Poverty Alleviation of All China Women's Federation

　　【Overview】In 2010, to conscientiously implement the spirit of the 5th Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Party Committee and the overall deployment of the state on poverty alleviation and development, All China Women's Federation (ACWF) insisted on the combination of development-oriented poverty alleviation and assistance-based poverty relief, exerted the advantages of women’s federations, issued relevant policies, coordinated project construction and funding, continued to support the anti-poverty work in old revolutionary base areas, minority areas and western impoverished areas, and made smooth progress in poverty alleviation.

　　【Documents on poverty relief】 In August 2010, All China Women's Federation issued the “Notice on Implementing the Spirit of Central Work Conference on  Western Development” and demanded women’s federations at all levels, especially those in the western regions to seize the opportunity to guide the women in impoverished areas to develop featured industries; supported a number of leading enterprises, women cooperative organizations and specialized households to carry out standardized production; organized women to participate in ecological construction and environmental protection; increased financial support for the women in western impoverished areas to lift them out of poverty as soon as possible; strengthened trainings of rural women, women leaders in getting rich and cadres of women’s federations; made free examinations for “two cancer” screening and provide medical assistance for poor women; continued to implement the "Water Cellar for Mothers", "Spring Buds Program" and "Health Program", expanded the project coverage to make the programs benefit more people and improve the living conditions of the women and children in the western poor areas.

　　【”Warmth-giving” activity】Before the Spring Festival of 2010, President of All China Women's Federation Chen Zhili and Vice Chairman Song Xiuyan headed a delegation to carry out “Warmth-giving” activity in the western impoverished areas of Gansu, Guizhou, Shanxi and Guangxi, provided medical apparatuses, Health Express, child nutrition and other supplies for local residents, visited poverty-stricken families and left-behind women and children and carry out survey to learn the situation of implementation of microcredit and free “two cancer” screening project. During their visits, they donated a total of 22.617 million Yuan of materials and project funds.

　　【"China Women's News" going to the countryside】In 2010, ACWF launched the public welfare project of "China Women's News" going to the countryside in the central and western impoverished areas and sent for free 166,000 pieces of newspaper to the town and village-level women’s organizations in 12 central and western provinces (autonomous regions) and the town and village-level women’s organizations in the national poor counties in Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shanxi, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi and Anhui Province. Through the project construction, ACWF timely converged the party's principles and policies, cultural knowledge, science and technology information and the concept of wealth to the women in impoverished areas to meet their spiritual and cultural needs.

　　【Labor force training】  In the anti-poverty work, ACWF always takes it as a long-term task to improve the quality of women in the poor western regions and enhance their anti-poverty ability. Relying on the training bases of domestic women's federations, targeting at the leaders of women's federations, women leaders in getting rich and women agents in agricultural product marketing in poor western regions, ACWF carried out different types of multi-level trainings in various forms, involving agricultural technology, agricultural product processing, marketing, modern management, the relevant laws and regulations, etc. In 2010, ACWF organized trainings for 369 leaders of women's federations from 12 western provinces and autonomous regions.

　　【Women's small-secured loans】 In 2010, ACWF continued to implement women's small-secured loans project, giving priority to impoverished areas. Based on local situation, the women’s federations in various regions made innovations to actively promote the project construction. According to statistics, as of the end of 2010, 16.605 billion Yuan of women's small-secured loans had been issued in China and 719 million Yuan of interest subsidies had been issued by the central and local financial departments to help 410,000 women achieve self-employment or employment, which solved the financial problem for poor women to develop production.

　　【Two cancer relief projects】 In 2010, ACWF and Ministry of Health continued to promote the construction of free screening of two cancers of rural women. In the project construction, giving priority to the women in impoverished areas, we successively completed the free screening of cervical carcinoma for 2.4245 million women and screening of breast cancer for 317,700 women in 12 central and western provinces and autonomous regions, overfulfilling the annual task. Meanwhile, ACWF launched the two cancer relief project for poor mothers and raised 30 million Yuan as part of the treatment cost for women in poor areas.

　　【Poverty alleviation by construction of technology demonstration bases】 In 2010, ACWF invested 2.9 million Yuan in 12 central and western provinces and autonomous regions and set up 14 “March 8th Green Projects” and 49 "double learning and double competition" technology demonstration bases. Through base construction, ACWF organized practical agricultural technological trainings on farming, agricultural processing and marketing to boost the development of leading enterprises serving women and women economic cooperative organizations and help poor women to develop product and shake off poverty.

