Women's society sends love to left-behind kids

Left-behind children will feel the warmth of family life without their parents’ company, thanks to the 80 thousand "Children's Homes" established by All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) in rural areas this year.

The “Children’s Home” in a rural village of southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality has become one of the favorite places where the local left-behind children spend their weekends and holidays.

Teachers and volunteers talk with these kids on a regular basis, and show them how to communicate with their out-of-town parents via text messages, phones calls and even video chats. The “Children’s Home” also sends over psychologists from time to time to give free counseling to children in need.

In Guangdong, a province with more than four million left-behind children, the education of such children has proved difficult. In light of this, the provincial women’s federation launched the "Children-friendly Community" program in 2011, which was upgraded in 2013 into the “Children-friendly Community Construction Project,” to help these rural children with their education and living.

The project costs the Guangdong provincial government two million yuan (US$322 thousand) in setting up 26 “Children Centers” in impoverished rural towns. The project has brought joy to those left-behind kids through various recreational activities, home education and psychological counseling.

Data from the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) shows that the population of rural left-behind children has exceeded 61 million, accounting for more than one fifth of the total number of children nationwide.

“These children exhibit decent growth in general,” according to the ACWF, “But problems concerning mental health, personal safety and home education have affected the healthy growth of left-behind children to some extent.”

ACWF has been tackling with the issues of left-behind children by undertaking public service projects and seeking help from non-governmental sectors in recent years. Infrastructure and service centers in areas where left-behind children live have been built, to provide a better environment for the rural kids.

ACWF is working on the establishment of a service system for rural left-behind children during the past several years. Pilot projects were carried out in 2011 after in-depth investigation, and so far 40 service centers have been built in 19 regions nationwide.

Experts are still exploring a more rational and effective way to promote the project launched by the ACWF through conducting more field researches as well as case analyses.

China is accelerating its pace as for the care of left-behind children. All-China Women’s Federation and China Children and Teenagers’ Fund plan to invest 15 million yuan (US$2.41 million) on another project called “Happy Family Construction,” to help strengthening family ties between the left-behind kids and their parents.