Members of a voluntary rescue team in Shanghai's Zhujiajiao town patrol its waterways on charge boats. [CHINA DAILY] Pedestrians and cyclists in a busy riverside town outside of Shanghai can move about with more peace of mind thanks to the efforts of a highly trained rescue team. For over a decade, the team's patrols have helped prevent accidents, especially along the Dianpu River in Zhujiajiao - a town with a history of more than 1,700 years in suburban Qingpu district. Members perform various tasks, including fighting fires, emergency water rescues, and flood prevention and typhoon preparedness, according to Chen Chunhao, director of the Zhujiajiao's conscription office, which oversees the team. The team has several dozen members, he said. Half are ex-military and the rest are college graduates under 25. All are unpaid but receive free training, and were selected through exams and stamina tests. The group is officially classed as a militia, which still operate nationwide under guidance from local authorities. They play a part in protecting national security and respond to emergencies that threaten social stability. However, such groups are only armed during training with the military. We undertake more diversified duties - mainly covering the propagation of national defense knowledge and performing daily guard duty along the river - in addition to our basic security work, said Li Linjie, the team leader. For example, we rescued a 22-year-old woman who attempted to drown herself in the river in September. In January, the team also cleared heavy snow from the streets and laid skid-resistant straw mats to protect vehicles and pedestrians. On an average day, Zhujiajiao receives more than 40,000 tourists keen to take in the town's history and watery vistas, and accidents sometimes occur with children and the elderly trying to negotiate the river's slippery banks. We're ready for every mission, Li said. Every member also speaks a second language, to help foreign tourists in town. According to its members, the team's track record of success is due to its disciplined military-style management. A full set of equipment is available to us, including rescue and patrol boats, inflatable rafts, motorcycles and firefighting tools, said Yuan Heqiang, another team leader. Members undergo regular military training and physical conditioning, as well as study water-rescue and firefighting techniques. We even began using drones last year to quicken our emergency response time, Yuan said. Experts from the Qingpu Lifesaving Association and the Qingpu Red Cross Association are regularly invited to teach the team the latest techniques in water rescue and first aid. The emergency response team has become a key guardian of peace and security in Zhujiajiao, said Colonel Li Huilin of the Qingpu district's conscription office. Over the past 11 years, the unit has coped with more than 30 major disasters and 500 crises, helping prevent property losses of more than 8 million yuan ($1.21 million), especially before and during weather emergencies. [email protected]rubber bracelets custom cheapfabric wristbands ebayflash drive wristbandcustom rubber bracelets
Wu Yan interviews a doctor in Macheng, Hubei province. Provided To China Daily When I entered Zheng Liangshui's house, I could hardly believe the 50-year-old farmer has been severely ill with cancer. That was because his well-furnished three-story home, containing a tricycle-trailer, a motorcycle and electrical appliances, indicated a decent standard of living for a rural resident. Appearances can be deceptive, though. In truth, Zheng's family, in Macheng, a city in Central China's Hubei province, is desperately poor. The family once made a good living by running their own pig farm, but in 2014, Zheng's wife, Tao Congxiang, 49, was diagnosed with sepsis. The family spent about 100,000 yuan ($14,700) on treatment, but the medical refund system reimbursed less than half the sum. It never rains but it pours. In June last year, Zheng was diagnosed with stomach cancer, which was a huge blow, both physically and financially. The family suddenly found itself with no source of income; Zheng and Tao were too sick to work and their only child is a middle school student. To make matters worse, all the pigs had been sold to pay Tao's medical bills in 2014. The latest round of medical expenses choked the family, which was charged 38,000 yuan for surgery to remove part of Zheng's stomach and a further 10,000 yuan for two sessions of chemotherapy. However, under the policies in place at the time, rural patients could claim a refund of up to 75 percent of their medical fees if they were treated at county-level hospitals. The sum was reduced if they attended hospitals above that level. That meant Zheng, who was treated at the county hospital, actually paid 20,000 yuan for the stomach operation and 2,700 yuan for the chemotherapy sessions. Even with the refund, the cost was too much for the family to bear. Things began to change in October, when precision poverty alleviation measures were introduced to ensure that every impoverished household in Huanggang, the city which oversees Macheng, has access to a new preferential medical policy. The new policy offers impoverished families refunds of up to 90 percent of their fees in designated hospitals in Hubei. The entire fee is reimbursed if the patient is an orphan or a senior with no family support. As a result, when he had another two sessions of chemotherapy, Zheng paid less than 1,000 yuan, about one-third the cost of previous sessions. In addition, Zheng now only pays 10 percent of the cost of the medicine he takes every day. That means he pays 157.5 yuan for a box of tablets that provides treatment for 10 days, but the true price is 1,575 yuan. If not for the refund, Zheng would not be able to afford the tablets he will need to take for at least a year. He is fortunate, though, because as a pioneer city, Huanggang has achieved the 90 percent reimbursement by including independent commercial insurance in the medical refund system. According to data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission, 5.53 million households - 7.34 million people - are mired in poverty as a result of medical costs. The central government has vowed to lift all the country's rural poor out of poverty by 2020, but some will inevitably sink back into poverty as a result of major illnesses. Zheng's family has been struck by illness twice, but has managed to largely withstand the impact because they now only pay a fraction of the heavy medical costs. However, their case is not unique in Huanggang. Most households classified as impoverished in the villages under its jurisdiction have at least one family member with a serious illness. Now, the families not only enjoy a high level of medical reimbursement, but also benefit from preferential policies related to issues ranging from agricultural production to education. The measures help families to endure tough times caused by illness, and encourage them to stand on their own feet once things improve. Huanggang's medical reimbursement policy solves a financial problem that once affected many families, and it deserves to be expanded nationwide. What's more important is that the high level of reimbursement and other preferential policies give hope to farmers such as Zheng and help them believe they can live longer and have an opportunity to raise their living standards. Now his health is improving, Zheng is supporting the family by working as a driver. He believes that if the family pulls together, they can live the good life once again. Contact the writer at [email protected]
