Program helps mentally disabled get jobs

Li Chao, a noodle cook at a small restaurant in Beijing's Fengtai district, has a simple job. He slices beef brisket, boils it with noodles, adds vegetables and spices and serves it in a bowl.

Many people could learn to do it within a few weeks, but it took Li years.

Li, 27, has learning difficulties - his IQ is lower than 70, equal to a 7-year-old's. No school or training institution would accept him after he finished elementary school.

He stayed at home for years. But seven years ago, his life started to change when his community committee introduced him to Beijing Fengtai Lizhi Rehabilitation Center, then the only NGO in China dedicated to training people with mental disabilities and providing employment services.

Through vocational training there, Li has transformed from an adult cut off from society to a self-sufficient man.

"I want to make money, get a wife and have a family," he said slowly but confidently.

Millions of people in China like Li have not been so fortunate. The number of institutions that help people with learning disabilities find work is very small.

Seven years after the Beijing Fengtai Lizhi Rehabilitation Center pioneered the "supported employment" in China, the service is not new. But so far only about 10 NGOs provide the service in major cities, concentrating on Beijing, Nanjing, Tianjin, Jinan and Zhengzhou.

The reasons for the difficulty in promoting the service vary.

One big factor is prejudice against people with learning disabilities, said Zhou Haibin of the International Labour Organization.

"People picture mentally disabled people staying at home living on limited allowances, instead of going out and competing with people who are not disabled," he said. "But motivated and diligent workers with mental disabilities are wasted in a community if they are denied job opportunities."

China has more than 5 million people with mental disabilities, according to the International Labour Organization. Of them, about 65 percent are only mildly disabled, are capable of working and are of working age. Those 2.66 million mentally disabled people could earn a living and reduce family burdens by working.