The Sanmen Women's Federation launches a program in Sanmen County, Taizhou City, East China's Zhejiang Province on July 8. The program aims to provide care for left-behind children in local areas during the summer vacation. [Sanmen Women's Federation]

The Sanmen Women's Federation in Sanmen County, Taizhou City, East China's Zhejiang Province, launched a program titled "1,000 'Surrogate Mothers'" at the beginning of the year, with the aim of giving care and help to local left-behind children whose parents have migrated to other areas for work.

To date, more than 1,130 "surrogate mothers" have been recruited. The mothers are from all walks of life, including women Party members and cadres, members of the executive committee of the women's federation, women role models, volunteers and community workers.

"The 'surrogate mothers' give daily greetings, pay weekly home visits and conduct monthly parent-child activities with the left-behind children," said Zhu Jiaorong, president of the federation. "They help the children with study, give them care and provide psychological counseling."

The "surrogate mothers" program is part of a county livelihood project, which includes "one list" that covers all the actual difficulties and needs of left-behind children in the county; "10 actions" that give support in areas like school study, moral education, emotions and safety; "100 children's homes" that provide warm, caring and thoughtful services; and "1,000 'surrogate mothers'" who take care of the left-behind children, either one-on-one or many-on-one.

The county government has investigated the status of left-behind children in schools and villages, and made a work list for giving care to each registered child. The women's federation and the departments of civil affairs, education and public security have been urged to join hands to take care of children's lives, study and safety, and try to establish a comprehensive child care model.

"Mother Zhang is so nice. She visits me every week and today she took me to the library," 11-year-old Shao Qiqi from Shaoshang Village, whose parents are not with her, said with excitement.

"We will try our best to improve the integrated mechanism to care for children, continue to make efforts in building 100 children's homes and implementing the 'surrogate mothers' program well, making our children happy and healthy under the sun," said Zhu.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)