Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

MORE than 30 residents, volunteers, political advisers and reporters were invited to the Shenzhen Rescue Management Station’s open day in Luohu District yesterday, which aimed to acquaint the participants with the station’s rescue and management work for vagrants, beggars and the protection of minors.

With the help of posters, staffers with the station explained in detail the basic work done at the station, its rescue and management policy, rescue procedures and other services to the participants, and organized them to visit its dormitories, restaurant, minor rescue and protection center and other facilities.

A 9-month-old baby girl identified as Dang Anan has been staying at the minor rescue and protection center for four months, according to the center’s deputy head surnamed Zhong.

According to Zhong, Dang had been left in a dustbin by her mother after she was born and was previously received by the Pingshan District Rescue and Management Station. Her mother was found to be suffering from acute stress disorder and with a limited capacity for civil conduct, while they are unable to identify her father for the time being.

“Her grandparents and other relatives have also clearly refused custody of the child, so we plan to request that Pingshan District Court deprive her mother of custody and send her to the welfare center, in order to provide her with a better upbringing,” said Zhong.

Dang is currently being cared for around the clock by a worker recruited by the station.

At the end of last year, the station launched a quasi-family management system. The station provides a flat with three bedrooms and one living room for children in difficult situations, recruits “caring mothers” to take care of the children and proffers professional psychological services to them.

So far, the program has allowed eight needy children to feel motherly love, and five of them have successfully returned to their own families.

The open day also witnessed the establishment of a third-party supervisory committee at the station.

“We hope to form a long-term and open supervision mechanism through the third-party supervisory committee to help more homeless people find a home,” said Pan Zhengyan, head of the rescue management station.

Pan said helping people find homes and reunite with their families is their key task this year. So far in 2019, the station has received 3,377 vagrants and beggars, and provided shelter and help for 70 minors.

It has helped 614 people buy tickets to return home, of which 70 were escorted, and 201 people find their relatives.