The Women's Federation of Shaodong City in Central China's Hunan Province organizes an outdoors activity for local rural children. [Shaodong Women's Federation]

Women's federations in Jiangsu, Hunan and Sichuan provinces rolled out a series of measures over the past year to care for left-behind children whose parents have migrated to other places for work based on local conditions, helping local children grow up happily. 

The three pilot areas have explored four approaches to better serve the left-behind rural children, with the guidance of the All-China Women's Federation. 

The first is to give full play to the working mechanism of joint meetings for left-behind children among relevant departments and get the Party and government departments' support and promote coordination and cooperation between the departments.  

The Women's Federation of Heshan District in Yiyang City, Hunan Province, held more than 300 Party activities, 100 lectures and nearly 1,000 caring activities to promote family education jointly with the district's Party committee and the educational authority.

They set up a team of 100 instructors and 100 mediators to deliver public welfare lectures and give out manuals to parents of the left-behind children.

"The lectures let me know that to accompany the child is more important than just to offer him food and clothing, and speaking in a gentle way can close the gap between us," said a mother in the area.

The second mode urges partner assistance to render targeted services for needy children.

The Women's Federation of Hai'an Economic Development Zone in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, encourages its chairperson, village officials, school tutors and volunteers to help the left-behind children on a one-to-one basis. All of the 157 left-behind children in the district have gotten an exclusive source of support.

The demonstration areas also conducted an "Internet plus" caring mode by means of various online platforms such as Apps and Mini-programs.

The Women's Federation of Shaodong City invested 200,000 yuan (US$ 28,095) to establish a WeChat-and-PC-based smart care service platform for left-behind children, which makes instant communication and knowledge on family education accessible at any time.

To offer more effective help to the children, the pilot units also turned to professional groups.  

The Shaodong Women's Federation introduced professional organizations and set up psychological counseling posts in each township to provide regular caring services. A volunteer team of more than 8,600 Party members, teachers, doctors and other people has been established.

The above approaches have offered ideas to ramp up care for the left-behind children and have been publicized nationwide. 

(Women of China)