In the past, GSN Shenzhen has made charitable contributions to organisations who take care of sick and underpriviledged children in Asia, Africa and America.
China's rural inhabitants are often forced to leave their hometowns and to become migrant workers in far-away industrial cities to make a living. Unfortunately, the local household registration system is restricting migrant workers to resettle together with their families by denying them free and easy access to the welfare and educational system of metropolitan areas. Hence, they have no choice but to leave underage children behind with the elderly, at orphanages, or all on their own without any reliable care. At worst case, these left behind children get to see their parents only for a week once a year during the Chinese New Year festive season. This permanent separation from their parents leads to an ever progressing alienation from each other with drastic effects: left behind children tend to have a less pronounced self-esteem.They are more likely to suffer from psychosomatic disorders and to drop out of school early. Recent studies imply, that the incidence of suicide is increasing and that the crime rate is 70% higher than in children who live with their parents.
At GSN, about 80% of employees are female migrant workers aged 18-30 years. Every second is a mother of a child below the age of 10 and has to bear living separated from it for most of its childhood. With our 'See Your Child Program' we are supporting the young mothers to see their children on a more regular basis and at affordable costs. The program also addresses the fear of migrant workers that they might lose their job, if they take leave from work frequently.
Through the 'See Your Child Program' I finally got the time and money to visit my son more often. He lives with his grand-parents in our village and it takes 13 hours by train to get there.
benefit in various ways
My daughter lives with my mother-in-law in a small town in Shandong province.
The 'See Your Child Program' allows them both to visit me in Shenzhen and I can show them how my life in the city looks like.
After maternity leave I resumed my job full-time. My baby stays at a daycare, but my total paid leave entitlement at GSN is above average, so that I can take a day off and look after my baby if necessary.
We are addressing two key aspects with our ‘See Your Child Program’: On the one hand, we simply hope to heal the feeling of loneliness of both, the children and the parents, by helping them to reunite more often.
On the other hand, we would like to demonstrate that companies do have the power to reduce the suffering of the so called ‘left behind children’. It is our intention to expand the program to all our manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen as soon as possible.
Shirley Chen, Deputy General Manager
Hauptstrasse 32, 67098 Bad Dürkheim
+86 755 2101 5875
