Speaking for the voiceless
In 2011, Wang and some friends began approaching ex-prisoners and started their own organization based in Beijing aiming to help their children. Wang asked for her group not to be named as they want to keep a low profile.
"We want to speak for them, but first of all, we must understand their needs." Wang told the Global Times.
Their first task was to get a list of prisoners' children.
"Only relevant government organs have the list and they wouldn't give it to us because they don't trust us. When we approached them, they simply asked us 'who are you and why do you want this?'" Wang said.
Frustrated, Wang and her colleagues changed their approach in 2013 by holding a seminar which attracted many people who are involved in this field to discuss their experiences.
By doing so, people from different areas and government departments came to know them. Some of them then helped Wang gain access to the list of prisoners' children. Wang and her organization were later invited to work with a juvenile protection center across the country to help prisoners' children in need.
"In fact, non-governmental organizations play very important role in caring for those left behind children. They can find these children quickly and prevent them from getting hurt or falling into trouble." Zhang Liu, a researcher from the China Philanthropy Research Institute said.
In June, the State council published an official announcement which encouraged grass-root organizations to participate in various areas involving prisoners' children.
"This is good news for us since top government leaders highly valued the issue and lay down policy in favor of our work." Wang said.
Repairing relationships
Over the past six years of dealing with prisoners' children, Wang felt that prisoners' children's deepest desire is to restore their relationship with their parents. If someone could help them to realize this dream, it would have a huge impact.
"A kid's living environment has a significant impact on their entire life. A stable, healthy family relationship is the safest shelter for children to grow up in. But prisoners' children are innocent and silent victims." Wang Xin said.
The Ministry of Justice's report indicated that prisoners' children face issues ranging from poverty, a lack of education, homelessness, criminality, custody battles and an absence of emotional support. Compared to the economic, health and educational issues, Wang said the broken family relationship has been much less valued.
"We think rebuilding the children and their parents' relationship could not only strengthen the children's resilience, but also help prisoners have some hope when facing their future." Wang said they are now focusing on providing systematic guidance for people looking to get involved in helping prisoners' children.
Now Wang's organization is building a platform focusing on sorting different children according to their status and training social workers to visit them if needed.
"We are prompting children to visit their parents behind bars. This could be the first step toward fixing their broken relationship," Wang said. According to the NGO's statistics, only 8 percent of such children have done so.
"I believe prisoners can be good parents even though they are behind bars. Regular communication with their kids and face to face meetings can greatly help parents fulfill their duty and effectively prevent their kids from taking the wrong path."Wang said.
"Repairing the broken relationship, we believe, is a way for both children and parents to walk out of the shadow of the past," she added.
