Beihai Women's Federation during the past few years has organized social workers, workers involved in women's work, women volunteers, various organizations and people from all segments of society to provide voluntary services to children, in the homes for children in various villages and communities in Beihai, a city in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. All of the activities have been well received by the children and their parents.

Varied, Colorful Activities

Since 2018, Beihai Women's Federation has entrusted Beihai Hecheng Social Work Service Center to implement the Voluntary Service Project of Beihai Homes for Children. In addition to providing various services to children, the center during the past several years has organized women volunteers to conduct varied, colorful activities, to create favorable conditions for the healthy growth of the next generation. For example, the center has offered lectures to help children better protect their safety. Based on analyses of safety incidents the children have experienced and/or heard of, social workers have taught children how to avoid various dangers, including fire, electrocution and drowning. The workers have also taught children how to avoid putting themselves in danger — and how to respond in such an event — of being sexually assaulted, abducted and/or trafficked.

The center has also organized volunteers to conduct various educational activities, with different themes, such as encouraging children to pay tribute to the Party, to promote good family traditions, and to carry forward the fine traditions of the Chinese nation.

In addition, the center has organized volunteers to hold various activities, to help children better understand traditional Chinese culture. The volunteers have also helped the children form environmentally friendly habits, including sorting garbage to improve waste recycling in their residential zones.

So far, the center has conducted more than 200 activities aimed at helping children better protect their safety and improve their awareness of the importance of environmental protection. The center has also encouraged parents to read with their children, and to promote family education, virtues and traditions among their children. More than 10,000 children and their parents have benefited from the activities.

Meticulous Services

To promote implementation of the project, the center's workers during the past few years have encouraged members of both social organizations (in Beihai) and the Executive Committee of Beihai Women's Federation to join the center's workers and volunteers in conducting various activities. Many children, parents, volunteers and social workers have offered positive comments about the activities.

Lao Qiqiong, director of Beihai Hecheng Social Work Service Center, tells Women of China, given the center's efforts to promote implementation of the project, the Voluntary Service Project of Beihai Homes for Children ranked first and second (in 2018 and 2019, respectively) among the service projects of homes for children, in Guangxi, during the evaluation of the projects.

In 2016, the Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region included the establishment of homes for children (in Guangxi's villages and communities) in the government's projects aimed at helping residents improve their livelihoods. With the help of Beihai municipal Party committee and Beihai's municipal government, all villages and communities in the region had established homes for children by 2020.

Beihai Women's Federation in 2017 began entrusting social organizations, institutions and/or enterprises to implement its public-service projects aimed at protecting children's legal rights and interests, and its projects aimed at improving children's education and/or promoting harmony within families. Given the tremendous efforts of workers with the homes for children (in various regions in Beihai) to improve their services, the homes have served as parent-child education centers, off-campus entertainment centers and centers to distribute help and loving care (for children) from various organizations and people from all segments of society (across Beihai).

Shortly after several residents of Beihai were diagnosed as being infected with COVID-19 in March 2020, many members of the project team worked tirelessly to help residents prevent and control the disease. During their visits to residents' homes, the members discovered some parents had left their young children at home alone, as the residents went out to work. The members gave the kids packages containing safety education materials, and called the children's parents to remind them to eliminate potential safety hazards in their houses.

During the past several years, cadres with Beihai Women's Federation have devoted much effort to promoting women- and children-related work. The cadres have also worked hard to help children improve their lives and promote their all-round development. That is the reason the federation implemented the project, and why the federation is dedicated to deepening its reform to better serve women and children.

Photos Supplied by Interviewee

(Women of China English Monthly May 2022 issue)