WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

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ZHENG Z.
balancing the SRB, though not initiated for that purpose.
The Publicity Department of Chinese Communist Party and
NPFPC initiated a campaign in early 1999 called “New culture of
marriage and childbearing into ten thousand families” (hunyun xinfeng jin
wanjia) and the campaign will continue until 2010. This campaign aims
at changing the traditional customs of marriage and childbearing
through various slogans such as “men and women should be equal,”
“sons and daughters are both blessings to the family”, “a daughter
should also carry on the family name”, “the husband should be
responsible for family planning.” Gradually the campaign is integrated
with “Care for Girls” IEC activities.
The “Project of Happiness” (xingfu gongcheng) is especially set up to
help impoverished mothers to improve the quality of their life. Not
only does it lend them money but it also paves the way towards selfsupport.
This program was launched in 1994 in Beijing by the
following non-profit organizations: the China Population Welfare
Foundation, the China Family Planning Association and the China
Population Daily, the latter program having funded about 150,000
impoverished mothers with an accumulative 310 million yuan in 389
counties throughout the country by October of 2005. As a result,
695,844 people have benefited from the program. 6
A major pilot program launched in 2004 in some mid-western
rural areas to support single child or two-daughters families by an
allowance of 600 yuan annually to each parent from the age of 60 and
for the rest of their life. It is called “The System of Social Support for
Some Rural Families Practicing Family Planning” (jiangli fuzhu zhengce).
This program rewards those who practiced family planning according
to the local regulations. Although the amount of money is not very
important, it is still useful for the elderly in less developed rural areas.
It also serves as a message of governmental support, especially to
couples who do not have a son. At the same time, the central
government encouraged the eastern provinces to initiate local pilot
programs of social support with their own funds. In the statedesignated
and locally initiated pilot sites and, until the end of 2005,
this system has benefited 310,000 and 500,000 rural residents
respectively, involving a total of 1.8 million people (Pan, 2005).
According to the Xinhua News, The Government of China will extend
the system nationwide next year. 7
6 Chronicle of “Program of Happiness”, 1994-2005. December 31, 2005. Source:
www.cpirc.org.cn
7 Xinhua News, Oct. 16, 2006. Source: www.cpirc.org.cn