China poverty alleviation, raising standard of living

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China halves child stunted growth over 20 years: report
Source: Xinhua| 2019-05-30 16:05:24|Editor: Yamei

BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- China has decreased the stunted growth rate, impaired growth and development due to poor nutrition or illness, by 54 percent among children under the age of five over the past two decades, said a report released ahead of the International Children's Day, which falls on June 1.

Over the past two decades, China's score rose 80 points, from 861 to 941, due to reductions in child deaths and malnutrition, according to the annual Global Childhood Report 2019, released by international charity Save the Children on Wednesday.

The report compared the year 2000 with 2018, looking at eight indicators of a good childhood: premature death, stunted growth, education, child labor, early marriage, early pregnancy, child homicides and displacement.

According to the report, one in four children under the age of five has stunted growth among the 176 countries and regions it evaluated. But there were 49 million fewer stunted children in 2018 than in 2000, and the global stunted-growth rate declined from 32.5 percent in 2000 to 21.9 percent in 2018.

The report noted that of all the children saved from stunted growth live in Asia with China and India together accounting for more than half of the global decline.

"It is great to see China has made tremendous progress in improving children's access to daily and adequate nutrition in the first five years of life," said Sebastien Kuster, Save the Children China's chief operating officer.

The circumstances for children have improved since 2000 in 173 out of 176 countries the report covered. Among the eight indicators in the report, displacement is the only one on the rise.

 

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Relocation of southwestern Tibetan township gives villagers new opportunities on life
By Li Qiao in Shangri-La Source:Global Times Published: 2019/5/30 16:18:40

• Special geographical conditions have hindered economic development of Guiwu village​
• Relocation to Shangri-La has helped people in Guiwu pull themselves out of poverty​
• Wider employment opportunities and better infrastructure supported by government have created better lives for Guiwu people​

Children play in the kindergarten at the resettlement site in Shangri-La county, Southwest China's Yunnan Province. Photo: Li Qiao/GT

"I used to make a living by working on the family farm and, at times of the year when there was less farming work, doing various part-time jobs outside my village such as waiting tables, promoting sales and handing out leaflets," Lobsang Norbu told the Global Times.

Lobsang, a 24-year-old man from the Tibetan ethnic group in Guiwu village of the Deqen Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, was living an unstable and aimless life, making at most 100 yuan ($14.46) per day.

In 2018, Lobsang moved to Shangri-La county, which is 212 kilometers away from Guiwu, together with other villagers under a relocation plan.

Relocation for poverty alleviation refers to programs that relocate residents of areas with poor living conditions to other areas, improving production and living conditions in the resettlement areas, adjusting the economic structure and expanding income sources to help relocated people gradually break free from poverty and improve their financial circumstances, according to a plan released by the National Development and Reform Commission in September, 2016.

China will ensure that all rural poor are lifted out of poverty by 2020 by the country's current standards, according to the report delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2017.

The Report on the Work of the Government (2019) said that the number of people living in poverty in rural areas has fallen by 13.86 million, and 2.8 million people moved out of poverty-stricken areas in 2018.

Elderly people from Guiwu village, now relocated to Shangri-La county, pray together in the resettlement community. Photo: Li Qiao/GT

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has made a solemn commitment that no ethnic minority or region will be left behind, and continued to provide assistance to ethnic minorities with small populations through greater coordination between the country's east and west, He Qing, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) said, according to Xinhua in March.

Relocation for poverty alleviation in Guiwu village is helping locals from the Tibetan ethnic group, including Lobsang, to live easier and more hopeful lives.

Tough conditions

Located in northeast Deqen county, Guiwu is the remotest village in northwest Yunnan Province, with an average altitude of 3,300 meters.

Villagers there have to contend with a lack of water and prevalence of high altitude diseases. Depleting resources on the mountain and difficult transportation conditions have hindered the development of Guiwu, Shamba, a local official who is responsible for relocation work in the village, told the Global Times.

Du Fachun, a professor at Yunnan Agricultural University, told the Global Times that relocation for poverty alleviation in Yunnan Province mainly targets those who live in areas with difficult environments such as remote mountainous regions, desert areas, and areas that are rife with endemic disease.

Du is currently studying poverty alleviation in Deqen with the support of the United Nations China Gender Fund.

He explained that these areas have poor infrastructure and are lacking in basic development conditions. The inhabitants generally live a traditional lifestyle characterized by subsistence farming.

The apartment buildings where the relocated Guiwu villagers live in Shangri-La county. Photo: Li Qiao/GT

Even if poverty alleviation methods, such as efforts to boost agricultural production, are implemented locally, it would be hard to alleviate poverty in these locations, Du said.

The relocation process in Guiwu lasted around one year. All 810 people in the 132 households that make up Guiwu have moved to Shangri-La county as part of poverty alleviation efforts in October, 2018.

Villagers are provided with apartments that comply with the national standard of 25 square meters per person free of charge, Shamba explained.

He told the Global Times that some poor households had been afraid to move out. Their main concerns were adapting to urban life and a different climate, while unemployment was their biggest worry.

Learning to adapt

The success of relocation for poverty alleviation is not measured by moving people out from poverty-stricken areas, but by helping relocated people adapt well to resettlement areas, Liu Yongfu, director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said at a press conference for the Second Session of the 13th National People's Congress in March 2019.

Shamba told the Global Times that people without skills in Guiwu were afraid that they could not find jobs and build new lives in the resettlement area after moving down from the mountain, especially those between 45 and 60 years old.

The Guiwu government took full account of the actual needs of poor households and organized training for vocations such as cleaning services, plumbing and cooking.

