Meng Xiuyou and Wang Weifeng are two of the former street children now living at the Zhengzhou Assistance and Protection Center for Waifs and Strays in central China's Henan Province. They are both 16 years old.

They are both now apprentice mechanics with a factory in Nanyang, Zhengzhou City.

"They are good boys, hardworking and bookish. They are better than their peers from the cities. I am sure that they'll learn what they have to in the next three or four months," Gao Qingfeng, the boys' instructor, said proudly.

"When they're done with their apprenticeship and get real jobs, they should be able to earn at least 500 yuan (US$61.69) a month." Zhang Qianxing, the manager of the factory, said. 

The Zhengzhou Model

The skills training program at the Zhengzhou assistance center is a joint project undertaken by the center and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). It is the first of its kind in China.

The center comprises a family care unit, a 24-hour assistance center and the skills training center.

Center staff said that the hope is to replicate the "Zhengzhou model" around the country. The model includes 24-hour foster care and skills training.

Nationwide replication is a topic for discussion at a UNICEF seminar to be held later this month in Zhengzhou.

The program started in March this year. Since then, more than 10 street children have been taken in by the center and are receiving skills training.

According to Hu Shude, head of the center's pediatric department, the center doesn't take in just any child. There are conditions to be fulfilled. The center will only take in children who aren't retarded, who are healthy, and who have a desire to learn a trade.

Hu revealed that six of the children in their care will graduate soon.

Among them, 16-year-old Liu Pei who was sponsored by the center to train in needlework. Liu can now make many kinds of clothes and she is even capable of running a department. The school she trained at is ready to recommend her for work in a factory in the south when she turns 18, the legal age of employment in China.

Two other children have learned how to make breads and cakes, and the center has decided to employ them at the center to cook for the other children. Other children, like Meng Xiuyou and Wang Weifeng, are training to be mechanics at vocational and technical schools in Zhengzhou.

Lofty Ambitions

Zhang Kai, who is taking computer lessons, is clear about what he wants: "I want to be a computer engineer."

Meng Xiuyou from Guangxi wants to be a great mechanic.

Wang Weifeng from the countryside in Luoyang wants to open a car repair factory.

Ambition isn't only the thing that the three have in common. All three made it clear that they were studying hard because they liked what they were learning.

The vice director of the center pointed out that these children will only succeed in their training if you teach them what they have an aptitude for in the first place. Further, people must understand that these children had their studies disrupted or never started at all because they were roaming the streets.

The older ones especially can't take the conventional textbook method of teaching.

Driven to the streets by poverty and neglect, skills training is a chance for these children to earn themselves a decent living. The vice director added: "And if you teach them something they are really interested in, you can really make a change in their lives."

Challenges Faced

On July 29, an autoptical survey was carried out in the Zhengzhou train station. Seven children were found loitering. They were either begging or picking rubbish. The youngest was nine years old and the oldest 15.

"I knew there was an assistance center in Zhengzhou where food was free," Xiao Bing said, who eked a living by collecting rubbish. "But I never went there, and I don't want to because I won't be free there. Someone will control you. Here, I can earn ten odd yuan a day picking bottles and selling them. I can do whatever I like."

Hu said that it's difficult to help the children for this reason. Many of them choose to roam the streets even while in the care of the center.

Further, some have bad habits that are difficult to correct.

Another problem is that almost all of the city's schools refuse to take in the street children.

"Sending them to a good school and making sure they get jobs after they finish school is our biggest problem," Hu said.

Another limitation is that center can only take in about 150 children at a time. There are more than 150,000 children roaming the country's streets, according to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Children are The Future

According to psychologist, Zhou Zheng, "Over 80 percent of criminals were abandoned by their parents as children or by society. We can help decrease future crime rates by caring for these children now."

Zhou added that it was more economically viable to help the children than to use resources fighting crime.

Whilst Hu is confident about the future and prospects of the center and the children that it is helping, he has this plea: "The power of one person, one department, one company is weak. Only if we pool the wisdom and efforts of everyone can we build a better society."

(China.org.cn by Li Xiaohua August 7, 2005)