China's northeastern province of Jilin has launched a 92 million yuan (US$11 million) program to improve the living and working conditions of its 1.43 million disabled people, which make up 6.1 percent of its total population.
The program consists of two projects, the first of which is expected to benefit 72,000 needy disabled people by the year 2007.
Under the first project, the province will operate on disabled people with cataracts, train deaf children to improve their hearing and speaking abilities, push forward education on the disabled and create more job opportunities for them in the next five years.
Currently, more than 80,000 disabled people suffer from cataracts, 5,000 poor deaf children need training and 8,000 disabled people need artificial limbs and other devices, according to statistics from the provincial federation of the disabled.
Thanks to a series of operations already carried out on disabled cataract patients and to their rehabilitation training, a total of 160,000 disabled people have somewhat recovered over the past several years.
Under the second project, more than 30,000 disabled people are expected to have been trained with working skills by the year 2005, raising the employment rate of the disabled to 85 percent in the province's urban area.
More than 10,000 disabled children of school age can not go to school because of financial difficulties and in urban areas, 60,000 disabled people, who are able to work, are not employed.
The province has set up an educational system under which disabled people can enjoy both compulsory and vocational education, said Zhao Huanqi, an official with the provincial federation of the disabled.
(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2003)
