Caring for left-behind children and children in difficult circumstances is a livelihood project that the Party and the state attach great importance to. In recent years, the Shandong Women's Federation has given full play to its organizational advantages, actively taken on the role, highlighted the "three insistences", innovatively carried out the "caring mother" pairing care action, guarded the healthy growth of left-behind children and children in distress with heart and affection, and acted as a guide for children's growth, guardian of children's rights and interests, and dreamers of children's future with practical actions.
Adhere to demonstration and guidance, social recruitment, and extensive mobilization and gathering forces. Give full play to the role of the cadres of the Women's Federation as "leading geese", adhere to organizational mobilization and socialized recruitment, and continuously expand the caring power of "caring mothers". First, the cadres of the Women's Federation took the lead. In 2023, the party members and cadres of the organs will actively donate more than 10,000 yuan, carry out 26 volunteer services in the community, and provide more than 550 hours of psychological counseling, homework counseling and other services. As one of the seven practical things to concentrate on doing well, "what the party and government urgently need, what women need, and what the Women's Federation can do", the pairing care action mobilized all the full-time cadres of the Women's Federation in the province to be "caring mothers", and paired care for 3,431 left-behind children and children in difficulty, and effectively drove the executive committee of the Women's Federation, women entrepreneurs, 38 red flag bearers, women meritorious service pacesetters, the most beautiful family members, and women volunteers to join the love team. The second is extensive recruitment and mobilization. Standardize recruitment procedures and recruitment conditions, and widely mobilize caring people in society to join the "caring mother" team through means such as issuing initiatives, three-dimensional publicity, and linkage to carry out caring activities. Up to now, the province has recruited a total of 25,000 "caring mothers" and paired up to care for 36,000 left-behind children and children in difficulty. In particular, focusing on the key points of care, we have widely recruited teachers, psychological counselors, tutor volunteers, legal practitioners and other professionals to join the care team, focusing on pairing left-behind children and children in difficult circumstances with learning difficulties, family conflicts and other problems, giving full play to their expertise to provide precise care and assistance for children. The third is to strengthen empowerment support. Focusing on improving the caring ability of "caring mothers", integrating professional learning resources such as family education and child protection, and strengthening the training and guidance of "caring mothers" through various methods such as setting up "caring mothers" exchange groups, online and offline special training, and providing consulting services, so as to help "caring mothers" continuously improve the level of care services.
Adhere to local conditions, innovative methods, and normal service to build a brand. Following the principle of being most conducive to the growth of left-behind children and children in difficulty, and the best way to achieve practical results of care, women's federations at all levels have explored and established various forms of care models such as "one-to-one" and "many-to-one" according to local conditions and needs, and created a unique care brand. The first is the precision of pairing. Focus on the difficult needs of children, according to the professional advantages of "caring mothers", accurately match, and link to "caring mothers" nearby. Explore the establishment of a working mechanism of "1 caring mother + 1 chairperson of the village or community women's federation + N left-behind children in difficulty", give full play to the advantages of the grassroots women's federation "by your side", guide the executive committee of the grassroots women's federation to be a bridge and link between the "caring mother" and the left-behind and difficult children, and work together to do a good job in life care, academic counseling, care and companionship, tutoring guidance, difficulty assistance and other services, and truly make care regular and daily. The second is the standardization of care. Based on the actual norms of care content, highlighting effectiveness and operability, from the aspects of care content and form, promote the standardized development of care actions in accordance with laws and regulations, and a series of effective care paradigms have emerged in various places. On the basis of summarizing many years of care work experience, the Zouping Women's Federation has formulated the "Five Ones" care model, that is, a love letter to the family, exchanging each other's heartfelt words in the form of letters, a love grant to help children successfully complete their studies, a growth gift package to meet the children's learning and living needs, a parent-child activity to deepen the emotional exchange between children and "mothers", and a birthday cake to witness the growth of children every year. The service project won the 2019 National Lei Feng Volunteer Service "Four 100" Best Volunteer Service Organization and the "Top Ten Heart-warming Stories" of the All-China Women's Federation Women Volunteers in the New Era. Zibo City's "Caring Grandma" care activities, from subsidizing girls to helping all children in difficulty, pay more attention to "supporting intelligence, morale, heart, and technology", and