Village lifeline for convicts' children
Source: Xinhua |
May 30, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WEARING a clean white T-shirt, 12-year-old Zhou Fang is always smiles. The scars on his face and arms are barely noticeable.
With their father in jail and their mother too sick to care for them, Zhou and his younger brother used to live on the street.
Over the past two years, they often got into trouble for grabbing others' tributes to the dead at temples or for stealing food to fill their empty stomachs.
When criminals receive their punishment, their innocent children suffer.
"Everyone of them has a miserable story and some of their psychological wounds may never heal.
"They need our love," said Wang Min, counsellor at Xinxiang Sun Village, a charity set up in 2004 to help children of convicts in Henan Province.
Zhou Fang and 47 other children aged from three to 18 live in the village while their parents serve their terms in Henan's nine jails. Good food, clean clothes and cozy dorms: Zhou could not have imagined it two years ago.
The children of convicts not only receive education and health care, but also counseling and job training.
The facility has an entertainment hall, a psychological counseling room, a computer room, a library and a table tennis room. There are also TVs and video games.
"I like maths, and also computer games," Zhou laughed.
The village also has five "loving mothers" and five "loving sisters" to look after the children.
"Sun Village not only provides a wholesome life and study environment for the children, but also educates the convict parents," said Zhang Mingsuo, a sociologist from Zhengzhou University in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou.
Zhou Wenzhong, Zhou Fang's father, was not a model prisoner during the first half of his 14-year jail term. Then his sons entered the village.
Comforted by that, the father's behavior improved and he recently had three months taken off his sentence.
"The village is trying to build a bridge of love between convicts and their kids," Wang said.
Sun Villages have also been set up in Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, as well as Jiangxi, Liaoning and Qinghai provinces.
With their father in jail and their mother too sick to care for them, Zhou and his younger brother used to live on the street.
Over the past two years, they often got into trouble for grabbing others' tributes to the dead at temples or for stealing food to fill their empty stomachs.
When criminals receive their punishment, their innocent children suffer.
"Everyone of them has a miserable story and some of their psychological wounds may never heal.
"They need our love," said Wang Min, counsellor at Xinxiang Sun Village, a charity set up in 2004 to help children of convicts in Henan Province.
Zhou Fang and 47 other children aged from three to 18 live in the village while their parents serve their terms in Henan's nine jails. Good food, clean clothes and cozy dorms: Zhou could not have imagined it two years ago.
The children of convicts not only receive education and health care, but also counseling and job training.
The facility has an entertainment hall, a psychological counseling room, a computer room, a library and a table tennis room. There are also TVs and video games.
"I like maths, and also computer games," Zhou laughed.
The village also has five "loving mothers" and five "loving sisters" to look after the children.
"Sun Village not only provides a wholesome life and study environment for the children, but also educates the convict parents," said Zhang Mingsuo, a sociologist from Zhengzhou University in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou.
Zhou Wenzhong, Zhou Fang's father, was not a model prisoner during the first half of his 14-year jail term. Then his sons entered the village.
Comforted by that, the father's behavior improved and he recently had three months taken off his sentence.
"The village is trying to build a bridge of love between convicts and their kids," Wang said.
Sun Villages have also been set up in Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, as well as Jiangxi, Liaoning and Qinghai provinces.
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