Signs of progress for prisoners' children

It began when an imprisoned couple asked her to help look for their five children in Shaanxi. When she arrived at the couple's cave dwelling in a rural village, she was shocked to discover that one of the children had died.

"The other four were helping their grandmother with the wheat harvest," she said. "I burst into tears."

When she went to the local government to find out which department could look after them, she was surprised to learn their care was not covered by any law.

In 1996, Zhang, then 46, left the prison administration and set up the first Sun Village in Xianyang, Shaanxi. She rented a group of buildings to establish a campus-like area where the NGO could care for children whose mothers or fathers were in prison and who had no one to look after them at home.

"Inmates' children demand our attention and aid," Zhang said. "They are more sensitive and have lower self-esteem than others of the same age. If we don't guide and care for them in a timely manner, they may easily go wrong."

A Ministry of Justice report released in 2016 said about 70 percent of prisoners' children committed offenses and 82 percent dropped out of school after their parents were imprisoned.

"It's still a big problem at present, let alone how serious it was 20 years ago," Zhang said. "I cannot say children aided by the organization won't make mistakes when they grow up, but I'm trying to reduce the possibility of them going wrong by offering them more care."

Public donations

Children can live at a Sun Village branch until their parents are released, or be cared for until they turn 18 if their parents are serving long sentences.

Zhang contacts primary or middle schools near the Villages so that school-age children can receive compulsory education, and also arranges medical treatment for them when they fall sick.

At Sun Village's Beijing branch, which opened in Shunyi district, about 30 kilometers from the city center, in 2000, more than 60 children share eight dormitories, a dining hall and play facilities such as slides and swings. About 20 child care workers look after them.