Ningxia charity programme improves prospects for disabled
Ningxia programme gives incentives to firms that do charitable work, and has led to more opportunities for workers with disabilities
Six years ago, when Su Xiaohong was just 19 years old, she lost most of her right arm in a Ningxia factory accident. Realising she had to earn a living, she got an artificial limb and took a less desirable job making toilet paper in Wuzhong city.
Today, however, she's serving happily as a personal secretary to the manager of a local halal food manufacturer, Jinrui Food. The manager, Yang Jinglan , also lost an arm in a factory accident and now employs several people with disabilities.
"I feel much better now that I have a decent job, and many of my co-workers also have body problems, so we understand and respect each other," Su said.
The factory, which produces, packages and sells more than 600 tonnes of Koran-compliant frozen food annually, is being held up as a showcase project for a high-profile government campaign to promote charity in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region , one of the mainland's poorest areas.
The Ningxia government says the programme of incentives, tax breaks and subsidies has since 2010 lifted more than one million of its residents - including some 420,000 disabled - out of poverty by encouraging more-inclusive hiring by companies.
With it, regional party secretary Zhang Yi has targeted six "charity valleys" in the poverty-stricken Yellow River basin, hoping businesses will engage in charitable works there.