A member of the National Committee of the CPPCC from Shenzhen called for the government to invest more and for social organizations to more get involved in psychological health education for left-behind children in urban areas whose parents went to cities to make a living.
Zhai Meiqing, president of Heung Kong Group, has cared about left-behind children for years and said in an interview with Shenzhen Special Zone Daily that her research shows most village schools in China fail to meet the Ministry of Education’s requirement of having one psychological education lesson for students every two weeks. They also don’t have psychological consultation services, and village children, especially left-behind children, need psychological guidance.
“In recent years, Heung Kong Aid Foundation has helped build 1,668 reading rooms in villages, and based on the surveys developed through the reading rooms, it found the work guarding the psychological health of children is still deficient, although the country and society has developed a fairly perfect material guarantee system,” Zhai said.
During the session, Zhai proposed building a psychological health service system for children in rural areas, which could be realized through government investment, policy support and the participation of charity organizations, volunteer teams and philanthropic funds.
“I hope a joint mechanism of village schools, social organizations and social worker organizations can be established and a new situation with wider participation from different professional organizations can be formed to jointly safeguard the psychological health of village children,” said Zhai.
Zhai also hopes more entrepreneurs and philanthropists will get involved in the work for village kids.