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New life for hapless kids

By Wang Ru (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-16 09:25

When Zeng first came to the center, everyone was drawn to the clever girl. She was fearless and not shy to ask what she needed.

"She told us she had two fathers (natural and adoptive) and three mothers (natural, step and adoptive), but she only wanted to stay here," says Wang. "She never wants to return to the streets."

But for some, the streets may actually seem like a safer place than their homes because of poverty and abuse.

Li is such a teenager. Unlike Zeng, he seldom talks. The first week he was in the center, he always stood at the gate, ready to go out. Li couldn't eat by himself and often fought with the other children.

After a week at the center, Li could only tell supervisor Wang Ying his name, but could not recall where he was from.

Song, 15, came to the center in August from Sichuan province. She ran away from home after her mother beat her for stealing money.

A girl shapes clay at a handicraft class at the Changsha Protection Center in Central China's Hunan province. [China Daily]

Lin, 14, escaped from home many times. His parents were busy with their business and had little time for him.

"Every time they found I had disappeared, I felt they were a little more caring," Lin says.

"Home is no different from the street," says Xia, 14. After his parents divorced, he lived with his father, who often went out to play cards and seldom returned home. After several months of not seeing his father and having finished the last bit of food at home, hunger drove Xia to beg on the street.

Wang, a pretty 14-year-old, escaped home in Anhui province. She lived with her grandfather after her parents divorced, but he often beat her.

"When the children are brought to us, the first thing we want to know is where they are from so that we can contact their parents and guardians," says Wang Ying.

But since many children do not want to return home, they refuse to tell the supervisors their home address and sometimes even give a fake name.

"They need to be taken care of by their parents and receive an education," Wang says. "But before they return to their families, the protection center does everything to give them a sense of family and school."

The center's volunteer teachers, mostly university students and teachers from nearby schools, start the day at 8:30 am. The children have four hours of instruction every day in various subjects.

The center is equipped with a computer room, table-tennis room and library. Wang says they are now looking for child psychologists who can help the children overcome their memories of street life.

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