Dolma, a 57-year-old woman from the Tibetan ethnic group, used to work on the family land on the mountain before relocation. She learned professional cleaning skills such as how to clean windows, and improved her health and safety awareness during the training.

With help from the local government, she was employed as a sanitation worker with an income of 1,800 yuan per month.

After relocation, Dolma is more confident and happier than before, as she can earn money for her family and has more opportunities to communicate with people in her work, her son told the Global Times, as Putonghua is still difficult for Dolma.

Shamba explained that the local government is also planning to provide Putonghua training and work together with more companies to improve the employment situation.

After the relocation of Guiwu, Lobsang attended the culinary training program provided free of charge by the government to help relocated residents gain employment opportunities.

He then decided to run a spicy hot pot restaurant, which had been his dream when he worked in a restaurant previously. He now earns at least 300 yuan per day, just two months after his restaurant opened.

"As well as providing culinary skills training, government officials also helped me with my marketing strategy. I obtained the resources I needed to achieve my dream in Shangri-La, rather than just hoping in vain and struggling with a lack of access to information, as I did when I lived in remote Guiwu," Lobsang said.

Happy lives

In addition to training for better and wider employment opportunities, better education, healthcare and recreational infrastructure at the new resettlement site in Shangri-La provide the basis for a happy life for the Guiwu people, Shamba told the Global Times.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission in March, 2018, poor people who move away from their homes and experience a change in living and working environment often face many psychological difficulties.

The commission said that relocated people's ability to cope with the challenges brought by migration depends not only on their own adaptability, but also on the facilities provided by the resettlement site.

Dorjie, father of a 5-year-old girl, told the Global Times that he can watch her daughter growing up every day, thanks to the kindergarten in their new community which is just 50 meters away from his new apartment.

There was no kindergarten in Guiwu, which meant his daughter had to go to the kindergarten in another village two hours away by motorbike.

Due to the long distance and dangerous mountain road, his daughter could only come back home twice a month, leaving her family anxious.

His daughter has now become more outgoing and optimistic, as urban life broadened her horizons and family companionship strengthened her sense of security after relocating to Shangri-La.

"Relocation not only increases our income but also brings us more happiness in life," Dorjie said.

Shamba told the Global Times that relocation not only benefits the impoverished population, but is also good for the environment.

He explained that 3,053 mu (2.035 square kilometers) of farmland in Guiwu have now been turned into forest.

Du said that the decrease in population due to relocation has alleviated the ecological pressure caused by human activity in the original areas, enhancing their ability to produce goods, and further increasing the income of local residents and relocated farmers.

The dual effects of relocation for poverty alleviation in remote areas promote the construction of an ecological civilization and rural revitalization, Du said, adding that it also provides a good reference for ASEAN countries on poverty reduction.

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

The Chinese will continue to unswervingly improve the living standards of all Chinese, especially the poor Chinese (including Tibetan Chinese, Xinjiang Chinese), and the Chinese government will not be affected by foreign hostile forces against China, and the Chinese Communist Party’s firm leadership will not affected by foreign hostile forces at all.

 

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China steps up policy support to areas of extreme poverty
Source: Xinhua| 2019-06-26 16:28:49|Editor: Lu Hui

BEIJING, June 26 (Xinhua) -- China has concentrated efforts to assist areas of extreme poverty as the stated deadline to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020 approaches.

From 2018 to 2020, China's central budget would allocate 214 billion yuan (about 31 billion U.S. dollars) to places including the Tibet Autonomous Region and parts of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region where abject poverty still persists, said Ou Qingping, deputy director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, at a press briefing Wednesday.

Apart from the hefty funds, the government has also mobilized efforts from 76,400 private businesses in poverty alleviation, which has benefited more than 10 million people, Ou said.

China has vowed to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020. As the deadline approaches, the country is focusing on the nation's poorest people, who mainly dwell in deep mountains with adverse natural environment and backward infrastructure or have special needs.

To make the poverty reduction more effective, China has identified 334 counties suffering from extreme poverty and provided targeted support to the areas.

In 2018, China lifted 13.86 million people in rural areas out of poverty, with the number of impoverished rural residents dropping from 98.99 million in late 2012 to 16.6 million by the end of last year.

 

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Resettlement raises living standards
2019-07-09 09:25:13 China Daily Editor : Li Yan

Women make Chinese knots at Tati Kuli, a settlement in Tashikurgan Tajik autonomous county, Xinjiang. (Photo by LIU YUHANG/FOR CHINA DAILY)

Impoverished residents of bleak backwaters in Tashikurgan Tajik autonomous county have been relocated to Tati Kuli, a government-supported settlement that offers better conditions for farming and higher standards of education and healthcare.

The settlement in Kashgar prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, covers 980 square kilometers and is home to 1,418 people.

In the rural areas, people's lives were frequently disrupted by natural disasters, while the barren land, low levels of education and poor medical facilities made it difficult for them to escape poverty, according to the local government.

After moving to Tati Kuli in March last year, Gilmakha Kurbanjan joined a border patrol team.

"I used to live in a shabby house, whose weak structure made it unsafe in bad weather. Also, we had to collect water from a river, which usually took about two hours for a round trip," said the 25-year-old who used to live in the county's Ma'eryang town.

Before moving to the settlement, her family made a living by grazing animals, earning an annual income of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan ($1,450 to $2,900).

"Our lives have improved a lot. We now live in a clean house with free electricity and fresh drinking water," she said. "Our income has also risen since my father and I joined the border patrol team. We also do some handicraft work and plant highland barley with the help of the government. Last year, our income was about 60,000 yuan."

Long Xinxin, director of Tati Kuli settlement, said the relocation campaign was completed in May.

