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Recipient of the Sophie Prize and Clinton Global Citi- zen award and founder of Global Village of Beijing， one of China’s most influential environmental NGOs， Liao Xiaoyi has been focusing on left-behind children since 2011. She granted an exclusive interview to China Pictorial.
China Pictorial ： Global Village of Beijing has been acclaimed for its achievements in environmental protection. Why did you begin to focus on problems related to left-behind children？
Liao Xiaoyi： In recent years， we shifted our attention to ecological improvement of China’s rural areas， especially after the Wenchuan earthquake of 2008. After so many years’ practice， we know that in order to better protect the environment， we must construct a healthy community and take good care of the residents in it. It is just like Chinese medical science， which endeavors to cure diseases systematically. Left-behind children naturally drew our attention.
CP： What’s the operation mode of Loho Home project？
Liao： At the top level， local governments， Beijing Guangcai Charity Foundation and we at Global Village of Beijing work together. At the basic level， we have social workers， teachers and villagers. The local government plays a comprehensive coordination role. Beijing Guangcai Charity Foundation provides and manages the money and Global Village of Beijing trains social workers and enacts programs to help the children and villagers.
We try to inject an idea into villagers’ minds： The village is an interdependent community. They all have a stake in each other’s success or failure. And our efforts aim to help them help themselves. We formed a Loving Moms group. A child can have a neighboring woman serve as his or her ‘loving mom，’ who can care for kids in the absence of their biological mothers. And we also help the villagers develop industries such as suburban tourism， organic food trade， poultry breeding and handicraft production so that many – or at least the mothers – can earn enough money in the village rather than leaving to work in cities.
CP： When you meet left-behind children， what do you think they need most？
Liao： They lack almost everything， most glaringly security， supervision， and good sanitary conditions. But what they need most is love. They feel abandoned by their parents and society at large. If we give them only a little care and love， the impact can be huge. A boy named Xiang Hu， whose mother left him when he was very young， stays with his grandparents. Without parental love， he began misbehaving by starting fights and even stealing his grandmother’s money. We selected a woman from our Loving Moms group to become his “mother” and take care of him. After only two or three months， he changed completely. Now he is one of the best students in the school. His story gave us more confidence to invest more in the program. CP： Now many charitable campaigns focus on left-behind children. Do you think they are efficient and really helpful for the children？
Liao： To some degree， yes. Those charitable campaigns not only provide material support but also psychological therapy for the kids. But there are still some problems. The improvements are always temporary. Volunteers come and go， one round after another. At Global Village of Beijing， we once did the same thing. We found this method of operation lacks consistency. So now we seldom send social workers but train local volunteers instead. They stay， so the help stays.
CP： What sets Loho Home apart from other charities？
Liao： We frequently emphasize that helping left-behind chil-dren is one part of our comprehensive efforts to build a harmonious rural society. We also build roads and bridges， help villagers develop skills and promote mutual assistance between villagers. We call for social， economic， cultural and environmental reconstruction of villages. Actually， if the local standard of living improves enough， nobody will leave for work and problems of leftbehind children will be solved naturally.
Also， we believe it is very important to build a professional social worker team. For a social worker， along with a good heart， professional knowledge is also necessary. We have special training as well as an evaluation system for our social workers. Now the practice is implemented in ten villages of three counties， benefiting over 3，000 children. I hope it will be promoted in other villages across China soon.
China Pictorial ： Global Village of Beijing has been acclaimed for its achievements in environmental protection. Why did you begin to focus on problems related to left-behind children？
Liao Xiaoyi： In recent years， we shifted our attention to ecological improvement of China’s rural areas， especially after the Wenchuan earthquake of 2008. After so many years’ practice， we know that in order to better protect the environment， we must construct a healthy community and take good care of the residents in it. It is just like Chinese medical science， which endeavors to cure diseases systematically. Left-behind children naturally drew our attention.
CP： What’s the operation mode of Loho Home project？
Liao： At the top level， local governments， Beijing Guangcai Charity Foundation and we at Global Village of Beijing work together. At the basic level， we have social workers， teachers and villagers. The local government plays a comprehensive coordination role. Beijing Guangcai Charity Foundation provides and manages the money and Global Village of Beijing trains social workers and enacts programs to help the children and villagers.
We try to inject an idea into villagers’ minds： The village is an interdependent community. They all have a stake in each other’s success or failure. And our efforts aim to help them help themselves. We formed a Loving Moms group. A child can have a neighboring woman serve as his or her ‘loving mom，’ who can care for kids in the absence of their biological mothers. And we also help the villagers develop industries such as suburban tourism， organic food trade， poultry breeding and handicraft production so that many – or at least the mothers – can earn enough money in the village rather than leaving to work in cities.
CP： When you meet left-behind children， what do you think they need most？
Liao： They lack almost everything， most glaringly security， supervision， and good sanitary conditions. But what they need most is love. They feel abandoned by their parents and society at large. If we give them only a little care and love， the impact can be huge. A boy named Xiang Hu， whose mother left him when he was very young， stays with his grandparents. Without parental love， he began misbehaving by starting fights and even stealing his grandmother’s money. We selected a woman from our Loving Moms group to become his “mother” and take care of him. After only two or three months， he changed completely. Now he is one of the best students in the school. His story gave us more confidence to invest more in the program. CP： Now many charitable campaigns focus on left-behind children. Do you think they are efficient and really helpful for the children？
Liao： To some degree， yes. Those charitable campaigns not only provide material support but also psychological therapy for the kids. But there are still some problems. The improvements are always temporary. Volunteers come and go， one round after another. At Global Village of Beijing， we once did the same thing. We found this method of operation lacks consistency. So now we seldom send social workers but train local volunteers instead. They stay， so the help stays.
CP： What sets Loho Home apart from other charities？
Liao： We frequently emphasize that helping left-behind chil-dren is one part of our comprehensive efforts to build a harmonious rural society. We also build roads and bridges， help villagers develop skills and promote mutual assistance between villagers. We call for social， economic， cultural and environmental reconstruction of villages. Actually， if the local standard of living improves enough， nobody will leave for work and problems of leftbehind children will be solved naturally.
Also， we believe it is very important to build a professional social worker team. For a social worker， along with a good heart， professional knowledge is also necessary. We have special training as well as an evaluation system for our social workers. Now the practice is implemented in ten villages of three counties， benefiting over 3，000 children. I hope it will be promoted in other villages across China soon.