Jilin villagers benefit from poverty-alleviation measures

Building a moderately well-off society in an all-round way by 2020, just before the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, is the major task on the road to establishing socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Renyi county, a poverty-stricken village in southeastern Jilin province, had a large percentage of its population still living below the poverty line in 2015. A complete change of the situation was necessary.

Renyi county has been doing well in the local government's poverty alleviation campaign by helping many poverty-stricken families for the past two years.

As a Chinese saying goes, "Building roads is the first step of getting rid of poverty".

"With abundant water and tourism resources, Renyi county should have been well-developed. However, the impassable roads effectively put a brake on development.

Therefore, the government is expected to invest in road building with an amount of 38 million yuan ($5.6 million) in August this year," said Xu Renyi, the local Communist Party secretary.

Xu added, "With the completion of the roads, local products such as crops, melons and ginseng will discover new customers outside the village."

In addition, a demonstration agriculture field project has been used in the campaign, offering the villagers a new life.

Cui Shulan comes from a poverty-stricken family with an annual income of 2,900 yuan. The county government recommended that she grow black choke-berry instead of other crops. After a year's trial, Cui's revenue increased to 16,000 yuan.

"I never knew that I could get a high return in this way," she said.

Bee-keeping is another effective way underprivileged families in Renyi county can get out of poverty.

Yu Hongbo, a victim of polio, and his wife, a psychiatric disorder patient, mainly depended on the cultivation of corn (maize). Due to the limited income from that source, he tried bee-keeping several years agobut failed.

With the appropriate technology and financial support from the local government, Yu restarted his bee-keeping business this year and has earned more than 22,000 yuan so far. He and his family have also benefitted from melon growing.

At the mention of their new annual income, Yu and his family break into smiles.

To ensure people have adequate housing, Renyi county's government launched a relocation program to provide subsidized housing for fifteen of the county's poorest families, who live in extremely poor conditions.

The program is scheduled to be completed next month. It is being funded by the Jilin provincial Civil Administration Office, the Housing and Construction Bureau and local government.