NGO center offers help to lonely migrant workers

By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-04 11:29

ZHUHAI -- Chen Weiquan, a 21-year-old migrant worker from Hunan province, started living an "extremely lonely" life after he came to work as a production line operator at a factory in the Qingxin industrial park this year.

"I have no friends or relatives to talk to. And all the workers at the factory made fun of me because I'm short," Chen said.

NGO center offers help to lonely migrant workers

Often the migrant worker would sleep in the factory's dormitory for fear of returning to his camp where he would be laughed at.

But things change recently when he became a volunteer at a new social work education and development center, which opened in the industrial park late last month.

"I have made a lot of friends at the center. Life is much better," said a smiling Chen.

The center, which is the country's first company-sponsored non-governmental organization located within an industrial park, aims to help migrant workers better integrate into society, with free counseling and emotional support, said Li Tao, chief coordinator of the Beijing-based Culture and Communications Center for Facilitators (CCCF).

The CCCF and Flextronics, a Singapore-based electronics manufacturer, together opened the center in the Xinqing industrial park.

"Migrant workers need a lot of emotional support and help from social work organizations, which usually work within residential communities. That's why we set up the center inside the industrial park," Li said.

More than 100,000 migrant workers earn their bread at the Qingxin industrial park, situated in Doumen district of Zhuhai, Li said.

"They (migrant workers) face major psychological problems, even more since the financial crisis struck, killing jobs everywhere.

"A number of workers feel insecure about their future in cities, with news of frequent layoffs amid the downturn."

Li said the center was a platform for migrant workers to interact and exchange their ideas about work and life. "It breaks their loneliness and gives their confidence a boost."

The center, which now has 50 employees and 20 volunteers, also aims to provide technical and language training services for migrant workers.

Guangdong, one of the major economic hubs of south China, has over 30 million workers, more than any other province in the country.

But nearly "60 percent of them feel lonely and 73 percent feel depressed" working in the Pearl River Delta cities, such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan, said Gu Shaoming, a Guangdong provincial political consultative committee member, citing a recent survey.

"We should establish more social work organizations, dedicated to migrant workers, in the region to help them deal with psychological problems."