In a spacious room that's roaring with bursts of laughter from the TV, the 15-year-old girl sits there absent-mindedly staring at the screen without laughing after spending eight days in this center for runaway children in the city of Guiyang, in Guizhou province after running away from her home in Beihai, in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, with a guy she'd only known for a month.
She's supposed to be at home and Xiao Wen does admit regretfully, "I shouldn't have left home with some guy I barely knew."
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Looking out the window at the center for homeless children, in Guiyang, Guizhou[Photo/ gog.cn] |
It may be no consolation, but Xiao Wen's not alone and there are a great number of adolescents in the center who lack a parent's love and care which is the reason for their being here, trying to escape home, according to a guidance councilor at the center, Zhang Tingting, who goes on to explain, "They feel no love from their parents, so they're reluctant to return home."
Xiao Wen had no relatives in this city and she was brought to the center after a conflict broke out in a cafe where she and her "friend" were spending time.
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Young girl sitting beside a mesh fence with the characters "liu lang" ("drifting") at the center for homeless children in Guiyang.[Photo/gog.cn] |
"My mom preferred a boy to a girl, so I got used to getting no love from my mom and dad who is always occupied with his work," Xiao Wen says in an indifferent way, and the staff at the center have given her much better care than their parents did. She says the running away thing was no big deal to her since she really trusted her friend and "there is no harm in going out with a friend." She says the only lesson she's learned from this is that it's better not to fight with others.
After she was rescued, the center's personnel did a search to try to locate her family right away in hopes of sending her home, but they refused to take her back and said simply, "We don't know where Guiyang is."
Zhang, the psychologist, goes on to explain, "There's no alternative, so the girl will be sent to a similar center in Beihai closer to her family so they know how to get in touch with her," and they are left with no choice.
A white wall in the center's recreation room is covered with graffiti and dirty words, but one scrawled note -- "(there's) nobody like me" -- has attracted a lot of attention.
Zhang explains further, "Actually, most of them run away from home because they're rebellious. They're not real homeless kids out on the street," adding that a majority of the kids in the center are aged 10 – 14, a period of rebellion, which is made worse if they don't get enough love from their parents.
Zhang then concludes, "They need real love more than they need material things," so, unfortunately, the center cannot solve all their problems in a short period of time, and they mainly need an effort from the parents.
Luo Fuyong, the deputy director of the center, says he agrees with Zhang and adds, "We can only help them temporarily. It’s the family that’s the solution to this issue over the long-run," then adds that they do hope to do a better job in protecting these vulnerable children and plan to provide better psychological counseling and training for those 16 - 18.