"Investment of 150 million yuan has been channeled into the campaign for infrastructure construction, such as houses, kindergartens, clinics and entertainment facilities," he said.

According to Long, the settlement boasts collective land, where the locals can plant highland barley, and handicraft workshops, where they can earn extra income by making Chinese knots.

Healthcare and education are also high priorities at the settlement. Aypnazar Qintimur, a physician who works at the newly built clinic, is impressed by the facilities.

"I used to ride a camel or walk to some outlying villages to see patients. I remember that it took me nearly a week to reach a patient in an isolated village, and his illness had worsened by the time I arrived," the 34-year-old said. "However, that won't happen again because the people have been brought here."

He said the clinic provides checkups and basic treatment.

"Though we can't offer the best treatment, we can help to transfer seriously ill patients to higher-grade hospitals in the county, giving them a better chance of survival," he said.

Mirgul Akhmihan, Party secretary at the kindergarten, has witnessed the great changes education has brought to the children.

She said preschool education was not available in the rural areas, and parents did not understand the importance of education.

"One child who moved here from a very remote village was afraid of attending the kindergarten at the very beginning, because he had no idea what it was," she said.

"But now, it is one of his favorite places because he has many friends here."

 

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All poor rural areas to get basic healthcare access
By WANG XIAODONG | China Daily | Updated: 2019-07-10 07:54

A child receives medical examination. [Photo by Pu Dongfeng/China Daily]

All residents in impoverished rural areas are expected to have access to basic healthcare services provided by certified doctors by the end of the year, the top health authority said on Tuesday.

Despite general improvement, healthcare resources are unequally distributed across China, said He Jinguo, who leads the poverty alleviation office at the National Health Commission, at a news conference. He said impoverished areas are the ones most lacking healthcare services.

By the end of last year, all 832 impoverished counties in China had at least one public hospital, and nearly 95 percent of all townships in these counties had at least one general practitioner. However, 46 townships still did not have a health center, and 666 township health centers still did not have at least one general practitioner or a practicing physician, he said.

The commission will continue efforts to improve healthcare services in impoverished areas by various means including increasing financing to village health centers to ensure their operation and encouraging cooperation between different areas so medical institutions in impoverished areas get more technical support from major hospitals in developed areas, he said.

These efforts have also helped residents in impoverished areas get out of poverty. The commission has worked with other departments to improve impoverished areas' access to healthcare services and reduce their medical expenditure in the past few years. About 6.7 million households that fell into poverty due to diseases have escaped poverty, He said.

Shan Xiangqian, Party chief of Anhui Provincial Health Commission, said a survey by the commission recently found 168 villages in the province do not have at least one qualified doctor in service, which is a major obstacle to ensuring healthcare services to all residents in these areas.

The province will take measures to solve the problem, including selecting doctors from major public hospitals so the volunteers will be dispatched to villages without qualified doctors to become chiefs of village health centers, Shan said.

 

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Govt program aims to boost child development by offering training to parents
By Li Lei in Ningshan Source:Global Times Published: 2019/7/11 18:18:40

• Parenting the Future program launched by local government in a poverty-stricken county and offered to parents free of charge
• Training aimed at child development in crucial first 1,000 days of a child's life
• Many children in remote villages neglected as parents or guardians busy working fields or doing chores

Liu Dan shows the mother of a boy how to interact with her son by reading storybooks at the early childhood development center in Huayan village, Ningshan. Photo: Li Lei/GT

Every week, 29-year-old Zheng Yan rides a scooter up a winding road to a mountain village to visit Tingting's home. Zheng is a teacher at an early childhood development center under the Parenting the Future Program in Ningshan county, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Unlike other early learning programs, the one in Ningshan was launched by the county government in 2017, and teaches parents in the mountains how to parent children aged 6 months to 3, free of charge.

The program works as an important measure to stop intergenerational transmission of poverty in the poverty-stricken area, according to Cai Jianhua, Party chief of the Beijing-based National Health Commission Cadre Training Center.

"Without a favorable environment and positive intervention, children who were born and live in rural areas are prone to develop more slowly in terms of language, motor skills, cognition and social emotions, since reports show that a person's most important abilities, such as language and cognition, are formed in the first 1,000 days," Cai told the Global Times.

In his research, Cai's team found that children aged from 6 to 12 months who received positive intervention perform much better in terms of language and cognitive development compared with children of that age who don't receive it.

According to research led by Cai, 50 percent of children living in poverty-stricken areas in China face challenges in cognitive development, 52 percent of them are at risk in terms of language development, and these risks increase over time.

The result is closely related to how their parents feed them, parenting methods and depression. Studies show that only 13 percent of parents in these areas read to their children, and 23.5 percent of parents suffer from depression, according to Cai's research.

Located deep in the heart of the Qinling Mountains, a natural boundary between northern China and southern China, Ningshan is still on the list of China's national-level poverty-stricken counties. It now has 25 early childhood development centers and spots providing free training to parents in the mountains, covering all 11 of its administrative townships.

"Before the launch of the program, we conducted an investigation in all the villages in the county. The results were astonishing. Most stay-at-home children do not even say a single word to their grandparents the whole day," Li Mingjun, the person in charge of the program, told the Global Times, adding that "grandparents will let the children play in the mud as long as they don't disturb them when they're working in the field or doing chores."

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An early childhood development center in Changping village, Ningshan county, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province Photo: Li Lei/GT

Special schools

Chen Zihao, 3, was so eager to jump into a pool full of plastic balls that he didn't even take his shoes off after rushing through the gates of an early childhood development center in Changping village of Ningshan's Taishanmiao township. Other children saw how much fun he was having and joined him, causing the place to erupt in laughter and screaming.

