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 | Tuesday, April 25, 2000, updated at 21:02(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Life | ||||||||||||
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Laid-off Worker Helps Thousands Find JobsNine years ago, Dong Xin was laid off from a shoe factory in Jiamusi City in northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province.Now, Dong manages 12 employment agencies she has formed to aid other laid-off workers, 200,000 of whom have found jobs with the assistance of the agencies. The Jiamusi city government has called Dong their "helping hand, " and the people around her say she's a role model. She will never forget the day of June 22, 1991, when she learned she had lost her job. In the days after, the thirty- something Dong lost her energy and enthusiasm, and she suffered from insomnia, too worried about how she would earn a living to sleep. For three years she applied for work at government departments, state-owned enterprises, and schools, but with no luck. Her turnaround finally came after she lowered her expectations and answered the call of a local neighborhood committee seeking workers. Though the wage was meager and working conditions poor, Dong devoted herself to her job. Through her initiative, the neighborhood committee set up a kindergarten for the children of laid-off workers. In less than two years, there were five kindergartens and a total of 26 laid-off workers had been re-employed as a result. Dong was never a person to be content with her success. With an increase in the number of laid-off workers, the idea came to her that it might be a help to set up an employment agency, linking the laid-off workers with those who need workers. The idea proved to be successful, and in less than two weeks the agency had found employment for over 30 workers in the city. Soon, more and more people were flocking to her agency in the hope of finding a job. With her enormous pool of potential workers, Dong established business contacts with all the employers in town, and the number of her agencies expanded to over ten in the busiest parts of the city. In the process of helping the unemployed, Dong found that about 40 percent of the workers she introduced were turned down by potential employers because they lacked appropriate skills. To solve this problem, Dong set up a group of training courses to teach those without jobs easy-to-learn, practical and marketable skills, such as barbering, shoe repair, cooking, and home appliance repairs. More than 400 laid-off workers were re- employed as a result. In the past several years, Dong has also been enthusiastically involved in setting up community services agencies, which not only facilitate the everyday life of local residents, but also provide many jobs. Dong's achievement in helping the laid-off workers has won her the whole-hearted love and respect of the city people. She has been granted the title of model worker by the city, the province, and the central government.
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