The central government will spend 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) to build about 150 community-based houses for China's left-behind children in the central and western provinces, according to an official.

The project is set to be launched on Sunday, the date on which the country celebrates Children's Day.

Each house will occupy 60 square meters of area, where children are able to play with mentors and peers, said Zhang Xiaoyuan, a senior official at the All China Women Federation.

As more parents from rural areas move to cities in search of jobs, they leave their children in the care of grandparents or other family members.

The housing project is part of the "care system for left-behind children" that the government aims to build nationwide, Zhang said.

This initiative aside, the federation and the National Health and Family Planning Commission are going to spend 300 million yuan ($48 million) on bags of food to be given away to children in 300 poverty-stricken counties.

The program will seek to provide about 820,000 children aged between 6 months and 3 years, a day's supply of nutrients, with the aim to eliminate anemia.

The nutrition bags' program that began in 2011 has helped 400,000 children, Zhang said.

-Yang Yao

(China Daily 06/01/2014 page7)