Disabled people find growing opportunities in Zhejiang

China Daily

14th March 2023

Disabled people find growing opportunities in Zhejiang

By Ma Zhenhuan

Bamboo factory helps boost income for blind, deaf and others

Disabled people in remote villages in Zhejiang province have found extra ways to earn money in recent years as the country focuses on achieving common prosperity.

For example, Yao Keyou, who himself has a physical disability.

Located in his hometown of Meixi township, in Huzhou's Anji county, the company makes a variety of bamboo products, from daily household necessities and woven items to bamboo utensils, as well as bamboo fiber products and building materials.

Many left-behind residents and people with disabilities in rural areas previously lived alone and had little-to-no chance of securing a stable job due to their physical condition or age, according to Liang.

He understood this plight all too well.

Born into a poor farmer's family in Dushantou village in 1960, Liang contracted polio when he was a child, which complicated life.

After failing to pass the national college entrance examination, he made a living working in fields and collecting pig droppings for manure.

After about a year, Liang seized the rare opportunity to become a full-time employee at a bamboo whip factory in a neighboring town. Humble, curious and hardworking, he was promoted to workshop director after five years, and developed 50 new bamboo and wood products.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202303/14/WS640fc38ea31057c47ebb4435.html