Child welfare in China on fast track
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Maggie Cheung, film star and UNICEF ambassador in China, sharing her experience of a recent visit to Liangshan Yi Minority Autonomous Prefectures in Sichuan, a UNICEF project-covered area. [Pierre Chen / China.org.cn] |
The Ministry of Civil Affairs, UNICEF and Beijing Normal University's One Foundation Philanthropy Institute launched the second China Child Welfare Week at the UNICEF China headquarters in Beijing on May 30, 2011, before the approaching International Children's Day on June 1.
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Since its launch last year, the Child China Welfare Modelling Project (2010-2015) has benefited more than 80,000 children from 120 villages in 12 counties in five provinces, especially Sichuan, Henan, Xinjiang, Yunnan and Shanxi.
Under the plan, each of the project-covered communities will establish a Youth Center at the grassroots level and there will be specially appointed child welfare director to supervise the children's well-being.
In these areas, some of the children's births were never registered for various reasons, and their existence was never known.
Other children, who have lost one parent, don't fall into the category of orphans, so they don't enjoy the benefits strictly given to parentless children, and they are left uncared for, according to Wang Zhenyao, dean of One Foundation Philanthropy Research Institute at Beijing Normal University.
The child welfare directors' first priority will be to register all the children in the community, to make their existence known, so that they will have an identity. Only then, could the children start to enjoy the most basic rights as well as benefits.
"I am glad to see that lots of orphans have been registered in the remote villages, and now they eventually can start to enjoy the government's welfare," said Maggie Cheung, film star and UNICEF ambassador in China, sharing her experience of a recent visit to Liangshan Yi Minority Autonomous Prefectures in Sichuan, a UNICEF project-covered area.
"But we also need to show our concerns to the de-facto unattended children, though they aren't orphans. We need to ensure they also get care and help," Maggie Cheung said, adding that the top priority at present is to have people claiming the benefits for them.
UNICEF acknowledged China's progress in poverty alleviation and advancing social protection, said Gillian Mellsop, UNICEF representative in China.
But rapid economic growth and urbanization has led to wide-scale migration, and this has exposed children to new risks and vulnerabilities, such as separation from families, the lack of parental care, HIV/AIDS, child trafficking, and other forms of exploitation, violence and abuse, Mellsop added.
In addressing these challenges with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, academic circles such as Beijing Normal University, the UNICEF in China calls on efforts from various stake holders to develop new strategies for supporting underprivileged children. The annual China Child Welfare Week is a representation of such efforts.
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