Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine:

The report to the 20th CPC National Congress underscores the importance of safeguarding women's and children's legitimate rights and interests. Could you please provide information on the measures the MCA has implemented to ensure children's welfare and the accomplishments achieved in this regard? Thank you.

Zhan Chengfu:

General Secretary Xi Jinping is deeply committed to the welfare of children. He has issued multiple important instructions, emphasizing the need to support and assist children from disadvantaged families, especially orphans and those with disabilities, ensuring every child enjoys a joyful and fulfilling childhood. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress explicitly states the vital task of "protecting the legitimate rights and interests of women and minors." Civil affairs departments at all levels have diligently studied and implemented the directives of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the major decisions and arrangements from the 20th CPC National Congress. Adhering to the principle of prioritizing children's interests and based on their administrative responsibilities, we've taken a series of effective measures to protect the rights and interests of children in various challenging circumstances, achieving significant results. These achievements are evident in the following four areas.

First, we continuously elevate their standard of living support. The basic living support standards for orphans and de facto orphans have been consistently improved. We have included groups like orphans and uncared-for children within the scope of our support, integrating them into the linkage mechanism of social assistance and protection standards tied to price increases. This ensures these children have sufficient food and clothing, lead content lives, and fully exhibits the strengths of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Second, we have enhanced medical rehabilitation services. Through the lottery public welfare fund, we organized and launched the Tomorrow Plan for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Orphans. We successfully carried out numerous surgical treatments and rehabilitation services, alleviating the medical conditions of these children and significantly aiding their healthy development.

Third, we have strengthened educational support. We implemented a program to support school education for orphans through the lottery public welfare fund, providing scholarships to orphans who have been admitted to junior colleges and higher education institutions, ensuring that they can pursue their studies and attend school with peace of mind.

Fourth, we are advancing the optimization and transformation of child welfare institutions. In collaboration with the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform, the National Development and Reform Commission, and other departments, we jointly advocate for optimizing and enhancing quality and innovative transformation of child welfare institutions. By holistically addressing children's upbringing, education, medical care, rehabilitation and psychological health, we are setting improved conditions for their development.

Next, building upon our existing achievements, we will focus on the following three areas of work.

First, we will place greater emphasis on precise protection. Guided by the aim of safeguarding the basic rights and interests of children in difficult situations, such as orphans and de facto orphans, we will target our efforts and implement precision-guided policies. We will coordinate solutions to address both group needs and individual requirements, continually enhancing the sense of gain, happiness, and security for children in various challenging situations.

Second, we will place a heightened emphasis on holistic development. While ensuring their basic livelihoods, our focus will extend to the mental and emotional well-being, personal growth, and talent actualization of children facing adverse conditions. We will refine and bolster measures tied to education, psychological well-being, self-confidence, and self-improvement, aiming to promote these children's comprehensive development in moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and work-related aspects.

Third, we must accord heightened emphasis to professional services. We will organize and carry out quality improvement initiatives for child welfare institutions, centering on precise management and meticulous services. This involves refining care services, enhancing specialized rehabilitation capabilities, optimizing special education services, and delivering expert social work services to better guarantee children's healthy and secure development within these institutions.

Here, I also wish to call upon the media representatives in attendance to leverage your expansive reach and call upon kind-hearted volunteers to visit children's welfare institutions to see and understand their situations. Everyone is welcome to become a volunteer for the cause of children's welfare and help these children thrive. Thank you.