A growing number of children are seen roaming on China's
streets, but the government is striving to take substantial
measures to help them find shelters and live healthy, normal
lives.
The first center funded by the government and built especially
for street children, the Children's Protection and Education Center
of Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province has taken in 140 homeless
children from 22 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions
around China since it opened on March 22, 2002.
The center has so far helped 81 homeless children find their
relatives.
"It is the responsibility of the government to help the vagrant
children," said Zang Shengye, mayor of Shijiazhuang. "The more
shelters we build today, the less jails we will need to build in
the future."
The city government of Shijiazhuang has allocated more than 40
million yuan (US$4.84 million) to the center, which can accommodate
over 300 children.
Children adopted by the center, aged from seven to 16, are
well-fed and clothed, and the government pays 150 yuan monthly for
each kid.
Teaching programs are arranged in line with their age and
educational backgrounds, and those who do well in examinations are
sent to normal schools.
The center also has special courses in using computers, cooking
and hairdressing, among other subjects.
"This is a place where street children can enjoy the affection
and care of a family, continue their studies, take part in cultural
and recreational activities and master skills," said Ju Qing,
deputy head of the Law Institute under the China Youth and Children
Research Center, who has made a special study of the Shijiazhuang
center.
Zhang Taoshuai, a 13-year-old boy at the center, said he loved
the center very much as "the teachers here are like mothers".
He said, "I want to run such a center when I grow up and let all
street kids have a home."
Over recent years, 128 shelters providing short-term protection
and education for street kids have been built in China's big and
medium-sized cities, said Jiang Yue'e, an official with the Women
and Children Work Committee of the State Council.
All these shelter centers are funded by the civil affairs
departments and local governments.
China has seen an increased number of street children in urban
areas in the past few years, resulting from a growing migrant
population, a higher divorce rate and a growing gap between poor
and rich and between rural and urban residents, and different
regions.
Ministry of Civil Affairs figures show that China registered
approximately 150,000 street children annually in the past three
years.
The Chinese government has adopted a series of laws and
regulations to tackle the problem, including the Law on the
Protection of Minors and the Law on the Prevention of Crimes by
Minors.
A set of regulations on offering shelters and assistance to
vagrants in cities took effect in August this year. The regulations
have specific stipulations on the responsibilities and measures
government organs should take in helping street kids.
As a signatory state of the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child, China has drafted its own program on the development of
children, promising to improve the subsistence levels of children,
including vagrant children.
Meanwhile, China is improving international cooperation to help
the street kids.
Starting 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs, the United
Nations Children's Fund and other international organizations
launched a program in the cities of Zhengzhou and Changsha, under
which foster families are set up to help street kids clear their
minds of hostility towards society.
Such families, which are formed by one or two workers who have
been trained in psychology and health care, and five to six
homeless children, are designed to guarantee a normal daily life
and children can, if they want, live in the "family" until they
turn 18.
In 2002, the Women and Children Work Committee of the State
Council launched a protect-the-rights-of-vagrant-children program,
arousing neighborhood communities and volunteers to help local
homeless children.
Many citizens in Shijiazhuang have joined the effort to help
vagrant children by acting as "weekend parents", acting as
"parents" for homeless children and bringing them home at
weekends.
At present, 11 children in the Shijiazhuang Children's
Protection and Education Center have "weekend parents".
"We just want to let homeless children enjoy the love and care
of a family," said Bai Jieman, one of the "weekend mothers".
"Whether you can find your own parents and go back home, you are
sure to have a nice future since you now have 'parents' who truly
care about you," Janet Amegatcher, a lawyer with the Ghana
International Youth Shelter Foundation, told "Xiaodengzi", a
13-year-old boy, at the Shijiazhuang Children Protection and
Education Center, during a recent visit.
Xiaodengzi's "weekend parents" are a couple of servicemen.
(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2003)