URUMQI, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Whenever she runs into trouble, Dina (not her real name) seeks help from her "aunt" Song Yuelan.
Aunt Song is not a blood relative of Dina, a 15-year-old girl of ethnic Uygur group. Song, a Han Chinese, is the child welfare director of Ergong Village of Yining county, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Her job is simply to help children enjoy better lives.
Song first met Dina in April 2015. "We didn't have money to buy seed," Dina said, so she knocked on Song's door. Song gave her 2,000 yuan (about 300 U.S. dollars). "Let me know if it is not enough," she said.
When the family harvested their crops in the autumn, they paid the money back.
Song, 49, has 920 children to take care of, including Dina and her two younger brothers.
She first visited Dina's family in 2010, and found the family in dire straits. Dina's father lives with poliomyelitis and her mother has a serious lung disease. They had no source of income beyond a small corn field and a basic government living allowance.
"Her one-year-old brother was not even registered because he was born at home," Song said. "The parents cannot speak Mandarin, so they didn't seek help from the local government."
Song spent two months helping the family solve their problems. Now registered, the boy has received free vaccinations.
"Auntie Song changed our life," Dina said.
A BRIDGE TO WELFARE
Monday is World Children's Day. China was home to 40 million children living in poverty in 2015.
"Child welfare directors are a bridge between underprivileged children and China's policies," said Xu Jianzhong, a senior official with China's Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Gao Yurong of the China Philanthropy Research Institute, who helped set up the program, remembers that the idea was born during a visit to an impoverished family.
"The child had been ill for quite some time," she said. "His family didn't know anything about the policies and free programs, so the boy had received no medical treatment."
She later discovered that the story was not exceptional. In many outlying parts of China, people simply don't know about the policies designed to help them.
"Something had to be done," Gao said. "Central government policies are very supportive of children in poverty, but not everyone is clear about the welfare system. There needed to be someone assisting them."
The child welfare directors program was launched in 2010 by China's Ministry of Civil Affairs and United Nations Children's Fund, covering more than 60,000 villages.
In Ili prefecture, Xinjiang, home of Dina, 50 villages are covered by the program, where left-behind children, orphans, children with illness and those whose parents are in jail are the priority.
THEY ARE OUR FUTURE
Ati from the Gama village of Yining county once saw two boys of their school age playing in the street.
"Why aren't you in school?" she asked 12-year-old Ezhar (not his real name).The boy and his younger brother were unregistered because their father went to prison in 2008 and their mother left home and never returned. Both lived with their uncle.
Ati applied for a low income allowance for the family, settled the registration issue and made sure the boys went to school.
At the weekends, the boys go to a children's center where the welfare directors host regular activities. Ati found a college student who was willing to teach the children and help them with their studies.
Ezhar's academic performance improved and he is now very talkative. "I have made a lot of friends," he told Xinhua.
He was born with finger adhesion and Ati wants to take him to a hospital in Urumqi, the regional capital. She knows some programs that offer free operations to impoverished children.
If all goes well, Ezhar's father will be released next year. "We should never break the law," he said in a letter to his son. This is an ideal outcome for Xu Jianzhong, the official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
"Stability of communities is key to social stability, and family stability is key to the stability of communities," he said. "Children are the core of a family. They are the future."
On the wall of children's center there is a sentence in red paint: "All ethnic groups must stick together like pomegranate seeds."
FOR THE SMILING FACES
But the work is not easy.
Many child welfare directors quit after a few years. "The work is tiring and the pay is low," said Li Mingfeng with the civil affairs bureau of Yining county.
Song Yuelan's monthly wage as a child welfare director was only 800 yuan, and her family were against her doing the job.
"I used motorbikes so frequently for household visits that I wore out three of them," she said. And she suffers from arthritis in her knees.
"I understand those who quit the job, but it means hundreds of children lose their help," Li said.
But Song likes her job. "When the children show their love to you, seeing their smiling faces, you feel that the effort was all worthwhile."
At New Year holiday each year, Dina and her mom bring fried dough twists, a local snack, to visit Song. Song once recommended Dina for a free summer camp in Beijing. When she came back, the girl brought Song a bracelet.
Seeing a Xinhua reporter doing interviews, Dina said her dream was to be a journalist as well.
"Then I will be able to write down our stories," she said.