"We see these happy moments every day," Ma Yunxiang, a teacher at the center, told the Global Times.

The 80-square-meter center has two classrooms and an entertainment room. There are many lockers in the classrooms, each of them labelled with a number combination such as 1-36 or 3-45.

Zhou Bangguo, deputy director of Ningshan's education bureau, explained that the first number represents age, and the second number represents week. For example, a locker labelled 2-37 contains toys, storybooks and teaching appliances for 2-year-old children and parents who have come for the 37th week in a year.

At 10 in the morning, more parents came to the center with their children to attend classes or simply have fun. Huang Shilin, Chen's grandmother, took her shoes off before registering on a facial recognition device installed beside the gate and sanitized her hands.

The center has scheduled one class a week for 57 children aged up to 3 years old and their parents in the town. "They encourage us to bring children to play or read books here when we don't have a class scheduled, and we can borrow some books and toys to bring home," Huang told the Global Times.

At the same time, a mother of a 6-month-old boy was learning nursery rhymes from Ma.

"We guide parents to establish intimacy with children and develop their language, motor skills, cognition and emotions through games and group activities," Ma said. "For example, we guide parents and children to express love for each other by incorporating hugs and saying 'I love you' in the games."

"Most importantly, we help parents foster correct behavior, since parents' behavior is what influences children the most," noted Ma.

Ma said that they teach parents to show their children different emotions through stories and pictures, and guide children to express these emotions such as happiness and anger in the proper way.

Ma, 26, began to work in the center in 2017 after going through a strict screening and training process.

Despite the fact that at least one center or venue has been set up in each administrative townships, there are still many families who cannot guarantee they can attend class every week during the farming season. In those cases, teachers have to make visits to the family.

Positive changes

Most of the parents who have attended classes say they have seen an obvious and positive change both in themselves and in their children.

"My son became more curious about everything around him and would ask me many times a day, 'Mom, what's this?', while I started to teach him correct pronunciation," Zhao Wangli, mother of 2-year-old Lü Jiayu, told the Global Times.

Fan Yao, a teacher at another center in Taishanmiao township and mother of a 3-year-old boy, told the Global Times that they did not have many toys at home, and the boy was too shy to interact with others.

"When he first came to the center, he was too scared and cried a lot. But a few months later, he became much more active and natural in front of strangers," said Fan.

A number of teachers on the program, who are also local young mothers, shed tears when talking about the changes that they saw in their children, saying that such positive changes could never have happened without the program.

"We are actually trying to make parents more willing to learn more about their children and learn more about how to better raise them," Shu Min, vice executive secretary of the Hupan Modou Foundation, told the Global Times.

Under China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, Hupan Modou Foundation provides financial support for the program. The foundation was jointly established by 12 women members and aims to facilitate female and child development.

"A parent will influence a group of parents once he or she realizes the importance of early childhood development, and this group of parents will influence a community," Shu said.

Uprooting poverty

"The program aims to remove the roots of poverty from the county," Shi Gongfu, director of Ningshan's education bureau, told the Global Times.

Ningshan is the first national-level poverty-stricken county in China that has waived all 15 years of tuition fees from kindergarten to high school, and the county also provides free education in vocational schools, according to Shi.

"With the implementation of the Parenting the Future program, Ningshan is now a county that provides 18 years of free education," Shi said proudly.

Cai speaks highly of the Parenting the Future program in Ningshan, saying that it "can work as a model for other regions since it is directed by the local government, and local employees are provided with a steady welfare to guarantee a stream of skilled teachers for the program."

Shu expects the program to bring people's attention to early childhood development in poverty-stricken areas, and make parents and guardians of children in rural areas aware of the significance of their influence on children and the country's future.

Cai told the Global Times that the children currently in the program will be adults by 2035, when China will basically realize socialist modernization, adding that it is his vision is to cultivate more outstanding talents for China's future development.

 

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Science helps lift counties out of poverty
By Zhang Yangfei | China Daily | Updated: 2019-07-17 09:19

An agricultural drone sprays fertilizer on a wheat field in Daliuzhuang village, Shandong province. [Photo by Ji Zhe/for China Daily]

Poor areas given technical resources to train skilled workers and officials

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have helped lift many rural areas out of poverty by supporting the local agricultural industry with advanced science and technology.

By the end of June, the academy had provided scientific assistance in 68 poverty-stricken villages in areas including Huree Banner in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and Shuicheng county and Liuzhi special district in Guizhou province. It had helped 101,041 people in 27,966 households out of poverty.

The academy has set up a leading group, headed by the president of CAS, Bai Chunli, to coordinate all the work. Each poverty-stricken county was assigned one responsible research institute that helped introduce resources, scientific results and projects to the county, as well as train local technicians and officials.

"The academy had long made poverty alleviation efforts before, but although the overall GDP in that town or village was raised, it turned out that the increases were owed to those who were capable. Local farmers still lacked basic knowledge and techniques to make wealth," said Yan Qing, director of the science and technology development department of CAS.

He said the key should lie in improving the level of industrialization by better connecting farmers with enterprises.

In 2017, the academy sent teams of about 10 academicians and over 500 experts into rural towns and villages to carry out a comprehensive field survey and propose poverty-alleviation plans. The plans were tailored specifically to the local sectors and products where each area has advantages.

Based on the planning, scientists decided to focus on kiwis, animal husbandry and potatoes after taking into account the local technological needs and each institute's strength.

The potato, for example, is not only an important crop that helps ensure China's food security, it is also the staple food and main source of income for many poor mountain areas, said Zhong Naiqin, a senior engineer from the Institute of Microbiology, a CAS subsidiary.

