Society

Bridging the gap for the disadvantaged

By Li Wenfang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-25 07:41

GUANGZHOU - The Guangdong provincial women's federation aims to bridge the gap between parents with love to give and children in difficulty across the province.

While Guangdong has the largest provincial-level economy in the country, it is also home to 39,600 orphans, 1.26 million children from poor families, 267,300 children of single parents and more than 10,000 children who beg and are vagrant.

Also, a further 8,666 children have committed crimes, 14,200 children born to imprisoned parents, 950,800 children left behind in rural areas by their migrant worker parents and 2.16 million migrant children, according to statistics for 2005, the latest year available.

The protection and survival of these children are problematic, the provincial women's federation said.

Many children from single-parent families and those either abandoned or left behind live in poverty. Among all the orphans, only about 6,000 of them can be cared for by children's social welfare homes and 20 percent of them are not covered by any social security program.

About 79 percent of the begging and vagrant children have at one time been controlled by criminal groups.

Most of the children in difficulty have a psychological imbalance and pattern of misbehavior, with high rates of dropping out of school.

Since 90.4 percent of the vagrant children are from other provinces, it is difficult to send them back home, and pilot programs to reform juvenile delinquents in communities have yet to become a permanent feature of the social landscape.

In the meantime, the difficult children long to live in a loving family.

With the emergence of online platforms, the ability to form an a relationship between loving parents and children in difficulty represents a step forward from similar work that has taken place over the past three years linking voluntary parents and children in need, said Yang Jianzhen, vice-chairwoman of the provincial women's federation.

More than 150,000 parents in Guangdong have come forward in that time, Yang said. This has resulted in 250,000 children being helped and more than 100 million yuan ($14.5 million) being donated to the federation, which will enable it to continue its work.