Nonprofit organizes trip to help left-behind children

A nonprofit with a focus on rural development recently organized a visit to the formerly impoverished city of Tongren in the hilly Guizhou province to offer company to children whose parents work away in bigger cities.

A media release by the Beijing-based China Foundation for Rural Development said the tour saw the participation of its partners and actress Yao Chen, and was aimed at bolstering the children's interest in reading and doing handicrafts and enriching their emotional experiences.

The tour is part of a project named "Partner Mothers", which was launched by the foundation in 2015 to offer support to rural women and children. The project has recruited rural housewives as "partner mothers", who after receiving social work training are required to provide care for left-behind children in their respective villages.

Qin Wei, the foundation's deputy secretary-general, said efforts to help promote the full development of children is a crucial mark in the larger campaign to strive for rural revitalization, a national strategy that followed China's success in eliminating rural poverty in recent years.

Data provided by the foundation showed that the project beneficiaries over the last eight years number more than 810,000 and are scattered across 1,571 villages in 11 provincial regions.

According to an estimate by the All-China Women's Federation, China last year had more than 61 million left-behind children, accounting for 37.7 percent of all children living in rural areas. One in every five children nationwide falls in the category.