Zhong and her team of researchers paid a visit to Shuicheng county in Guizhou province, where the cultivated area per capita was about 0.1 hectare. About 40 percent of the population was illiterate, and more than 36 percent were living in poverty.

Potatoes were the main crop in the county but suffered from serious pests and diseases that resulted in low yield, she said.

To solve the problem, Zhong and her team developed new fertilizers that helped crops absorb more nutrients, applied compound fungicide that curbed diseases and cultivated disease-free seed potato tubers.

In 2017, a company specialized in breeding seed potato tubers was set up, supported by technical guidance from the Institute of Microbiology and a local academician workstation. The tubers were then provided to small companies and cooperatives consisting of three to four poor households to extend the plantation.

Zhong said the production in some deeply poor towns and villages has increased by about 70 percent since 2017. The technologies also helped largely increase potato production in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

"As a national strategic force of science and technology, CAS has acted as the forerunner, practitioner and main force in alleviating poverty by using science and technology," Yan said.

"We will continue to give full play to our scientific strengths and make greater contributions to fighting poverty and implementing the rural revitalization strategy," he added.

 

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Wuhan heart doctors heal far and wide
By Li Danqing | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2019-07-26 09:16

Tao Liang conducts a heart examination on a child at a local hospital in Qiongjie county, Shannan, Tibet autonomous region, on July 13, 2019. [Yu Yu/for chinadaily.com.cn]

Experts from Wuhan Asia Heart Hospital in Central China's Hubei province have travelled thousands of kilometers across the nation to conduct examinations on children with congenital heart diseases and carry out surgeries free of charge, Chutian Metropolis Daily reported.

Ever since the hospital was founded in 1999, the team of medical experts led by Tao Liang, head of the hospital's cardiothoracic surgery department, has paid visits to a number of poverty-stricken regions, old revolutionary base areas and remote mountainous areas. In the past eight years, they have visited Tibet autonomous region five times, bringing professional medical assistance to local residents.

Tao Liang and a member of the Wuhan team visit Phuntsok Yangdron in Remuna village, Naidong county, Shannan, Tibet autonomous region, on July 13, 2019. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

Phuntsok Yangdron, a 16-year-old Tibetan girl, received help from experts at Wuhan Asia Heart Hospital seven years ago.

In 2012, she was diagnosed with leakage in her left atrium and right heart crown. Later, she was transferred to Wuhan to receive heart surgery, and Tao was her surgeon.

The two met again this year when the hospital's expert team revisited Yangdron's hometown in Naidong county, Shannan, Tibet autonomous region. The teenage girl was excited to see Tao, she said. "I still remember how frightened I was when I went to Wuhan. I was 9 years old, alone and far away from home, and was about to receive my first ever heart surgery."

But Yangdron was lucky. "The doctors at the hospital were very kind to me," she said. "They comforted me, took care of me. They gave me the courage to do the surgery without too many worries."

After undergoing the minimally invasive surgery, Yangdron recovered quickly and the operation was a total success.

Phuntsok Yangdron shows an old photograph of her and her mother from 7 years ago at a local hospital in Naidong county, Shannan, Tibet autonomous region, on July 13, 2019. In 2012, she underwent heart surgery at Wuhan Asia Heart Hospital, which was a complete success. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

Five-year-old Le Le and 18-month-old Meng Meng from the impoverished Jingyuan county, Guyuan, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, also benefitted from the hospital's program.

In April of this year, the younger sister Meng Meng was diagnosed with congenital heart disease in a medical examination organized by the hospital, after her elder sister Le Le received a similar diagnosis in a kindergarten physical check-up not long ago.

A congenital heart surgery usually costs around 25,000 ($3,638) to 40,000 yuan ($5,821), which placed a tremendous amount of pressure on the family with six daughters, one working parent and over 60,000 yuan of debt.

After learning about the family's financial difficulties, the expert team helped the girls apply for a special fund, which covers more than 80,000 yuan of the total medical expenses.

In mid May, the two sisters went to Wuhan with more than a dozen children with congenital heart diseases in Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Tao and Wang Xiao, deputy head of cardiothoracic surgery department, performed the surgery on the girls with success.

Tao Liang warms the stethoscope with his hand before he conducts heart examination at a local hospital in Qusong county, Shannan, Tibet autonomous region, on July 15, 2019. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

Tao said "it is not difficult to do good deed. What's challenging is to keep doing them and encourage people around you to participate in these activities." He hopes that Wuhan Asia Heart Hospital's efforts will help cure more patients and make their dreams come true.

Medical programs organized by Wuhan Asia Heart Hospital have provided heart operations for 40,000 children and teenagers from a number of regions including Guizhou province, Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Tibet autonomous region since its establishment. A total of over 9,600 junior congenital heart disease patients who come from impoverished families have benefitted from free heart surgeries.

By the end of 2019, the hospital aims to see its 10,000th patient, whose life will be greatly improved by the heart surgery.

 

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Factbox: China makes headway in poverty reduction
Source: Xinhua| 2019-08-13 18:42:45|Editor: huaxia


BEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- China has made historic achievements in fighting poverty over the past decades, making the country a major contributor to the world's poverty reduction endeavors.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and also a crucial stage for the country's poverty-alleviation campaign as it vows to eradicate poverty by 2020.

The following are some facts and figures about the progress the country has made in its poverty-alleviation campaign:

-- Over the past 40 years, more than 700 million Chinese people have cast off poverty, representing over 70 percent of global poverty reduction.

-- Between 2013 and 2018, China has lifted 82.39 million rural poor residents out of poverty, with an annual average of 13.73 million people casting off poverty, more than the entire population of Greece.

