Lin Dan: Leader of 'residents' attendants'

Lin Dan, 72, secretary of the Party Committee of Junmen community, in Fuzhou, in east China's Fujian province, arrived to work in the community in 1972. She joined the CPC (Communist Party of China) in 1985. For more than 40 years, Lin has been keeping the concerns of residents in mind, and finding ways to help the residents solve those concerns. Lin says, "I love community work, and I don't want to leave."

Concerned about elderly, children

Junmen community is located in the busy area of Gulou district, in Fuzhou. The community has about 3,500 families, and a population of 13,000 people. Of the residents, more than 1,200 people are 60 or older. It is a well-known, and harmonious, community in Fuzhou.

Lin understands the needs of the elderly. She hopes to make the elderly feel at home in the community. In 2009, the city's first community-care-service station for the elderly was established, in Junmen Community, and, in May 2017, the service station was upgraded to a community-care-service center for the elderly.

The service center includes a medical consultation center, catering, cultural entertainment and maintenance areas. It provides 24-hour services to the elderly, and it arranges free medical consultations, performed by doctors, every day to help the elderly seek medical treatments for minor illnesses without leaving the community. The center also provides comprehensive services, such as institutional care, community care and home care for the elderly, aged 60 or older, who live alone.

Many double-income families live in Junmen Community, and there is a time gap between the end of school and the end of work for parents; so, in 2009, Lin started a "4 o'clock school," to provide after-school care for children of double-income families.

Concerned about residents in difficulty

For more than 40 years, Lin has taken note of the difficulties and worries of residents, and she has treated their concerns as if they were her own.

In 1994, a widow, Wu Suting, then over 80 years old, and who lived alone, broke her leg and could not take care of herself. Lin took care of Wu every morning before she headed into the office. She bought daily necessities for Wu, and she learned how to massage Wu. She also organized Wu's funeral after her death in 2003.

In July 2019, Lin received a call from a resident, Lao Wu, who wanted to let Lin know his child had enrolled in college. That was a great relief for Lin; more than 20 years earlier, Lao Wu had lost his first child, when the baby was just a few months old. Later, his wife gave birth to their second child, and Wu was both happy and worried, because he had no skills and was barely making ends meet by doing odd jobs.

Lin helped Wu apply for a public-service job in the community, and then Lin helped his wife rent a stall to sell women's clothes at a local night market. She also encouraged nearby institutions and organizations to help the family.

After Wu's son began attending school, Lin worried about his studies. When she saw the couple leaving home early and returning late, she asked a teacher to help the child with his homework. After she received the call from Wu (saying his son had been admitted to college), Lin helped the family raise money for the boy's tuition.

With care and support from nearby institutions and organizations, Lin created the Golden Autumn Scholarship Project, which has since helped 41 students fulfill their college dreams.

Lin also arranged for volunteers to tutor migrant children, and she organized various activities for migrant children, such as national cultural education, calligraphy and painting, handicrafts and children's sports games. She also called on volunteers, such as parents, to provide tutoring and life-assistance and psychological-comfort services to migrant children.

Concerned about women

As president of the community's women's federation, Lin has promoted construction of the community women's rights workstation and the community women's home, based on the needs of women, and she has helped establish a platform for inviting women lawyers and psychologists to volunteer to provide psychological counseling and rights-protection services to women.

The community has organized various publicity activities to popularize legal knowledge among women, and to raise women's awareness of their rights. The community also invited the district's court to set up a family mediation room, in the community, where residents can talk about their problems and difficulties.

The community provides health checkups and screening services (for cervical and breast cancer) to women residents, and it applies for special-relief funds for women who are diagnosed with cancer.

Lin has led community workers in conducting activities to promote good family traditions, to create a harmonious community environment. The community has conducted several activities, with the theme "Our Festival," such as "a reunion dinner, a harmonious loving family," on Chinese New Year's Eve, and "Good Children with Virtue and Goodness," on Children's Day.

The community has encouraged the involvement of more women in community management, and has set up a women's volunteer service station. In addition, the community has united the strength of women community workers, women volunteers, women's social organizations and women role models to form five women's volunteer service teams, and to mobilize more than 650 volunteers to participate in COVID-19 prevention and control work, legal publicity and various public services.

Concerned about all residents

Talk Day is an innovative approach to the management of Junmen Community. On the 10th of each month, the community invites representatives of relevant departments to participate in Talk Day, to solve residents' problems.

A few years ago, after the community's roads were rebuilt, the community had a problem with blocked water pipes, which were located under the roads. Residents worried about unsafe drinking water; yet, in accordance with regulations, the newly built roads could not be rebuilt for another five years. This matter was mentioned on Talk Day. Finally, the replacement of water pipes was finished in one week, thanks to negotiations among the residents, the water company and the local commission of housing and urban-rural development.

"The residents can first ask the community for help when they have difficulties. Talk Day is aimed at listening to residents' demands," says Lin.

In recent years, Lin has led community staff in exploring new ways to provide better services to residents. For example, the community opened a comprehensive reception window, through which residents can receive one-stop service provision. The window is open at night and during weekends. The community has also established an online platform to provide services to residents.

Throughout the years, Lin has led community staff in organizing Party members to provide services to the residents, and such efforts have greatly promoted the connection of the community Party organization, Party members and the residents.

Serving the residents

The community has taken the lead in establishing a four-level work system, which ranges from community Party committee to community Party branch, then to building group leader and to Party member household. It has basically formed a pattern of "discussing major issues, sharing resources, co-organizing activities, doing practical things together and developing together," says Lin.

Lin has been named a National Outstanding Community Worker, National Model Worker and National March 8th Red- Banner Holder. She was elected a delegate to the 17th and the 18th CPC national congresses.

On June 29, Lin was awarded the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor.

"There is no best, only better, in terms of community work," Lin says. "Community workers are not officials, but residents' attendants.".

(Women of China English Monthly November 2021 issue)