A task team of the Dazhou Disabled Persons' Federation (DDPF), together with 
multiple medical rehabilitation institutions, spent their time from Oct. 19 to 
21, in Wanyuan, Dazhou, providing the locals with disabilities (PWDs) with 
"Express Medical Services" centering around poverty alleviation and medical 
rehabilitation. Over 30 medical rehabilitation experts, organized into 7 teams 
specializing in visual impairment, cerebral palsy (e.g. intellectual disability 
and autism), hearing impairment and mental disorder, etc., disseminated 
knowledge about disability prevention and rehabilitation in the communities on 
a large scale. Apart from free medical examinations, the teams provided 
targeted medical solutions, such as assistive devices and cataract surgery, to 
the PWDs in need, including children.

Multiple Poverty Alleviation Solutions Offered to PWDs

Poverty alleviation for PWDs has long been an integral part of China's poverty 
alleviation cause. This is the 5th year in a row for Dazhou to organize the 
"Express Medical Services" event, a program of poverty alleviation and medical 
rehabilitation. Aiming at basic rehabilitation needs of impoverished PWDs, the 
government intends to know fully about the landscape of PWD assistance and 
provide targeted rehabilitation to those in need. 

In addition to caring for impoverished PWDs, Dazhou has stepped up efforts in 
recent years to support those in rural areas economically. The government is 
making every effort to assist PWDs in urban and rural communities with job and 
entrepreneurship opportunities. For example, the government eliminates 
employment discrimination, encourages employment of the disabled with physical 
capabilities and provides 102,800 PWDs with vocational training and employment 
services.

Chen Xiaolong, a citizen of Dazhou, has been discriminated against since 
childhood because of his physical impairment, which rendered him jobless. 
However, he didn't despair of his life, but struggled even hardder against 
adversity. Chen rented a patch of over 200,000m2 land in Xuanhan for plum 
planting and then founded a cooperative in 2016, helping those around him to 
improve their livelihoods. In 2018, he joined in a DDPF training program before 
taking his business online. By Aug. 2020, online orders for his plums added up 
to thousands of kilograms.

No Family or Person Left Behind on the Way to Prosperity for All

In addition to helping the disabled in need, Dazhou has been going all out to 
fight poverty for all locals these years in a drive to improve their income and 
life. The government has steadfastly pursued the goal of "Leaving no family or 
person behind", a policy closely related to the government's years-long fight 
against poverty.

Located in northeastern Sichuan, Dazhou is blessed with a wealth of natural gas 
resources, hence the name "the Capital of Gas in China". It is also the 
birthplace of Ba culture, a brilliant civilization created by the ancient Ba 
people who lived and flourished in the land over 4,000 years ago. However, its 
location in the Qin & Daba mountains made it one of China's most impoverished 
areas. Xuanhan, one of its counties, is known to have once the largest poor 
population in Sichuan. In Dazhou, underdeveloped infrastructure led to the 
disabled and the bed-ridden falling into poverty, who accounted for 69.86% of 
the city's impoverished population, giving rise to more complexities to poverty 
alleviation; therefore, it was a long-cherished dream of the locals to get out 
of poverty and live a well-off life.

To this end, the Dazhou government has devoted a lot of efforts to poverty 
alleviation and has secured a total of RMB 27.967 billion in all types of 
grant, of which RMB 6.027 billion is fiscal grant earmarked for poverty 
alleviation. The government has helped 252,000 poor laborers land jobs 
successfully while entitling more than 170,000 registered poor families to 
subsistence allowance, of which the criteria steadily and dynamically exceeds 
China's national poverty alleviation criteria. At the same time, the government 
is also doing its utmost to fight poverty through economic development, legal 
system improvements and infrastructure development.

In order to root out poverty, address its intergenerational transmission, and 
enhance personal competence for the residents, Dazhou strives to promote 
education to help the poor. In addition to investments in school buildings and 
optimizing teaching environment, the city has helped more than 100,000 students 
in universities, primary/secondary schools and kindergartens with financial 
support through social resource integration as well as tuition and fee 
remissions. In the past 5 years, the government has helped tens of thousands of 
poor students realize their college dreams. In Xuanhan alone, 55,000 students 
have been admitted to colleges since 2013. In 2016, the Academy of Arts & 
Design of Tsinghua University set up a nationwide "support research program for 
outstanding poor art students", a total of 7 students in Dazhou qualified for 
the project, making the city one with the most participants across China. 

The year 2020 witnesses that China builds a moderately prosperous society in 
all respects. On the way out of poverty and to a relatively comfortable life, 
Dazhou "will not leave a single household or person behind." At present, Dazhou 
has reduced its poverty-stricken population by a total of 704,000, with the 
rest meeting the criteria of poverty alleviation, 828 poverty-stricken villages 
and seven poverty-stricken districts and counties lifted out of poverty. In the 
future, Dazhou will continue to consolidate its achievements of poverty 
alleviation in a bid to improve the overall development of society and the life 
of its people.

Source: Dazhou Disabled Persons' Federation (DDPF)