　　【Spring breeze action】In February 2010, ACWF, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and All-China Federation of Trade Unions jointly launched the "Spring Breeze Action" to introduce policies, projects and working posts for laid-off workers, migrant workers and women in poor areas. During the period of the activity (from February 25 to the end of April), with the theme of “serving migrant work, supporting nearest employment and helping returned migrant workers in pioneering work”, they mainly helped rural women to achieve transfer employment. According to statistics, the women’s federations in Shandong, Hubei, Fujian, Sichuan and Shaanxi provided 310,000 working posts to help 101,600 women find jobs.

　　【Health Program】 In 2010, the “Health Program” donated to construct 15 “safe emergency response experience classrooms” and one “safe emergency response experience center”, donated more than 117,000 public welfare children major illness insurance for the orphans in Beijing, Tianjin, Sichuan, Liaoning, Qinghai, etc, subsidized 245 poor children with weak sight in Ningxia, Shandong and Liaoning to cure the eye diseases and mobilized warm-hearted parents to weave sweaters for orphans and show love for poor children.

　　【Spring Buds Program】 In 2010, the “Spring Buds Program” continued the school and classroom building and “one-for-one” project for to subsidize girls, built 25 Spring Buds schools and subsidized nearly 20,000 Spring-Buds students. To raise funds from all circles of society, China Children and Teenagers' Fund and the "Sound of Music" of Central People's Broadcasting Station jointly launched the "Spring Bud Program" – an action to subsidize 1,200 students. Thanks to the social influence of the program, more than 1.04 million Yuan was raised to subsidize the out-of-school poor children to continue their schooling.

　　【Fixed-point poverty alleviation】In 2010, ACWF strived to apply for projects for Zhang County of Gansu through coordinating relevant parties and achieved remarkable results.

1. Conduct active coordination for project to revitalize the county's economic development. First, actively coordinate various projects. ACWF actively coordinated the State Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environmental Protection and other relevant ministries, Gansu Provincial Committee of Industry and Information, Communications Department and Agricultural Development Bank to strive for projects for Zhang County. In the whole year, it applied for four projects and 110 million Yuan of project funds through coordination, including: Construction of the secondary road from Wenfeng (Longxi) to Yihuqiao (Zhang County), Zhang County Civil Airport, Longxi Railway Extension project and the loans for the construction of downtown road building of Zhang County (the loan period was 8 years, and the project funds were fully issued). In addition, the construction of Zhang County Archives with total investment of 4.83 million Yuan has been approved by NDRC. Secondly, help Zhang County to invite merchants and introduce investment. It actively assisted the county government to invite merchants and investments during the 16th China Lanzhou Investment and Trade Fair to highlight mineral industry, deep processing of local featured agricultural products, water, electricity, tourism industry, etc, and use such media as Chinese Women Network and China Women's Daily to strengthen publicity on the superior resources, industry characteristics, key projects, key enterprises and investment environment of Zhang County. Meanwhile, it helped Zhang County to strive for 23 million Yuan for the construction of Sancha Guanghui Agricultural Logistics Park to support the development of local Chinese herbal medicine processing industry. Thirdly, insist on giving priority to Zhang County in allocation of projects. It fully mobilized the enthusiasm of the organ departments and units for poverty relief and allocated anti-poverty funds of 10.23285 million Yuan in the whole year, of which 3.565 million Yuan was issued in cash and 6.66785 million Yuan in kind, mainly including 100,000 Yuan from the Ministry of Women Development to support the "March 8 Green Project"; 100,000 Yuan for rural women’s technological training; 6.25 million Yuan from China's poverty alleviation magazine for purchase of medical apparatuses; 10 million Yuan from China Women's Development Foundation for the project of “Love for the Earth - Water Cellar for Mothers” and Chinese women’s’ health care; 400,000 Yuan from China Children and Teenagers' Fund for the construction of two Spring Buds schools; 10,000 Yuan from the Ministry of Children as sympathy money issued on the Children's Day; 20,000 Yuan from the State Council Working Committee on Women and Children to support the study and formulation of planning for the development of women and children in Zhang County; 250 wheelchairs and student desks and chairs worth about 100,000 Yuan from the International Department; books and CDs worth 25,000 Yuan donated by Women's Foreign Language Publications of China; books worth 100,000 Yuan donated by Chinese Women's Press; 50 women newspaper, 50 female farmers’ magazines and ten women's literacy classes by Chinese women's newspaper; and 10,000 Yuan from China Women's Travel service as subsidies for poor students in Zhang County.

