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UPDATED: September-11-2008  
A Hand Up
Great efforts have been made to educate disabled children but there is still a long road ahead
 

In honor of the 13th International Day for Disabled Persons, the China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF) and the China Welfare Fund for the Handicapped (CWFH) co-hosted 2004 Beijing Charity Gala Ball, on December 3, calling for the support of disabled children to be educated. Donations from the 2004 program will enabled every child supported by the program to receive 1,500 yuan ($181) a year for three successive years from 2005.

The ball is the biggest annual charity event in China and this year's guest list was made up of over 600 officials from

relevant ministries and Chinese and world-renowned companies, as well as celebrities and goodwill ambassadors to China.

Vice Premier Wu Yi, regarded as China's "Iron Lady," was moved to tears while watching the visually and aurally challenged dancers whirling across the stage and moving to the silent melody translated to them by their sign language teacher. Soichi Adachi, General Manager of Sony's External Affairs Division (China) Ltd., told Beijing Review his company is very concerned with poor and disabled children in China and is actively participating in charity activities when doing business in China. He remarked, "As I watched them dance in perfect rhythm with the music and act like veteran stage artists, even though they cannot hear or speak a syllable, I was amazed at their talent, confidence and commitment."

Guests were also deeply touched and inspired by the outstanding performance of the China Disabled People's Arts Troupe (CDPAT) and also other distinguished singers and artists, like Wei Wei, Pu Cunxin, Lu Siqing and Song Zuying.

In an anonymous donation before the banquet, about 140,000 yuan ($16,908) was collected. Less than 1.72 million yuan ($207,720) was collected from the charity auction. Other donations from all walks of life are still coming in. Donations in 2004 will be used to help poor and disabled children in west China, including those living in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces.

The theme for the 2003 charity gala ball was to help girls in poverty-stricken areas in central and west China to return to school. A lot of companies participated in that charity drive, including the Lenovo Group, China Netcom and Volkswagen China. A sum of 2.1 million yuan ($253,623) was collected, all of which was donated to deprived girls in three counties in Sichuan-Kangding, Songpan and Zhaojue. More than 1,000 girls from poor families benefited from this project and realized their dreams of gaining an education. CDPF has set up profiles of the beneficiaries and closely monitors their development.

Education for the Disabled

There are 60 million persons with disabilities in China, among whom 20.57 million are aurally challenged, 11.82 million are mentally challenged, 8.77 million are physically challenged, 8.77 million are have visual challenges, 2.25 million have mental illness and 7.82 million have more than one disability.

Due to the promotion of the CDPF, the government has integrated the education of children with disabilities into the overall plan of compulsory education for synchronous implementation; the enrollment rate of visually and aurally challenged and mentally challenged rose from less than 6 percent in 1987 to 77.2 percent in 2003. The number of special schools increased from 504 in 1987 up to 1,655 in 2003. Thousands of special classes have been set up in ordinary schools. The number of enrolled students with aural and visual challenges and those mentally challenged has reached 577,000.

The enrollment rate of disabled students whose marks reached the admission standards of colleges and technical schools is 92 percent. The total number of students with disabilities in universities and colleges has grown to 11,000 since 1985, and 15,000 people with disabilities have been enrolled by ordinary secondary vocational schools since 1989.

The Special Education College of Changchun University, the Engineering College for the Deaf of Tianjin University of Science and Engineering and the Massage Specialty for the Blind in Nanjing Chinese Medicine College have been established. Special education specialties have been set up in seven normal universities. Statistics show that 34 institutions have been training special education teachers for middle schools, 783 vocational training institutions have been set up for persons with disabilities and over 2.5 million disabled trainees have received vocational training.

Although China has made great efforts to help disabled children, still many of them from poor families cannot afford the high tuition fee. According to CDPF, there are more than 10 million poor and disabled persons in the country, over 300,000 of whom are deprived of education. Most of them are concentrated in central and west China.

The enrollment rate of healthy children for compulsory education is over 99 percent, while that of children with visual, hearing and mental challenges is only 77.2 percent. The rate of visually impaired children is the lowest, about one half of that of sighted children, while the rate nose dives to 20 percent in some poor western areas, such as Ningxia and Gansu.

Poverty Stricken

Zhuang Wenjie, an aurally challenged girl, was born in Shantou, Guangdong. Her parents make a living by selling empty soda cans and other leftovers. When she was young, her talent for dancing was discovered by the local special school teacher and she has danced ever since. Physically healthy dancers only take several minutes to understand one dance movement, while Zhuang has to spend several days on learning her steps. But despite the difficulties she has endured, she believes that the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, but they must be felt within the heart. It is also her favorite quote from her idol, Helen Keller, the American visually and aurally challenged woman who went on to become an inspirational writer and heroine to so many. Currently, Zhuang earns enough to sustain herself, but she is one of the more fortunate.

Many reasons account for the dire situation in which disabled children find themselves. For instance, the number of special education teachers is very limited and they are not distributed equally across the country. The vast majority of these are teaching in special schools in big cities. There are many obstacles hindering the effort to allocate special teachers in poor areas, such as the unwillingness of teachers to work in these regions due to the shortage of supportive public funds. Additionally, many of these children live in abject poverty. The children also need to receive special education such as sign language and Braille, however most of the special schools are located in medium-sized and large cities. Becoming boarders in a city adds additional costs to families already burdened by annual incomes of just several hundred yuan (far less than $100), and for most these costs are just not possible.

Helping Hand

To alleviate pressure of poor families with disabled children, CDPF and CWFH launched a project called Helping Disabled Children for School in September 2002, planning to raise funds in aid of disadvantaged groups. Currently, more than 3,000 poor and disabled children have been helped by contributions and realized their dreams for school.

Li Lin, a sign language teacher, proudly praised her students during an interview with Beijing Review saying they were children with enormous courage and warm hearts. They are avid and careful learners of everything, sometimes to an extreme, she said. "Maybe because of their disabilities, they are very delicate. But at the same time, they have a strong sense of cooperation and are willing to help those who are lagging behind," she added.

In a speech delivered during the 2004 Beijing Charity Gala Ball, CDPF Chairman Deng Pufang called for on all of society to give a hand to needy and disabled children as they also represent the future.

(NO. 50, 2004)


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