A county government helps rehabilitated 46-year-old start small
businesses and stand on his own feet again
LINGAO, China, Nov. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wang Haibian was
among the first few people in Maniao, a fishing community in Lingao
County of Hainan Province, south
China, to get hooked on drugs in
the mid-1990s. Today, he is the first to kick both his addiction
and poverty.
In an exclusive interview with Beijing Review, the
46-year-old attributes it to the generous help from the local
government, which helped him start several small businesses.
A roller-coaster life
In the past, Wang was a tractor driver traveling to different
places. On his trips he met various people, including drug takers,
who introduced him to the habit. Wang says he became a "ghost," who
quit his job and resorted to stealing and extortion to buy
drugs.
Eventually, he underwent three de-addiction treatments and in
2006, tried to stand on his own feet again. He was 33 at that time.
But it's difficult for a former drug abuser to find a job or even
stay on the wagon since in a small rural community he could hardly
avoid running into his old addict friends. So Wang went to
Guangdong Province, 700 km away
from his home, to stay away from those "bad friends."
He became a migrant worker, going back to Maniao only two years
later. By then, he had some savings. He bought a second-hand
rice-husking machine and started a tiny mill. He also got married
and had two kids.
It seemed Wang's life was back on track finally. However, years
of drug abuse took its toll on his health. His legs became swollen,
making movement difficult. His wife Fu Saier became the only bread
earner in the family of four.
To make things worse, both his old house and the husking machine
collapsed and the family was plunged into poverty.
"We lived from hand to mouth during that time, without a penny
saved," Wang told Beijing Review.
Startups for restart
In 2018, Wang's family was registered as a poor household. The
local government allocated over $9,000 to build a new house for him. In addition,
he got an interest-free loan from the local bank and bought a new
rice-husking machine. The mill began to run again.
The local government also pays his two children's meals at
school, buys medical insurance for the family and endowment
insurance for Wang and his wife. The family was also given money
from the local poverty alleviation fund, which they used to buy
shares in a fruit company. "We got our first year-end bonus in
2019, which was $365," Wang told
Beijing Review.
The family was back on track but Wang was ambitious. As a mill
owner, he had a lot of rice bran, which is a good fowl fodder. He
decided to start a tiny farm, breeding ducks, chicken and geese.
Again, with the support of the local government, Wang got some land
by the seaside, free of rent, and set up his farm in 2018.
Now his farm has more than 600 ducks, chicken and geese. During
the peak of the novel coronavirus epidemic, Wang's poultry couldn't
reach the market. Local officials then helped him to access
e-commerce platforms and local fairs, promoted his products on
their social media accounts and recommended them to their friends
and relatives as well. The generous help enabled Wang's farm to
survive the epidemic.
Multiple poverty relief measures have benefited Wang's family.
Last year, their per-capita income amounted to $2,279, much higher than the national poverty
line of $608.
(By Beijing Review reporter Li
Nan from Lingao County, Hainan
Province, China)
Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar
Comments to linan@bjreview.com
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