AsiaNet 86417

CHENGDU, China, Nov. 3, 2020 /Xinhua=KYODO JBN/--

A task team of the Dazhou Disabled Persons' Federation (DDPF), together with

multiple medical rehabilitation institutions, spent their time from Oct. 19 to

21, in Wanyuan, Dazhou, providing the locals with disabilities (PWDs) with

"Express Medical Services" centering around poverty alleviation and medical

rehabilitation. Over 30 medical rehabilitation experts, organized into 7 teams

specializing in visual impairment, cerebral palsy (e.g. intellectual disability

and autism), hearing impairment and mental disorder, etc., disseminated

knowledge about disability prevention and rehabilitation in the communities on

a large scale. Apart from free medical examinations, the teams provided

targeted medical solutions, such as assistive devices and cataract surgery, to

the PWDs in need, including children.

Multiple Poverty Alleviation Solutions Offered to PWDs

Poverty alleviation for PWDs has long been an integral part of China's poverty

alleviation cause. This is the 5th year in a row for Dazhou to organize the

"Express Medical Services" event, a program of poverty alleviation and medical

rehabilitation. Aiming at basic rehabilitation needs of impoverished PWDs, the

government intends to know fully about the landscape of PWD assistance and

provide targeted rehabilitation to those in need.

In addition to caring for impoverished PWDs, Dazhou has stepped up efforts in

recent years to support those in rural areas economically. The government is

making every effort to assist PWDs in urban and rural communities with job and

entrepreneurship opportunities. For example, the government eliminates

employment discrimination, encourages employment of the disabled with physical

capabilities and provides 102,800 PWDs with vocational training and employment

services.

Chen Xiaolong, a citizen of Dazhou, has been discriminated against since

childhood because of his physical impairment, which rendered him jobless.

However, he didn't despair of his life, but struggled even hardder against

adversity. Chen rented a patch of over 200,000m2 land in Xuanhan for plum

planting and then founded a cooperative in 2016, helping those around him to

improve their livelihoods. In 2018, he joined in a DDPF training program before

taking his business online. By Aug. 2020, online orders for his plums added up

to thousands of kilograms.

No Family or Person Left Behind on the Way to Prosperity for All

In addition to helping the disabled in need, Dazhou has been going all out to

fight poverty for all locals these years in a drive to improve their income and

life. The government has steadfastly pursued the goal of "Leaving no family or

person behind", a policy closely related to the government's years-long fight

against poverty.

Located in northeastern Sichuan, Dazhou is blessed with a wealth of natural gas

resources, hence the name "the Capital of Gas in China". It is also the

birthplace of Ba culture, a brilliant civilization created by the ancient Ba

people who lived and flourished in the land over 4,000 years ago. However, its

location in the Qin & Daba mountains made it one of China's most impoverished

areas. Xuanhan, one of its counties, is known to have once the largest poor

population in Sichuan. In Dazhou, underdeveloped infrastructure led to the

disabled and the bed-ridden falling into poverty, who accounted for 69.86% of

the city's impoverished population, giving rise to more complexities to poverty

alleviation; therefore, it was a long-cherished dream of the locals to get out

of poverty and live a well-off life.

To this end, the Dazhou government has devoted a lot of efforts to poverty

alleviation and has secured a total of RMB 27.967 billion in all types of

grant, of which RMB 6.027 billion is fiscal grant earmarked for poverty

alleviation. The government has helped 252,000 poor laborers land jobs

successfully while entitling more than 170,000 registered poor families to

subsistence allowance, of which the criteria steadily and dynamically exceeds

China's national poverty alleviation criteria. At the same time, the government

is also doing its utmost to fight poverty through economic development, legal

system improvements and infrastructure development.

In order to root out poverty, address its intergenerational transmission, and

enhance personal competence for the residents, Dazhou strives to promote

education to help the poor. In addition to investments in school buildings and

optimizing teaching environment, the city has helped more than 100,000 students

in universities, primary/secondary schools and kindergartens with financial

support through social resource integration as well as tuition and fee

remissions. In the past 5 years, the government has helped tens of thousands of

poor students realize their college dreams. In Xuanhan alone, 55,000 students

have been admitted to colleges since 2013. In 2016, the Academy of Arts &

Design of Tsinghua University set up a nationwide "support research program for

outstanding poor art students", a total of 7 students in Dazhou qualified for

the project, making the city one with the most participants across China.

The year 2020 witnesses that China builds a moderately prosperous society in

all respects. On the way out of poverty and to a relatively comfortable life,

Dazhou "will not leave a single household or person behind." At present, Dazhou

has reduced its poverty-stricken population by a total of 704,000, with the

rest meeting the criteria of poverty alleviation, 828 poverty-stricken villages

and seven poverty-stricken districts and counties lifted out of poverty. In the

future, Dazhou will continue to consolidate its achievements of poverty

alleviation in a bid to improve the overall development of society and the life

of its people.

Source: Dazhou Disabled Persons' Federation (DDPF)