Children of migrant parents wait in line for lunch in school. (Photo : Getty Images)
Wu Lizhu, a woman from Jieyang, a village south of Guangdong, put up a community library to encourage children to study and not drop out of school.
She dropped out of school in her teens and left to find a job in the city. This is true for most children in Jieyang because families had to find ways to earn.
Most families have four to five children. Older children who are still studying are forced to stop and migrate to more urbanized areas.
These migrant workers come back and look more dignified, tempting other children to leave their homes to earn. Only half of middle-schooled children continue schooling.
However, Wu was not happy as a migrant worker. She had two jobs and earning well.
"It felt like I was one of the walking dead," she admitted.
She came back in 2007. She discovered that the people's situation was the same as when she left.
Wu said, "When I was young, it was identical; after so many years of development, they still remained the same."
In 2009, she landed a job in a non-government organization called the Migrant Workers Home in Beijing. This organization helps migrant workers' children in their education and Wu saw the need to help.
She left the organization in 2014 and went back to Jieyang. She then formed a volunteer team and set up the community library. She incurred a debt of 100,000 yuan and pursued with getting charity donations to sustain operations.
She at first encountered resistance from the community, but eventually proved that the library was good for everyone.
The community library offers illiterate mothers classes, story-reading sessions for children and traditional festivities.
People are seeing the benefits of the local library. In April this year, the library received a donation from the Chuntao Foundation amounting to 50,000 yuan.