the power of love continues to extend. The Feicheng Women's Federation explored the establishment of a parent-child reading model of "caring mothers + left-behind children", and 286 "caring mothers" carried out a total of 256 parent-child reading activities, benefiting 593 children. The third is service branding. Focusing on the long-term effect of service normalcy, women's federations at all levels actively strive for the support of party committees and governments, widely link social resources, and create characteristic brands. The "Sunshine Mother" care service in Rizhao City integrates grassroots social governance forces such as sister-in-law mediation, sunshine flower protection, and sunshine tutoring into the caring action, and 892 "sunshine mothers" in the city are certified to work, becoming the "escort specialist" for children's growth and the "flexible engine" for participating in grassroots governance. Surabaya County innovated the "3+5+5" "WeAi Mother" companionship growth mechanism, adhered to the guidance of party building, departmental coordination, and social participation, and 507 "Weai Moms" in the county paired up to care for 2,145 children, achieving full coverage of left-behind children and children in difficulty. Tengzhou Women's Federation, together with the Municipal Education Bureau and the Civil Affairs Bureau, integrated the idle school buildings of rural schools, created 11 happy growth camps for public welfare holidays, and used weekends, statutory holidays, winter and summer vacations to provide holiday safety protection and public welfare care services for children in distress and left-behind children.
Pay attention to strengthening coordination, improving mechanisms, and ensuring care services. "Caring Mother" pairing care is a systematic project, which requires the coordination and cooperation of all parties in the society. Women's federations at all levels in the province actively strive for the support of party committees and governments and all sectors of society, and explore the establishment of institutional mechanisms such as work coordination, financial guarantees, and training incentives to ensure the long-term continuity of care services. The first is to explore the establishment of a collaborative linkage mechanism. Women's federations at all levels have strengthened coordination and linkage with departments such as for education, civil affairs, health, and sports, closely cooperating and working in the same direction in areas such as team recruitment, joint construction of positions, and joint organization of activities, actively using bases for the protection of minors, idle school buildings in rural schools, homes for women and children, and community parent schools, to jointly carry out activities such as centralized companionship and child care services during winter and summer vacations. In the 2023 winter vacation child care activities, various departments jointly carried out more than 20,000 care services such as child safety education and family education guidance, visited more than 87,000 children, and paired up to help more than 34,000 migrant, left-behind and difficult children, benefiting 960,000 parents and children. Establish information communication mechanisms with civil affairs departments at all levels, complete care information archives, dynamically grasp the progress and effectiveness of care, and truly make care services accurate, detailed, and solid. The second is to explore the establishment of a fund-raising mechanism. Women's federations at all levels have gradually explored and established a three-in-one fund-raising mechanism of "financial expenditure, social fundraising, and individual donations" by striving for special government funds and relying on public welfare organizations to raise funds. In the past two years, women's federations at all levels have raised more than 1,400 yuan in social support funds, which have strongly supported the development of caring activities. Rizhao City will include funds for the protection of minors in its budget, and in 2023, the municipal finance will allocate 2.5 million yuan to be used exclusively for the protection of minors. The Surabaya County Party Committee and the county government have included the growth of "Weiai Mother" into the annual key work items, and invested 7.8 million yuan in various funds to ensure the continuous promotion of caring activities. The third is to explore the establishment of an incentive and feedback mechanism. Women's federations at all levels make use of the news media and women's federations to publicize public opinion positions, vividly tell the touching stories of "caring mothers", and actively create a social atmosphere of concern and care for the healthy growth of children. Cooperate with relevant departments to explore the establishment of a "caring mother" incentive and feedback mechanism, promote the inclusion of "caring mothers" in the volunteer service management system, into the "credit +" system, and in the scope of relevant selections and commendations, and carry out activities such as "looking for the most beautiful caring mothers", so that "caring mothers" can be respected and courteous because of love. Surabaya County has given preference to the cadres of government agencies and institutions participating in the "Micro Love Mother" activity in terms of appraising the first and setting up the best, evaluating rewards and punishments, and promptly commending the enterprises and other people in society who participated in the activities, effectively promoting the good practice of caring for left-behind children and children in difficulty.
(The author is Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Chairman of Shandong Women's Federation)