Chinese New Year is coming. Reunion with family to have a nice meal together is a tradition taken for granted for many families. However, for children in rural areas, having a family meal together is not a simple wish to carry out. According to a survey conducted by CWLF and CTBC Charity Foundation, 32.3% children in rural areas are not able to spend the Chinese New Year with their parents. Furthermore, the rampant pandemic and inflation have given disadvantaged families who already have financial difficulties an even bigger challenge. The survey found that almost 1/4 (24.3%) of families with children in rural areas worried about children’s educational expenses, e.g., tuition, books, insurance, etc. Moreover, 22.5% children in rural areas rarely have their parents prepare dinner for them; 17.2% rarely have hot meals in winter.

The 38th Light up a Life, a fundraising campaign launched by CTBC Charity Foundation, supports primary school students in rural areas with daily supplies and educational materials every year, cooperates with local communities and schools to invest in student extracurricular activities such as sports and music courses, and hopes to share some of the care duties of parents who work out of town. Since 2009, CWLF’s Rural School Support Program has become one of the beneficiaries of the campaign. CEO of CWLF Li-Fang Pai said, “Over the past ten years, we have been raising red envelop money and Chinese New Year meals for disadvantaged families and sending our warmest blessings to these families in the cold winter. Although 2022 has been a hard year for everyone, CWLF still hopes the public can extend their helping hand to support these disadvantaged families in having a warm and full Chinese New Year, so that this heartwarming tradition can be passed on.”  

Lonely childhood without companions | 32% parents in rural areas cannot spend the Chinese New Year with their children

Parents’ care and companionship are crucial in children’s growing up process. However, for children in rural areas, their parents are often absent in their childhood. According to CWLF’s Life of Children in Rural Areas Survey, 20.2% children in rural areas are not able to see their parents every day, 14.5% children are under the care of their grandparents, 2.8% lodge with their relatives. Still, some children (6.4%) are not able to see their parents every day even though they live together. Many children mentioned that they had not received sufficient care and companionship. 42.2% children chat with their parents about what happens in their daily life less than twice a week. 66.2% children conduct recreational activities with their parents less than twice a week. Less than 40% (39.1%) parents would ask about how their children are doing at school. Even during the Chinese New Year which symbolize reunion, 32.3% parents are not able to spend the Chinese New Year with their children.

Job opportunities in rural areas are limited. Most parents need to leave town to find work to provide for the family; some need to spend long working hours in farms or companies and become too tired to spend time with their children after work; some even have entirely opposite sleep hours against their children. All of the above leads to their absence in the childhood of their children and contributes to the results of children responding that they feel they are not understood by their parents (30.7%) while they feel lonely (16.7%), lack people to talk with (17.2%) or even pessimistically think that it is okay for the world to be without them (17.1%).

Young people who are forced to behave maturely | Over 90% children still like the life they lead right now

Through further analysis, CWLF found that 26.3% children under the care of grandparents or relatives would not share what they feel with others. It may be because grownups are too busy to stopping to listen to them, or these children are too considerate to choosing not to tell in case it would add burdens to their family. However, with the prevalence of digital device, children may turn to netizens to vent. Under these unsupervised online activities, they may be exposed in danger of privacy violation or grooming.

Moreover, CWLF found that the children who face their worries alone would behave more maturely, compared with their peers. Almost 20% (18.2%) children in rural areas often help out family’s work to decrease the financial stress of the family. Many (59.8%) would voluntarily do laundry or clean the house. 18.6% would help care for the younger siblings. At primary school age, many children are still in need of care, but are forced to behave maturely to become caregivers, which is truly heartbreaking. Still, even though they do not have a luxurious lifestyle, 94.1% children who accepted the interviews said that they enjoyed their current life. The maturity they showed made grownups feel comforted but sad.

Pandemic impact on the financial situations of families in rural areas | Inflation has put extra pressure on the families

Affected by the pandemic and the global inflation, families in rural areas who were already in unstable financial situation continued to face unemployment, salary cut and inflation over the past three years. Even with CWLF’s regular subsidies for tuition and living expenses for children in rural areas, children can still feel noticeable financial pressure on their families. 24.3% children in rural areas answered that their families would worry about the educational cost before the school begin, and the number has increased since 2017.

The most basic needs like provision of food is also insecure. Because their parents are busy to earn the bread for the family, children in rural areas lack companions and can rarely eat meals prepared by their parents (22.5%). 17.2% children may not be able to have hot meals in winter. Moreover, because adults’ neglect, it is common to see children in rural areas have poor or imbalanced diet. According to CWLF survey, when being asked about their dinner menu yesterday, 26.8% children in rural areas did not eat vegetables; 55.3% did not have fruits. Furthermore, 4.1% only eat fast food (hamburgers, fried chicken, etc.), processed food or beverage for dinner. Some even do not eat dinner at all. As they are at the age of growing, their health condition is alarming. Also, children in rural areas may rely on school meals for lunch. During summer and winter vacation, they may change to eat unhealthy food to stuff their stomach or simply don’t eat lunch due to the absence of their parents. In order to care for these children’s health, CWLF continues to distribute food supplies during winter/summer vacation, for children to have nutritious food all the time, and allowing the warmth and care from the society to be sent to rural areas without hinders.