-- The country still had 16.6 million rural people living below the national poverty line at the end of 2018, with more than half of them living in the country's less-developed western region.

-- In 2018, the annual per-capita disposable income of rural residents in poverty-hit regions stood at 10,371 yuan (about 1,475 U.S. dollars), double its 2012 level.

-- Continued income growth boosted consumption, with the per-capita rural consumption in poor areas reaching 8,956 yuan last year, representing an average annual increase of 11.4 percent.

-- China also offered experience and assistance to other countries in their poverty-reduction efforts. By the end of October 2015, the country had provided 400 billion yuan of assistance to 166 countries and international organizations, dispatched over 600,000 assistance personnel and offered medical assistance to 69 countries, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

 

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China Development Bank issues 20 bln USD of poverty relief loans
Source: Xinhua| 2019-10-06 16:12:48|Editor: huaxia

BEIJING, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- China Development Bank (CDB), a development financial institution, has issued 142.9 billion yuan (about 20 billion U.S. dollars) of loans to support poverty relief efforts in the first eight months of this year.

The bank's total outstanding loans for poverty alleviation reached 1.17 trillion yuan by the end of August. It plans to issue loans worth 300 billion yuan for targeted poverty relief this year.

Founded in 1994, the CDB is designed to provide finance to major national projects and development strategies. It has stepped up support for the country's battle against poverty, which is one of the "three tough battles" that the country must win to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020.

By the end of the second quarter of 2019, the outstanding loans for poverty alleviation of development and policy banks accounted for more than half of total poverty relief loans in the whole banking sector, according to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

 

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Shanghai fair lifts regions out of poverty
Yang Meiping 20:55 UTC+8, 2019-10-17

Crowds of visitors at the four-day fair in Shanghai aimed at helping poor regions.

A fair at Shanghai Everbright Convention and Exhibition Center is exhibiting and selling products from 21 regions partnered with the city in poverty relief, including Yunnan Province, Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Shigatse in Tibet.

The four-day fair that opened on Wednesday showcases several thousand mainly agricultural and related products, such as camellia chicken from Xishuangbanna in Yunnan, yak meat from Guoluo in Qinghai, almonds from Kashgar and highland barley products from Tibet.

Besides the exhibition area, where visitors can buy products, there is also an area for the exhibitors to talk to local buyers, including supermarkets, restaurants and hotels.

The fair aims to promote products and brands from these regions, build up long-term links between producers and the market, help set up physical stores in the city and guide them in online commerce.

Li Shiyi, of the Yi ethnic group in Yunnan's Chuxiong Prefecture, told Shanghai Daily that she used to work in a hotel in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, but returned to her hometown when her father was diagnosed with cancer in 2011. After her father died she decided to stay at home to fulfill her father’s wish to establish a livestock farm and started a company the following year.

“Unlike chickens raised in cages, our chickens run in the mountain and fly onto trees, which makes them more healthy and more tasty and safe as food,” she said.

She said it was difficult to sell at first as no one knew her products.

“We sold eggs and chicken only at local regions and fairs like this in Shanghai are helpful for us to know better about the market outside Yunnan and promote our products,” she said, adding that her company has participated in fairs in Shanghai three times and opened online stores to serve customers around the country.

Her company not only makes her a living but also benefits 2,000 households in her hometown.

“Previously, villagers had almost no income and didn’t know how to make money,” she said. “They only reared several chickens and would have to stand on the street for a whole day to sell 10 to 20 eggs. It was very inefficient, and they were not active in rearing chickens.”

But now, Li’s company has professionals teach them how to raise chickens with scientific skills and who go to villages to collect their eggs and chickens so that they can easily make money everyday and don’t have to worry about sales.

Li said cadres from Shanghai have also been visiting local families, changing concepts of villagers and enlightening them with knowledge and skills to make a living rather than waiting for subsidies from the government.

“I’m glad to see that some young people who left to work in big cities have come back and joined the business,” said Li. “Only when young people come back, can our hometown develop better.”

Zi Shaomei, from a tea company, said the fair was impressively efficient in sales and promotions.

“We sold 600,000 yuan (US$84,830) of products last year in the four-day fair, compared to about 2,000 yuan a day in a physical store in Yunnan,” she said.

Shanghai cadres are now trying to help them with online sales.

“We didn’t do well online, selling 600,000 to 800,000 yuan a year,” said Yue Yunze, who works in the company’s e-commerce service center. “We badly need instruction on e-commerce and the Shanghai government will help us connect with local e-commerce platform operators during the fair.”

While assisting these regions to alleviate poverty, Shanghai has been exploring ways to introducing their products to the city, helping them improve production, transport and sales to adapt to the market here.

Shanghai has paired up with 98 counties on the country’s poverty list in seven provinces and has helped 58 to be removed from the list.

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Yang Meiping / SHINE
Li Shiyi talks to visitors who are buying her eggs.

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Yang Meiping / SHINE
An exhibitor talks with a visitor.

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Yang Meiping / SHINE
A purchaser talks to two people from a Yunnan company.

Source: SHINE Editor: Yang Meiping

 

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China makes final sprint in battle to end poverty
By Hu Yuwei and Zhao Yusha Source:Global Times Published: 2019/10/17 23:23:40

A technician takes care of ganoderma at a processing factory in Pucheng County, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 25, 2019. In recent years, Pucheng has been dedicated to developing special ganoderma industry, which has boosted nearly 300 poverty-stricken households' incomes. Photo:Xinhua

Government efforts to rid China of extreme poverty by 2020 makes 2019 a crucial year, according to Chinese experts and officials interviewed Thursday who expressed optimism that the ambitious goal will be achieved based on the nation's proven track record in tackling the issue.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, hailed the progress made in poverty relief under the leadership of the CPC on Thursday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xi's instructions were conveyed at a commendation meeting and awards ceremony on poverty alleviation held Thursday morning in Beijing, which honored 140 national pioneers and advanced workers and institutions for their efforts in reducing poverty.

