People's Political Consultative Conference website Bijie, June 1 On the eve of the Children's Day, Xu Shiqin, a Communist Party member and a "mother of children", led the children to carry out the "Children's Heart to the Party" activity in Zhoujiaqiao Community, Qixingguan District, Bijie City, Guizhou Province.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in August 2018, there are 6.97 million left behind children in rural areas nationwide. At present, there are more than 39000 left behind children in Qixingguan District of Bijie City. The "Children with Mothers" project is a care project for left behind children launched by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. Through the model of "one person, one family and one link", the "Children with Mothers" project is the starting point, the "Children with Mothers" project is the platform, and the county level horizontal linkage mechanism is the guarantee, to establish a safety monitoring network for left behind children at the village level, and to explore effective ways for the welfare and protection of left behind children in rural areas, Provide reference for the implementation of government policies.

By 2020, the project has provided services in 919 villages in 79 counties (urban areas) in seven provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Hubei, Yunnan, Anhui and Shaanxi, covering 525000 children, raising a total of 130 million yuan, of which 23.4635 million yuan is supported by local governments. Governments, enterprises, academic institutions, public welfare organizations, the public, the media and other parties have formed a joint force, The protection network of left behind children has been firmly built. In 2018, the child companion mother project became a strategic cooperation project of Alibaba Public Welfare.

Xu Shiqin (second from right) interacts with children.

"Child companion mother" is a kind and responsible woman with a certain cultural level who provides services for children groups in the village, including left behind children and children in distress. Every day, after school in the village primary school, children like to come to the "Children's Home". Under the leadership of Xu Shiqin, children do homework, read, learn crafts, and participate in various activities.

Each child's situation is different, and their needs are also different. Xiaozhu (not his real name) went to the "Children's Home" after school. In addition to tutoring, Xu Shiqin also communicated and talked with him one-on-one. Most of the time, Xu Shiqin has to contact the parents outside to help them maintain their feelings with their children and solve the problems they face in coordination.

The "children's home" in the village is generally funded by the "children's mother" project, supported by the local government, and transformed on the basis of public places in the village. Books, tables and chairs, toys, handicraft materials and other materials are configured according to the standard. The "Children's Home" in Zhoujiaqiao Community is a "paradise" transformed from the old site of the village office. Xu Shiqin plays games with children here every day and regularly holds various theme activities here. In a while, the "Children's Home" will be moved to the new address of the village committee, where there is a more spacious place for children to play.

An important part of Xu Shiqin's work is home visits. Through house to house visits, she files one by one for left behind children, children in need and other service objects, and understands the needs of children at any time. During her visit, she suffered many misunderstandings. One villager said, "My family is in trouble. You don't give money or anything. What's the use of coming here?" Xu Shiqin, with patience, love and responsibility, gradually became the common "mother" of children.

The girl Xiaoqin (pseudonym)'s parents work outside. She often finds Xu Shiqin after school. After playing in the "Children's Home", she holds hands with her mother Xu and goes home, singing "I have a good mother" while walking.

Xu Shiqin's listening and accompanying have changed many children. When she needs more resources to solve problems, such as registered permanent residence for her children, applying for relevant welfare benefits, and seeking serious illness relief, there is a "link" around her, that is, the three-level welfare delivery system and horizontal linkage mechanism in the county and village. She can communicate with government departments and even experts from the China Public Welfare Research Institute of Beijing Normal University to care for children's growth. (Picture: children running in the village after school)

Xu Shiqin and her husband once left their children in their hometown and worked in Fujian for many years. At that time, she often missed the children in her hometown, tears wet eyes. Later, the couple did not want their children to stay behind and took their two sons to Fujian.

As the children grew up, the couple decided to return to their hometown because they felt that they could not manage their children well outside, which would affect their studies and growth. After returning to his hometown, his husband did odd jobs. Xu Shiqin drove a minibus and cooked at the construction site. He worked hard to bring his children up.

Today, husbands earn more by technology. Xu Shiqin's job as a mother of children has made him a stable income, and he has also become the deputy director of the village committee and the director of children. The eldest son is studying in Hubei University, and the youngest son is also sensible. Xu Shiqin felt very happy when his family ate together.

