened locals’ situations and widened their income disparities between rural and urban areas.

Luo introduced that fighting against poverty was one of the top priorities among Guizhou's people, as the 13th Five Year Plan required. Of Guizhou's people, women who engaged in the traditional Chinese handmade ethnic art of embroidery are the key group embracing a competitive edge to connect their skills to the outside world while helping locals rise from poverty.

"Nowadays, more channels for female hands have opened up and special platforms for their embroidery skill exchange have also been established. Our goal to address the issue of poverty focuses more on promoting women's embroidery arts and crafts, which is thought to be a better way to revive the decaying folk-custom culture of Chinese ethnic minorities while raising their income," said Luo.

As far as Luo was concerned, more efforts should be made to help locals achieve the goal. First, special funds need to be provided to the poor as the initiative was launched. Second, the strategy also calls for mobilizing all possible social forces to strengthen public awareness on promoting embroidery arts and crafts. Local governments, along with non-governmental organizations as well as those medium and small-sized enterprises, were the core forces to carry the poverty projects forward. Third, the workforce training fund program played an important role in addressing embroidery business productivity and competitiveness when great masters were invited to train and foster local women.

In addition to local embroidery, Luo revealed that the local government also had tapped women's potential in agritainment (a combination of agriculture and entertainment) and the domestic service industry, especially those women who are not skilled in embroidery, during the past three years. Nowadays, all local women can enjoy a high income as the above-mentioned targeted measures have been adopted.

"Last year, I presented their handmade embroidery as a gift to United Nations, which won high praise from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon," appreciated Luo. She also indicated that the embroidery industry has attracted more returning migrant workers who both brought new energy to their hometown and resolved issues associated with a lack of guardians for their left-behind children.

Luo pointed out that the local government had also combined the embroidery industry with rural tourism. "It is a good method to promote local culture when passing the deep-rooted elements of multi ethnic minority groups to outsiders, mainly Han people. For example, wax printing, alternatively batik printing, is one of the three ancient Chinese handicraft methods of producing dyed, multi-colored textiles, which has now almost died out. Tourists who travel to Guizhou will learn what it is and the possibilities of promoting the ancient art will be higher. Our new generation might know more about its history and carry it forward," expected Luo.

In the end, Luo claims that it remains a tough task to eliminate poverty for locals but the initiative is well on its way.