China has made great efforts to improve social awareness of the special needs of the disabled over the past decade, a visiting UN official said Wednesday in Nanning.
In addition, China has created many jobs for handicapped people in government and social organizations and the private sector, said Kerstin Leitner, a deputy from the UN Development Program.
The remarks were made at a ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the implementation of China's law on protection of the disabled in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Leitner said there are 250 million to 300 million handicapped people around the world, and many of them are discriminated against. She praised China's achievements in solving the problems of the disabled.
Among the 47 million people in Guangxi, 2.48 million are handicapped. A series of measures were taken recently in the autonomous region to help the disabled. These include donations, free medical treatments and job introduction for the disabled.
(People's Daily January 17, 2002)