Xu Shiqin's youngest son is taking a driving test. He plans to help relatives drive cars and take care of work on the construction site.

Speaking of the past, Qi Goose, the "mother of children" in Reshuitian Village, Qixingguan District, choked several times. Her memory of living together with her grandmother and sister for more than ten years has a deep sense of "the pain of staying behind". After having three children, she felt like returning home, "I will accompany the children and never go out again."

After becoming a "mother of children", she has a stable income, and also became the deputy director of the village committee to provide care for children.

Yang Qinghua, the "mother of children", is playing with children at the Zoumagang Poverty Alleviation Resettlement Site in Anyuan County, Jiangxi Province. Yang Qinghua and her husband once opened a hotel in Ganzhou City from 2010 to 2017, when their children were already in the third grade of primary school in their hometown. "Grandma can't teach her lessons, and the children's study is neglected. I decide to come back."

At first, she thought that "children with mothers" was voluntary labor and love. Now, she is the "good mother" of the children in the village.

There are more than 100 left behind children in Magang Poverty Alleviation Resettlement Site. Yang Qinghua visits at least 20 children's families every month. "For children, we are strangers at first. Slowly, they will like me, hug me and feel closer. I will become good friends with them and open my heart to speak."

Yang Qinghua has found her own value: in the eyes of villagers, she is the "companion and carer of children".

The "Children's Home" in Laitang Village, Anyuan County is a small yard, safe and clean as a kindergarten. Tang Qingying, the "mother of children", is organizing children to carry out weekend activities.

After graduating from university, Tang Qingying worked as a graphic designer in an advertising company in Zhejiang. Her income was stable. In order not to let her children stay, she and her husband returned home. By chance, she became the "mother" of more children.

At one time, the left behind children in the village accounted for about half of the children in the whole village, in addition, there were more than a dozen children in distress. Relying on the "Children's Home", she patiently asked children's ideas, designed activities according to their needs, and opened their hearts through visits and long-term communication.

In order to improve the professional ability of "mothers with children", the project provides them with training every year, which is divided into primary, intermediate and advanced. Tang Qingying has now become a "mentor" through advanced training, and has been invited by the project team to train other "child companion mothers" across the province. It is hard to imagine that she would blush when talking to strangers years ago when facing hundreds of people today.

In addition to providing care services for children, another important value of the project is to continuously empower rural women, which not only improves the development ability of the group, but also leaves a self hematopoietic service team for the project site.

Tang Qingying arranged the "Children's Home" very warmly. Once, she found that a child wrote a sentence in the yard with chalk: "The home of children, our home; the mother of children, our mother." Simple words hit her like a stream of heat, "At that moment, all the hard work was worth it."

In Laitang Village, children are safe and happy when they play in the "Children's Home" of "Mama Tang".

After three years as a "child companion mother", Tang Qingying watched the children change. "Now, when I walk on the road, I often have children say hello to me. Some quiet and introverted children, who have never talked outside, have become sunny and cheerful, which makes me very happy."

It is understood that since the implementation of the "Children with Mothers" project for 6 years, there has been no safety accident of left behind children in the project villages, and an effective public welfare model has been explored.

As early as 2018, Deng Guosheng's team from the Institute of Public Welfare and Philanthropy of Tsinghua University once evaluated the effectiveness of the "Children with Mothers" project in Sichuan and Guizhou, and constructed a security index from six dimensions: mental health, health, life, safety, education, and monitoring. The conclusion is that there is a significant gap between intervention and no intervention; The longer the project is implemented, the more significant the intervention effect will be.

The "Children with Mothers" project has been implemented for more than five years, providing fresh experience for the exploration of civil public welfare in child protection and the improvement of child welfare policies.

On June 1, the new law on the protection of minors was launched. The welfare of children in China has made progress as a whole, but the road ahead is still long. The story of "mother" and children will continue to play in the tide of urban and rural development. (Picture/Huang Shengchunwen/reporter Gu Lei)

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