Photo via ThePaper

With tens of thousands of underage children of inmates in China, Chinese society has taken action to reach out to this special group of children with love and respect.

This special group of children, more often than not, faces more hardship than their peers. With their parents behind bars, it often means the loss of family breadwinners. They sometimes even have to live with discrimination or isolation.

Data from the Ministry of Justice shows that in 2005, there were over 600,000 children of inmates across China and 90 percent never received any form of outside help, Global Times reported in July.

An investigation by the ministry in 2016 showed that some 70 percent of the underage children of inmates ended up being criminals in China and 82.43 percent dropped out of school after their parents were put in jail, according to China Youth Daily.

However, these children are treated with equal love and respect.

As early as 1996, China’s first grassroots organization to care for the children of inmates was set up in Sanyuan County, northwest China’s Shaanxi province. Children can receive life and medical support from the organization until they are 18. They are also funded to go to nearby schools and for those in need there is also scholarships to support their higher education, news portal ThePaper reported.

It is named “Sun Village,” indicating hope for life. One by one, more and more of these “villages” have begun to spread across the nation. As of this September, there are nine “Sun Villages” in China, offering support to over 7,000 children.

Similarly, in 2012, another organization called Taishan Xiaohe – which literally translates to “tiny lotus at Taishan Mountain” – was established to support inmates’ children in Tai’an, east China’s Shandong province. The organization specifically launched a “Rainbow Project” to offer psychological and educational support to those in need, which has covered more than 2,000 children in 42 cities, China Youth Daily reported.

Touched by the organizations’ stories, many Chinese netizens have also expressed their willingness to join the volunteering work to help the children. Many more voiced their support to the organizations, calling their deeds of great significance to offer shelter and proper guidance to the innocent children.