"I realize that the blind road is straight and round, and the blind road must be separated from the things next to it by 25 cm … I didn’t know how to pay attention before, but now I have developed the habit of paying attention to the blind road when walking, and asking my mother to take photos and upload them to the blind road physical examination applet. The status of a child parliamentarian has added an unforgettable color to my childhood. I hope that together we can make the rights of minorities visible to more people! " Chen Meiqiao, a new child parliamentarian this year, shared.
In order to further guide children to participate in public affairs and promote the construction of friendly urban areas, on December 3, the summary and sharing meeting of the AI”2023 Yantian District Children’s Council was held in Children’s Home, a district woman. The summary and sharing session showed the wonderful moment of children’s parliamentarian’s unique contribution to urban construction with his small body and collective wisdom in the past two months, as well as the achievements in training and learning, outdoor observation, visits and research, discussion and discussion.
The discussion was hosted by Yantian Women’s Federation and undertaken by Guangzhou Yueer Public Welfare Foundation, with the strong support of Shenzhen Association for the Blind, Phoenix Net Public Welfare, Yantian Disabled Persons’ Federation and Yantian Disabled Comprehensive. Twenty-four children legislators and five adult supporters participated in the whole process. Focus on the topic of "disabled people, barrier-free facilities", listen to children’s voices, absorb children’s suggestions, let children plant "golden ideas", catalyze them into "golden keys" of urban governance, and bear "golden fruits" that benefit the people and the people.
Listen to children’s voices to gather children’s wisdom and build a "one-meter-high" voice platform
As the second group of children’s councillors in Yantian District, Fu Jingtong from Yunhai School said, "When I first interviewed, I was in a tight state, thinking that the children’s council was far away from the students, and the atmosphere was solemn and respectful. Now I find it is not so, but relaxed and interesting." On October 14th, 2023, the recruitment interview for the second batch of children’s councillors of Yantian District Children’s Council was successfully carried out. Sixteen children were selected as the second batch of councillors through self-introduction, interactive questioning and topic discussion, which injected fresh blood into the children’s Council.
In order to deepen the familiarity among the members of the Council and closely unite the strength of the members of the Council, on October 21, the Children’s Council launched a team-building activity to guide the new and old members to get to know each other, select the team leader by group, formulate the team name, slogan and formation, and show them on stage in turn. The team successfully "broke the ice" and ignited a raging "spark".
On October 29th, the Council entered the theme learning session, and invited children’s deliberation experts, adult supporters and professional consultants to carry out professional training for children’s parliamentarians around the four themes of "Walking into Yantian District Children’s Council", "Learning knowledge in the field of disability", "Knowing more about research skills" and "It is not difficult to show results".
"Children’s Council is a place where our children participate in discussing and solving problems related to us, and we can improve the well-being of the community and society through actions."
"I actually walked for 1 minute in this 6-meter blind road."
"Listen carefully and take notes."
"Through the phenomenon, see the problem, analyze the reasons and discuss countermeasures. This is the basic idea of our results display. "
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"When the children first came to interview the children’s parliamentarians, they were all enthusiastic about paying attention to social issues and contributing their own strength. I am very happy to witness the smooth cooperation between each group from the very beginning. Every member is contributing and constantly learning from each other’s growth!" Song Xibao, a parent volunteer, said proudly.
In the theme study, the children’s parliamentarian learned more about the Council and had a heated discussion on "better paying attention to the visually impaired". One by one, "golden ideas" collided with each other and the sparks were brilliant. The skills such as investigation, data arrangement and results display learned in the training have laid a solid foundation for the field visits and research and results sharing of children’s parliamentarians in the later period.
Investigate and discuss together, and use "love" to help "clear"
During the activity, the children’s parliamentarian carried out a series of research work, and collected and summarized information by filling out questionnaires, street interviews, hand-picked photos and literature review to understand the construction and maintenance of blind roads in Yantian District.
On November 4th, the Children’s Council was divided into four groups, led by staff and adult supporters, and went deep into the communities of Haishan Street and Shatoujiao Street to conduct outdoor physical examination and investigation on the nearby blind roads. After the end of the day’s investigation, the Council immediately discussed and sorted out the preliminary investigation results. At the same time, the group’s school research and online research tasks were arranged as supplementary materials for the research materials.
