WITHIN the IC Aichuang Space in Longhua District, a group of people were rehearsing an upcoming performance of “Singing a Folk Song to the Party.” In the second-floor office area, more than a dozen people were busy working in front of computers.

These people, busy with their own work, are all disabled people. Zhang Yingying, Party branch secretary and director of Shenzhen Yuyan Caring and Career Development Center for the Disabled, is the life and soul of the group, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.

Although Zhang is physically handicapped and needs a mobility scooter, she is a strong and competent woman who is always vigorous and in high spirits.

Since coming to Shenzhen in 2011, Zhang has devoted herself to helping disabled people find jobs. She has led the disabled in her team to establish four social organizations and two enterprises and helped more than 2,700 disabled people become employed.

This year, Zhang became the only individual in Shenzhen who was awarded the May 4th Medal, which has been bestowed on exceptional individuals and entities since 1997 with the aim of inspiring the country’s young people to embrace and preserve the spirit of the May 4th Movement and encourage them to contribute to the development of the country.

With her own strength, Zhang has influenced and changed the lives of many disabled people and helped them regain the courage for life, said the Daily.

Born in Heilongjiang Province, Zhang was crippled by polio when she was at a young age. Zhang was lucky to get a lot of help and people around her took extra care of her. But she never regards herself as a disabled person who needs special care.

After graduating from university, Zhang came to Shenzhen and began to engage with all kinds of new things, while at the same time trying her best to find jobs that are suitable for the disabled.

In 2016, she resigned from her previous job and established the Shenzhen Yuyan Caring and Career Development Center for the Disabled with her companions. The center aims to provide professional training, psychological counseling and employment matching for the disabled.

In 2018, Zhang and Longhua District Disabled Persons’ Federation jointly launched the IC Aichuang Space, an employment and entrepreneurship incubator, in the district.

“We disabled people are also competent except for work that requires particularly heavy manual work. But we still need to seek more job opportunities for the group,” Zhang was quoted as saying.

Zhang has explored a diversified employment mode suitable for the disabled that covers such positions as lecturers, programmers, translators, tea artists, makeup artists and telephone operators.

(Zhang Yu)