Enabling China's Disabled

By staff reporter ZHANG HUI

I love the vocational rehabilitation center. I love the disabled persons’ home. It’s my second home.” These were the first words written by Yang Jia, 32, at the vocational rehabilitation center of Heyi Subdistrict Disabled People’s Home in Beijing. Yang suffers from amentia. For her, writing is hard, but she and other handicapped persons at the center are encouraged by teachers to jot down their thoughts and feelings. Doing so helps them to express themselves more effectively in their daily lives.

The Beijing Municipal Government proposed in 2008 that by the end of the 11th Five-year Plan period (2006-2010) every subdistrict and township in Beijing should have at least one disabled people’s home in order to provide easy access to a variety of services including rehabilitation, education, employment, social security, legal advice, living aid and cultural and sports activities. Heyi Subdistrict Disabled People’s Home was subsequently established, and its vocational rehabilitation center makes up one of the wings of the 300-plus-square-meter home. Since its opening in August 2009, Yang Jia has been a regular participant in activities at the center.

A disabled senior citizen learns to walk using rehabilitation equipment in Heyi Subdistrict Disabled People's Home.

“This vocational rehabilitation center is mainly for mentally handicapped people. Compared to persons with other disabilities, they face grimmer challenges in gaining employment,” Xiao Chunhua, director of Heyi Subdistrict Disable Persons’ Federation, told China Today. She is also in charge of the disabled persons’ home.

In the vocational rehabilitation center, the 20 or so mentally disabled attendees not only learn vocational skills like handicrafts, but also engage in other learning, which is usually blended into fun games. More importantly, under the guidance of the teachers, they learn how to better communicate with people. This is the most difficult barrier for them to break, according to Wan Shuying, a teacher at the center. To enrich their cultural life, calligraphy, flute lessons and choir recitals are organized. Volunteer teachers also regularly lend extra hands to the center’s permanent staff.

The rehabilitation center has become an indispensable part of the lives of mentally challenged residents in the region. But it wasn’t always that way.

“At the beginning, they weren’t interested in vocational rehabilitation. Families and the disabled themselves didn’t believe special training would bring any material or mental benefits to their lives,” Xiao told China Today.

Before attending rehabilitation training, Yang Jia lived an isolated existence. She lacked the basic skills to communicate with other people. She’d gone through a mere two years of schooling, and never left home alone. Her mother accompanied her everywhere.

Nowadays, Yang is a different person. She’s been in rehabilitation training for three years, and is able to chat freely with all kinds of people and shop by herself. What has most satisfied her is having learned to make a variety of silk flowers.