In October 2016, Liu Xinyu and the team on the way to school distributed story boxes in Longnan, Gansu. Photograph provided by respondents
"In 2017, our white paper survey showed that 10% of left behind children claimed that their father and mother would suffer accidental death within a month, and the degree of resentment of left behind children towards their parents was shocking." Speaking of this survey result, Liu Xinyu, president of public welfare organizations on the way to school, has always been apprehensive.
This year is the fourth time that public welfare institutions on the way to school have released the White Paper on the Mental Status of Left behind Children. When Liu Xinyu shared his feelings about public welfare, he highlighted one group of figures: about 40% of left behind children meet their father or mother no more than twice a year, and about 20% of left behind children contact their father or mother no more than 4 times a year. Left behind children who are separated from their parents (the father leaves home and the mother lacks care) have obvious resentment towards their mothers; Left behind children who are separated from their mother and lack their father (mother leaves home and father lacks love) have obvious resentment towards their father. His conclusion is that it is better to call more than go home and have a look.
Compared with the white paper released for the first time on the way to school in 2015, the situation of this survey report is not much better: nearly 10 million children can not see their parents all the year round, and 2.6 million children can not receive a phone call from their parents all the year round!
In fact, many parents of left behind children do not call their children, and even if they do, they do not know what to say. This is Liu Xinyu's feeling, and it is also a driving force on the way to school when helping left behind children in their fourth year.
Liu Xinyu used to be the deputy chief editor of China News Weekly and the chief editor of new media. Media people turn to public welfare. In the eyes of many people, sometimes it is a hot headed thing. If they persist, they will be defeated soon.
Liu Xinyu disappointed those who had this idea. He did not return, nor could he.
The original intention of doing public welfare is a question that Liu Xinyu has been asked repeatedly over the years. Liu Xinyu said that when doing news, he had the opportunity to contact the left behind children, understand their living situation, and was deeply hurt.
Liu Xinyu often describes such a scene to others: once, when he was investigating in the countryside and went to school with rural children, he found an old woman planting rice seedlings when passing the paddy field. The old man was very slow in transplanting rice seedlings and carried his grandson on his back. Liu Xinyu said that when he thought of the cold winter night, the children in remote mountainous areas hid in the cold quilt alone, secretly crying while missing their parents in the distance, his heart would ache.
Another time, Liu Xinyu went to visit the home of the left behind children in a place in the northwest, and found two new school bags in his cabinet. Two groups of people came to see him before, and they all sent schoolbags. But in fact, he is not short of school bags. The school bags he uses now are bought by his mother who works outside for him at thousands of yuan. "Many people think of school bags and clothes when they mention donation, but first of all, they should ask children whether they need them. Donation cannot only satisfy their public welfare.".
Liu Xinyu found that compared with the poor families in the village due to illness, the left behind children's economic conditions at home were acceptable because their parents worked outside to earn money. What they lacked was not simple material, but psychological security and companionship. Liu Xinyu, also a father, realized that "in the public welfare project for left behind children, caring for the soul is more urgent than giving school bags. We must give full play to the resource advantages of our media people, do something for these left behind children, give them 'warm companionship', and give them a sense of security".
According to a survey by the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, due to the lack of love in childhood, 34% of children have suicidal tendencies, 70% of children have psychological problems of varying degrees, and 9% of children have committed suicide. Liu Xinyu felt that this figure was very frightening and shocking.
In April 2013, after preliminary preparation, he joined with Tencent Public Welfare and other institutions to launch the initiative of "recording stories for left behind children and accompanying them to school" on Weibo, which was quickly supported by CCTV hosts Kang Hui, Ouyang Xiadan and other celebrities. A month later, their public welfare product "story box" took shape. This public welfare project is called "On the way to school". There is an expert committee responsible for carefully selecting good books and stories suitable for children to read. Liu Xinyu invited celebrities and volunteers from all walks of life to read these stories, recorded them into audio, poured them into media such as MP3, and made them into a "story box on the way to school" for left behind children.
If you have a story box, you should send out the "story".
In 2013, the first large-scale offline activity was held on the way to school in Liping County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province. Before the event, Liu Xinyu called Principal Shi of Liujia Primary School to help the team and volunteers find the furthest way for children to go to school. The headmaster said politely, we'd better find a medium one. It would take about an hour and a half for the children to walk along the medium long mountain road. Liu Xinyu thought that it would be enough for adults to walk for half an hour.
On that day, before dawn, the team set out on the way to school. Not far away, he saw a steep slope with a gradient of more than 30 degrees. After climbing hard, he was sweating heavily and gasping for breath. That morning, the children walked for an hour and a half. These adults walked for three hours, delaying the children's breakfast.
In this school, he chats with the children. "Children, do you want your parents?" The children, who were surrounded by him just now, suddenly became quiet. Liu Xinyu said, "I was very stupid at that time. I didn't feel strange. I asked the girl who had the most fun just now, why didn't you talk? How long have you not seen your parents?" The girl bowed her head for two seconds and finally said, "I can't remember clearly.".
Later, Liu Xinyu realized that the word "parents" has become a taboo in the minds of more than 60 million left behind children and can not be easily said.
Three months after the first batch of story boxes were sent out, he and his team paid a return visit to several schools that distributed the story boxes. One question is open-ended - how do you feel after listening to the story box. One of the children wrote: "Thanks for the box sent by my uncle and aunt, so that I can have a kind of company when I am lonely at night.". Another child wrote: At night, I can sleep in the cold quilt and listen to the warm voice.
Seeing the children's childish handwriting, Liu Xinyu cried several times.
The word "left behind" seems to be far away from children in the city. After engaging in public welfare activities, Liu Xinyu had a deep pain in the problem of left behind children. "I actually had the experience of staying at home," Liu Xinyu said. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, he was in primary school. His father, as the first group of public technicians in China, went to Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz and other enterprises in Germany (known as West Germany at that time) to learn automobile technology. I went there twice, once for more than two years, and once for a year and a half. At that time, he and his mother depended on each other.
"If parents are separated from their children for more than three months, they are left behind children, but sometimes we don't think so," he said.
"Maybe it is because I have such a so-called stay behind experience in my heart that I intuitively pay more attention to the things of left behind children, and are more likely to be touched and more interested. Therefore, when we started doing it, we aimed at psychological problems." He said that his "stubbornness" might come from this.
Liu Xinyu also admitted that looking back, it may not be necessary to say how firm he was at the beginning. "After five years of work, I feel that many things have not reached the intended effect." Liu Xinyu told his friends that when the annual fundraising volume on the way to school exceeded 10 million yuan, he would get his salary. "Unfortunately, it is not up to standard now, so I can't get it." The fundraising volume exceeded 10 million yuan, which is not a big number, But it is indeed a challenge for Liu Xinyu and his team.
