Illuminating challenges

The organization has established a mutual support group that helps women who are going through difficult times and improves their living conditions, while popularizing social issues including gender-based violence, domestic violence, sex education and children's education.

"Children are now also a major part of our work. At first, we had to include children because if we wanted to engage women workers in these activities, they needed help in taking care of their children," Ding says.

"Later we found that, if we want to address social issues like gender equality, community solidarity and treatment of migrant workers, the future generations are the most likely to change for the better."

Apart from after-school care services and tutoring sessions, there are also specially designed art activities for the children, including a photography exhibition project that asks them to take pictures of the industrial area, and a play that allows them to express their feelings about migrancy.

By attending the 4th Luminous Festival, Ding hopes to raise awareness for the efforts taking place at Green Rose, and to demonstrate how women are supporting and empowering one another as well as their children in an outlying industrial community.

Ding was among the eight guest speakers from home and abroad at the festival's opening.

Themed on "technologies of the self", this year's festival took place in Beijing in late September with a forum via video conference. In addition, there were six film screenings and a series of workshops, co-hosted by cultural and art organization Body On & On and the Danish Cultural Center in Beijing.

The screenings include documentaries and dance projects that promote inclusiveness through artistic means, present the potential and creativity of marginalized communities, and challenge stereotypical conceptions of normality.