2. Enhance training to improve the anti-poverty ability of the cadres and masses. Focusing on changing people’s ideas and improving their quality in the anti-poverty work, ACWF increased efforts on training, actively strived for learning and training opportunities to help the cadres and masses in Zhang County broaden horizons, change ideas and improve self-development capacity. First, carry out "Happy Farmhouse" Women entrepreneurship training. In July 2010, with support from the leaders of Ministry of Women Development and China Women's News Daily, ACWF organized 30 women from Dacaotan Town, Caotan Town and Xinsi Town of Zhang County to attend the 11-day “Happy Farmhouse” entrepreneurship training and rural women catering training, involving special dishes for tourists, operation patterns for “Happy Farmhouse”, social etiquette, relevant laws and regulations, room service and cleaning, the local tourism product development, etc. Secondly, open women's literacy classes and organize practical technical trainings. It assisted the county government to hold 50 trainings participated by more than 6500 people in the county professional skills training center, the county women training center and farmers’ technical schools, covering skills trainings for sewing, housekeeping, embroidery and computer skills, and practical agricultural technological trainings for development of greenhouses, mulching film cultivation, balanced fertilization, pest control for crop growing, etc. Thirdly, organize trainings for women cadres. Combined with the trainings held by Tianjin Human Resources Development and Training Center and other relevant departments, ACWF organized trainings for 47 women cadres in Zhang County and Dingxi City and the training contents included the “three rural” policies, the situation and task of national poverty alleviation and development, decision-making and execution capacity of leaders, psychological status and self-cultivation of women cadres, petty loan policy to stimulate employment and women’s health, etc.

3. Care for women and children, boost the development of women and children affairs. Taking advantage of internal and external resources, ACWF further increased investment in the development of women and children in Zhang County to promote the health development of women and children affairs. First, carry out the “two cancer” screening activity for women. To support the “two cancer” screening activity for rural women, it strived to further improve the health of women in Zhang County and help the women to enhance self-care awareness. In August, China Women's Development Foundation, China Women Activity Center and China Life Insurance Co., Ltd launched in Zhang County the "Insurance Protection Plan for Women's Reproductive Health Care", provided 1 million Yuan of health insurance premium for 50,000 rural women in Tongwei County and Zhang County, 20 Yuan per person averagely, and issued 10,000 Yuan of treatment expense for the women who were diagnosed to suffer from breast cancer and cervical cancer. During that period, ACWF carried out in the downtown the book donation and experts’ free medical service activity to benefit nearly 1,000 women. Up to now, they made free “two cancer” screening examinations for 9658 women in 6 towns and discovered 48 cases of suspected cervical cancer and 5 cases of suspected breast cancer. Secondly, issue small-amount secured discount loans for women. To help the women in Zhang County find jobs or launch businesses, taking the issuance of small-amount secured discount loans for women as an effective way to enhance the women’s self-development capacity, the poverty alleviation group of ACWF actively guided Zhang County Women’s Federation to carry out activates to stimulate the issuance of small-amount secured discount loans for women and a total of 35.3 million Yuan of petty loans were issued to benefit more than 1,000 urban and rural women. Thirdly, care for left-behind women and children. ACWF often went to Sancha Town, Wudang Town, Maquan Town, Sizu Town, Dacaotan Town and local schools to express sympathy and solicitude for left-behind and floating children, brought them gifts and encouraged them to work hard and constantly strive to become stronger so as to serve the motherland when they grow up. Meanwhile, in the 13 towns of the county, “women's aid stations” and 15 "left-behind children's homes" were set up. Meanwhile, they opened the activity centers for “Sunshine Home of Left-behind Women”, “No Drugs into My Home” and “Prevention of AIDS for A Healthy Family”, developed relevant work system and installed relevant equipment, making a breakthrough in protecting women and children’s rig