Social service agency helps fill cracks in China's iron rice bowl

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 8 April 2000

"I couldn't see any hope. I couldn't eat. I was sick," recalls Cai Chun Hua. For years Cai Chun Hua, 44, had worked as a hotel receptionist. Then in 1995, the hotel closed and she was dismissed. Cai Chun Hua had never imagined being unemployed. Growing up in communist China, she had expected a guaranteed job for life — a system Chinese jokingly called the "iron rice bowl."

China is a country in transition. Traditional wooden buildings have been bulldozed to make way for high-rise apartments. Trees that graced boulevards have been chopped down to accommodate more cars. In cities, severe green Mao uniforms of earlier decades have been replaced by miniskirts and platform shoes, along with the newest fashion accessory, the cell phone.

Along with these outward changes have come tremendous social changes. The Chinese government once cared for all the needs of all its citizens. Now this grasp on the everyday details of life has loosened, and the "iron rice bowl" has cracked.

Amity Foundation, a Chinese agency with Christian roots, is one of the first private social service agencies to help fill the gaps. Its programs are wide-ranging: training medical workers in Tibet, surveying needs of blind people, organizing elderly women to visit orphanages to cuddle neglected babies. This year marks Amity Foundation's 15th anniversary and the inter-Mennonite program China Educational Exchange (CEE) has been involved with Amity since its beginning. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a member agency of CEE.

Middle-aged women, like Cai Chun Hua, are among those falling through the cracks. They attended school during China's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. Their education consisted mainly of chanting political slogans and planting rice in the countryside — nothing that prepared them to compete for a job in the economic powerhouse China has become.

Through a nine-week job training program run by Amity Foundation with the Nanjing Labor Bureau, Cai Chun Hua has found a new career as a nursing assistant. Today she bathes and feeds post-operative patients at the Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital. Even the existence of this job is a sign of changing times. In the past family members would have camped at the hospital to care for the patient. Now, with small one-child only families, an aging population and both spouses employed full-time in demanding jobs, families would rather pay for these services.

"This job is dirtier than working in a hotel. I do things even patients' families don't want to do!" says Cai Chun Hua. "But I can bear it. This job is a great help."

Currently MCC is working with Amity Foundation's rural development department and the Chinese and Canadian governments on poverty alleviation in four regions of China. For more on Amity, check the foundation's Web site at .

Other members of CEE are Eastern Mennonite Missions, Commission on Overseas Ministries, Mennonite Board of Missions and Mennonite Brethren Missions Service International.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org