By the end of June, more than 770 people had lost their lives in poverty alleviation jobs nationwide, according to China's State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Reduction and Development.

The year 2019 marks a significant year for winning the tough battle against extreme poverty as China has set the target to reduce the rural poor by more than 10 million this year, said the experts.

"It is a year that governments at all levels attach great importance to, because we have entered the final sprint to achieve our goals, which are also the foundation project for completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects," Song Guiwu, a professor at Gansu's Provincial Party School, told the Global Times.

China lifted 740 million people in rural areas out of extreme poverty between 1978 and 2017, or about 19 million people a year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The country has lifted another 30 million people out of abject poverty, according to the figures.

Innovative measures

Exporters noted that poverty relief work was focused on the nation's western and ethnic minority groups, who mainly dwell in mountainous regions with an adverse natural environment and backward infrastructure.

In recent years, governments in poor regions have promoted innovative and environmentally friendly ideas to help residents shake off poverty, developing industries such as tourism and e-commerce, Yu Shaoxiang, an expert on social security and poverty relief legislation at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times.

Chinese short video app Douyin reported in 2018 that 25 percent of the top 100 most-clicked short videos was shot in ethnic minority places, where economic development lags behind other parts of the country.

As tourists poured to places with beautiful scenery and exotic characteristics, they became hits on short video platforms and brought job opportunities, said Yu.

Many individuals in those places use the internet to sell home crafts and specialties. Xinhua reported that more than 5 million people from nationally designated poor counties benefited from promoting and selling their products on Kuaishou, another short video app.

A celebrity nicknamed "Taipingge" never dreamed of one day earning 4.5 million yuan ($0.67 million) a year on the Kuaishou app.

Taipingge grew up in a large family in Inner Mongolia where he used to work odd jobs that earned him about 300 yuan a day.

But when Taipingge posted videos of hometown barbecues on Kuaishou, they went viral.

He began selling beef nationwide in 2017 and now his whole family and even neighbors are participating in the successful business.Big data and artificial intelligence have also played a role in China's poverty relief. Southwest China's Guizhou Province started using big data for precise poverty-relief in 2015. A cloud computing platform was developed which tracks and manages the financial status of more than 6 million poor residents across 9,000 villages, Xinhua said.

Some schools in Xichang, capital of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Southwest China's Sichuan Province have installed an "intelligence campus" system, where students can attend online classes, noted Hou Xuan, a primary school teacher from the city of Xichang. They share libraries and other teaching resources with top-notch schools in Sichuan, Hou said.

The impoverished population of eight ethnic minority provinces and autonomous regions dropped from 31.21 million in 2012 to 6.03 million in 2018, and the poverty incidence dropped from 20.8 percent to 4 percent, Xinhua reported.

Future efforts

All regions and departments must stick to poverty relief goals and make continuous efforts to tackle extreme poverty, improve weak links in compulsory education, basic medical care, housing and drinking-water safety for the impoverished population, and ensure that all rural poor can be lifted out of poverty and step into a moderately prosperous society by next year, Xi said.

Yu noted that China's poverty alleviation efforts will not halt after the goal set for 2020 is reached.

The population in poverty will still exist in China and the Chinese government will continue the work, Yu said.

Even as basic extreme poverty is eradicated, there will be relative poverty in different sections of society, which will need to be addressed, he said.

Some scholars are discussing social relief and aid projects to help those who still can't shake off poverty after 2020.

The government will focus on those extreme poor groups which for example have lost the ability to work or are suffering from serious diseases, Yu explained.

In the long run, "We (Chinese officials) need to be alert to prevent the problem of those who were relieved of poverty returning to poverty caused by policy reasons," said Luo Zhijun, a standing committee member and director of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference 's Committee for Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Song, the Party School professor, said poverty alleviation was a worldwide struggle. "If China, the world's most populous country, can lift itself out of poverty, its approach will certainly serve as a great model for other developing countries," he said.

 

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Joint efforts from government and society ensure better nutrition for rural children
By Li Qiao Source:Global Times Published: 2019/10/22 17:13:40

○ The government and society are paying more attention to rural children's health by making efforts to provide free nutritious meals

○ A transparent supervision system is the key to improving the national and social plan for providing free meals for children

Pupils are queuing for lunch at Jiubu elementary school in Shitai county, East China's Anhui Province on May 20, 2019. Photo: Courtesy of Free Lunch for Children

Support from the government and society in China ensures that disadvantaged children in rural areas enjoy nutrient-rich and hygienic meals every day for free. Many netizens are also following what children eat every day on the social networking site Sina Weibo.

Dai Xing, an official in the bureau of education in Maguan county, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, told the Global Times that in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chinese people generally had difficulty getting enough food and clothing.

"The government and society not only give food to children in poor areas, but they also make efforts to provide nutrition-rich meals, paying special attention to children's health," said Dai Xing.

In the 70 years since the country's founding in 1949, our motherland has strengthened itself in numerous aspects and the living standards of Chinese people have improved significantly, Dai said, adding that the countryside is now accessible by road, which makes it easier to transport fresh vegetables into the mountainous areas where these children live.

Students eat lunch together at the central elementary school of Pianma Yi ethnic township, Ya'an, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 28, 2018. Photo: Courtesy of Free Lunch for Children

Caring the left behind

Since the fall term of 2011, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has implemented a plan for improving the nutrition of rural students receiving compulsory education, and provided them with a subsidy of three yuan ($0.42) per person per day, which rose to four yuan in November 2014, according to a report released by MOE in 2017.