The survey found that the construction of blind roads in Yantian District is generally standardized, and blind roads have been built in urban trunk roads, major commercial districts and other areas with concentrated barrier-free needs. However, there are still some problems such as blind roads not laid, wrong blind roads laid, blind roads occupied by vehicles or projects, and unreasonable blind road planning.
In order to further deepen the understanding and knowledge of the disabled and service institutions, on November 11th, the children’s parliamentarian went to Yantian District Yankang Comprehensive Service Center for the Disabled to conduct an exchange activity on barrier-free topics, and interviewed the staff of Yankang Comprehensive Service Center for the Disabled, so as to understand the service situation of the disabled in the jurisdiction and their views and opinions on barrier-free environment construction.
After the visit, Xin Yuhuan, a children’s parliamentarian, said, "I deeply feel that the lives of special people are inconvenient, and they need more care opportunities. Barrier-free signs are not ordinary billboards, and barrier-free facilities are not dispensable furnishings. I hope to speak for the disadvantaged groups with adults and discuss how to make the community more barrier-free from the perspective of children."
On November 12, the Council held an achievement sharing exchange meeting to summarize the achievements of previous activities, discuss and design the scheme of public participation in the construction and maintenance of blind roads. Combining with the core issues, the results of the discussion were formed by looking for information, policy documents, brainstorming and discussion. The children’s legislators actively made suggestions and suggestions, and the group representatives took the stage to simulate and report the results, which were enriched and improved under the guidance of teachers.
Golden ideas bear fruit and promote the construction of friendly cities to a new level.
At the summary sharing meeting, a growing film "Yantian District Children’s Council in 2023" was slowly shown, and the course of this activity was reviewed. Subsequently, the Children’s Council reported on four major topics, namely, children’s friendly mediation, reconciliation between blind roads and manhole covers, children’s friendly support, not blocking blind roads, children’s friendly imagination, visually impaired people’s unimpeded travel, and children’s friendly growth and boosting urban development.
How does manhole cover coexist with blind road? "You can make a smart manhole cover, give the manhole cover blind function and automatically identify it."
What are the countermeasures for the occupation of blind roads? "Meituan bike-sharing APP can set the reminder of’ not occupying the blind road’ and the function that’ occupying the blind road’ can’t lock the car. Enterprises can develop blind patrol aircraft and blind road clearing machines, and children councillors can be appointed as social supervisors for barrier-free construction."
What smart travel modes will visually impaired people have in the future? "I want to invent an automatic blind paving machine, a blind-assisted mecha, vision recovery glasses and an AI intelligent traffic light system."
What can we do for the visually impaired? "Using high technology to help visually impaired people recover their eyesight, then he can go to the movies, be a psychologist, be a painter and see the great rivers and mountains of the motherland."
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At the meeting, the achievements of children’s parliamentarians were presented in the form of handwritten newspapers and short videos.
Guangzhou Yueer Public Welfare Foundation released the "Investigation Report on Blind Road Physical Examination in Yantian District in 2023" on the spot, focusing on blind road construction, blind road maintenance, blind road occupation and public participation. The research suggests that the construction of urban barrier-free environment should strengthen departmental linkage and multi-party cooperation, encourage public participation, enhance technical empowerment, and ensure the unimpeded travel of visually impaired people. Finally, a ceremony was held to appoint the second batch of children councillors and adult supporters of the Council, and outstanding works of deliberation results were published.
"I am doing education and scientific research at school, and I think that the setting of children’s councils will not lose the school curriculum, and even be more advantageous and grounded." Song Xibao, who turned from a parent volunteer to an adult supporter, gave feedback. This series of activities brought together the forces of "children’s parliamentarian+group organization+foundation+industry association+media+adult supporter", paid close attention to the construction of barrier-free cities and child-friendly urban areas from the perspective of "one meter height", and made innovative attempts to accelerate the construction of "Sha Tau Kok Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Consumer Cooperation Zone+global ocean centre urban core area" and accelerate the comprehensive construction of a modern international innovative coastal city with high quality, livable, suitable for business and suitable for tourism.