XiaoJia said, “My Christmas wish is: Mommy can come home to spend the Chinese New Year with me.”

“I hope I can be a bit healthier to care for him to grow up…” Grandma, who always seemed optimistic and strong, started to tear up when talking about XiaoJia. As XiaoJia’s mom was working in another city, grandma, who has hypertension and asthma, had to take on the responsibility of caring for XiaoJia, as well as doing part-time work to increase the family income. Mom’s work hour is long and cannot regularly take days off on weekends, so she can only chat with XiaoJia via video calls. XiaoJia understood the efforts adults were devoting to maintain the family, so she held back her feelings of missing mom, helped out the household chores, and even helped give grandma massages… On the Christmas Eve, the social worker visited XiaoJia and grandma, sent them warm clothes and supplies for the winter and told them that she will be sending them new year reunion meals and red envelops next month before the Chinese New Year. When being asked if she had any Christmas or New Year wishes, XiaoJia shyly replied, “I look forward to having a nice New Year’s Eve meal. If mommy can come home to spend the Chinese New Year with us, that will be even better.”


 
 

CWLF has allocated new year meals and red envelops for 11 years to let children in rural areas also experience full and joyful Chinese New Year

Li-Fang mentioned, “We appreciate CTBC Charity Foundation’s Light up a Life fundraising campaign and the support from every donor. CWLF can continue to allocate nutritious new year meals and red envelops to disadvantaged families for them to get through cold winter without worries. According to CWLF’s annual survey on children who received the new year meals, 66.8% responded it was delicious and they were contented; 55.6% were thankful for the hearty meal; 78.9% were happy to experience what it was like to have a Chinese New Year. For the red envelops, 21.3% said that they would use the money to help with household expenses; 32.7% pay for the tuition; 72.3% save the money for later. With the happy and satisfactory looks on their faces, we are reassured that each allocation can support these children in rural areas to move forward and face difficulties.

This year CWLF aims to raise 2,000 new year meals and 2,600 red envelops, hoping to help families in rural areas have a nice new year. However, due to high inflation this year, it was obvious that everybody has had a difficult year, which makes this campaign more difficult than past years. Meanwhile, the 2023 Chinese New Year will also come sooner than past years. All of these made us worry about not being able to achieve our goal. We call out for everyone to support the campaign and donate.

Kuo Hsueh-Fu become the ambassador of Light up a Life campaign | Call to help every child have a good Chinese New Year

During the press conference, a video based on XiaoJia’s story called “Grandma is Like My Mommy” was showed. XiaoJia’s difficult living situation and her mature attitudes had brought ambassador Kuo Hsueh-Fu to tears right from the start and said she really hoped to help install a water heater to let XiaoJia take warm shower whenever she wants to in the cold days. She also mentioned that “It was very important to have parents’ company in children’s growing up process. What is most needed in charity is for each and every one of us contribute a small amount. With everyone’s contribution, we can create a huge force. I sincerely invite everyone to participating in this campaign.”

During the press conference, Kuo Hsueh-Fu led 3 fourth-graders to transform themselves into chefs and make hot and savory seafood thick soup. It seemed that children in rural areas were very fond of the seafood they had not eaten often in daily life, and said that they hoped their Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner can have fish dishes as well. When being asked in her childhood what her most memorable dishes for Chinese New Year were, Kuo Hsueh-Fu said that she really enjoyed having stewed Chinese mustard and pork gravy. She could eat several bowls of jasmine rice just with the gravy.

Kuo Hsueh-Fu, who lost her mom when little while her dad was not around most of the time, could really empathize with the loneliness these children felt. Though these children seemed strong and independent, they still need to be cared by grownups like other children. Therefore, she accepted the invitation to be the ambassador of this fundraising campaign without hesitation and call for public assistance to children in rural areas.

CTBC Charity Foundation Light up a Life urgently calls for everyone’s assistance in donating for new year meals and red envelops

During the press conference, CTBC Charity Foundations’ deputy CEO Lin Mei Yin mentioned that over the years, Rural School Support Program sponsored by Light up a Life campaign has visited many locations, searching and checking on children with needs. As we can see, most of these children are under the care of their grandparents or their parents have been working in another city and thus not living with them. These families may not have sufficient food and rarely have the chance to have a meal together. These children’s wishes are small. They only hope to see their parents home often and spend time with them, even if it was just for a Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner. Chinese New Year comes exceptionally early in 2023, so we are calling out to the public that they can support these children in rural areas as little as a new year meal, and let them feel that there are people in the society supporting them and giving strength to move forward.  

This year we holds this fundraising press conference before Christmas partly because the early Chinese New Year next year (less than a month to go), and partly because we want to rekindle people’s passion and love to help these children and families in need at different corners of Taiwan. In this holiday season, it is a moment to share joy and happiness. With 500 dollars, you can help a child receive a red envelop to feel the Chinese New Year atmosphere. With 3,000 dollars, you can sponsor a rural family’s Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner. We cordially invite everybody to send love to the rural areas and light up children’s life and wishes for the new year.

 

• Donate to CWLF’s Sending Love to Rural Areas Program, please visit: http://i.children.org.tw
• 38th Light up a Life fundraising campaign: http://www.ctbcfoundation.org