Hearing-impaired group sets up thriving cleaning business

Xinhua

April 14 2022

Hearing-impaired group sets up thriving cleaning business

A group of hearing-impaired people have established a cleaning company in Hefei City, capital of east China's Anhui Province. They hope to earn a living and the respect of their community as they clean up the city.

Born with a hearing impairment, Hu Min, the founder of the company, had a hard time finding a job after finishing special education in high school. Instead of following the norm of looking for factory work, he decided to start his own business to challenge himself and help his peers.

"The community of deaf-mute people is not that big. Most of them have limited access to jobs and low salaries although they work very hard," said Hu in sign language.

According to the second national sample survey of people with disabilities, roughly 27.8 million people from China suffer from hearing-impairment.

In 2017, Hu developed a social network application intended for the hearing and speech-impaired. However, his business suffered from a small user base as well as high promotion and maintenance costs. He ended up going bankrupt and had to sell his car to pay employees' salaries.

However, Hu refused to give in to fate. "I want to do something to prove that we can live a better life," said the 32-year-old.

Two years later, he bounced back and established a cleaning company named "Longwei," meaning that "deaf-mutes can also make a difference." Upon hearing the news, many of his friends and former employees came back to join him on his new adventure.

https://english.news.cn/20220414/7e41a27af1cb4b95b48807adebb19e38/c.html