The nutrition improvement program for rural students receiving compulsory education covers all poverty-stricken counties, benefiting 37 million rural students, the Xinhua News Agency reported in 2017.

On April 2, 2011, 500 journalists, dozens of domestic mainstream media outlets and the China Social Welfare Foundation launched Free Lunch for Children (FLC), with an initial donation of three yuan per day (since the 2015 fall semester, this has increased to four yuan per meal due to rising prices), to help children avoid hunger by allowing them to enjoy free hot lunches.

Su Zhefang, the secretary general of FLC, told the Global Times that it has been cooperating with the national program in many schools, mainly those located in Central China's Hubei and Hunan provinces and Southwest China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.

In particular, the national program supports meals for students during their years of compulsory education, and FLC supports meals for preschool children and staff, chef salaries, kitchen hardware facilities, water, electricity, fuel and other associated operating expenses according to the schools' needs, Su explained.

By August 2019, a total of 1,223 schools had joined FLC, benefiting more than 310,000 students and teachers with more than 500 million yuan raised in total, Su said.

There are 115 children in Wumu elementary school in Maguan county, including 80 boarding pupils, who enjoy this national support, and 35 kindergarten children who are supported by FLC.

Maguan county is one of the 27 state-level poverty-stricken counties in Yunnan, located on the border between China and Vietnam, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Dai told the Global Times that many of the students are left-behind children whose parents are working far away, leaving the children in the care of their grandparents.

Most of these elderly grandparents don't pay particular attention to the nutritional variety of the meals they prepare, and some children only have the same dish for a whole week during the summer and winter vacation.

Liu Yekun, a third-grade boy, told the Global Times that he prefers the food at school because he can have fresh meat and vegetables for every meal, while his family always cooks with preserved meat. His favorite food is pork and eggs.

There are two vegetable dishes, one meat dish and one serving of soup for every meal, Peng Zeshang, the principal of Wumu, explained, adding that ensuring food safety and menu preparation are the most difficult parts of his work routine.

Food materials are ordered one week in advance and distributed by the catering company twice a week, he said.

Every time the ingredients arrive, the teachers will check their appearance and smell to ensure that the food has not spoiled while in transit, and carefully go over the inspection report to ensure the quality of the ingredients, Peng said.

All 11 teachers in Wumu elementary school meet to prepare the menu once a week before ordering ingredients, even though they all have their own subjects to teach.

Peng, the principal of Wumu, is 38 and had almost never cooked. He started to read recipe books and watch cooking programs to find out how to match different vegetables and provide diverse and nutrition-rich dishes to students.​

A school boy picks his favorite dish at Xiacun elementary school in Long'an town, Fuzhou, East China's Jiangxi Province. Photo: Courtesy of Free Lunch for Children

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Transparency is key​

"On September 18, 80 pupils supported by the program and 48 children subsidized by FLC had a free lunch of stir-fried pork, stir-fried lotus root, fried potato and pumpkin soup. Main consumption: rice 14.5 kilograms, lotus root 8 kilograms, potato 6.5 kilograms and pumpkin 7 kilograms. The total expense was 444.2 yuan, of which 18 yuan was spent on oil and salt."

Wang Zhiqiang, a math teacher in Wumu who is also in charge of publishing details of meals on Sina Weibo, put this post on Weibo and included photos of the dishes and children having their meals on the official account of Wumu elementary school to let donors know how their donations were being spent.

Su told the Global Times that openness and transparency are the guiding principles of FLC. FLC also provides training on Weibo publicity for school teachers.

Wang said that dishes are published on Weibo not only for supervision but also to draw the attention of netizens, and encourage them to take part in caring for children.

Providing free meals for disadvantaged students in rural areas is conducive to the healthy mental and physical growth of children. Even when some villages escape poverty, it is important to continue providing such welfare for children.

Li Xuewen, a 22-year-old woman who works in Beijing and donates 88 yuan monthly to FLC, told the Global Times that she is delighted to see children having such delicious food. Her donation can provide 22 meals for a student, and she believes this is money well spent.

Li is happy to see students having nutritious meals and hopes that students living in poverty can grow up healthy and have the same opportunity to explore the world in the future.

Yang Ya'nan, an 8-year-old girl at Wumu, told the Global Times that she is grateful to the government and the many kind people across the country that provide free meals to her and her classmates.

"I hope these uncles and aunts, who care about whether I have nutritious food at every meal, will also order less take-away food and eat more vegetables themselves."​

 

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China allocates 113.6b yuan for poverty alleviation
Xinhua | Updated: 2019-11-18 16:47

A farmer in Gansu province is busy harvesting potatoes. [PHOTO BY WANG JIANG/FOR CHINA DAILY]

BEIJING -- China's central government has dispensed part of the 2020 funds for poverty alleviation to local governments, the Ministry of Finance said Monday.

The 2020 poverty relief fund already allocated to 28 provincial-level regions totaled 113.6 billion yuan (about $16.2 billion), accounting for 90 percent of that recorded in 2019, according to the ministry.

Some 14.4 billion yuan of the money will be channeled to support areas in deep poverty, including Tibet, Xinjiang, and parts of Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu provinces.

The ministry said the power to review and approve the use of the poverty alleviation fund should be delegated to county-level governments and the fund should not be used for any projects or tasks unrelated to poverty reduction.

China aims to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020. As the deadline approaches, the country is focusing on the nation's poorest people, who mainly dwell in deep mountains with adverse natural environments and backward infrastructure, or have special needs.