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Quake survivors strive for direction to new life

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-05 14:25

The six-year-old girl had lived in fear for a long time and refused to go into the makeshift houses. Even now, the little girl would only go to sleep while being held in someone's arms.

He Fang lost her voice for more than one week. Both the husband and wife have been in deep desperation for a long time.

Early this year, she and her cousin opened a "makeshift hair salon" near the temporary-housing area of Hongbai.

With no decoration but some very simple facilities, He did haircut and simple hair dressing, which makes her family a daily income of about 200 yuan.

"I have to live on for my daughter. I can only forget the agony through hard work," she said.

She planned to rent a house to continue the business after the new township was completed.

However, her husband has not yet found a job. What he could do was to fetch some water for the salon, and then idled away the rest of the day.

"It's hard to find jobs either in or outside the province," He said.

Her worries were also the concern of the government that has highlighted the employment issue in the reconstruction plan in September.

With months' efforts, 1.2 million out of the 1.5 million who became jobless or landless after the quake were able to find employment again.

But due to the global financial crisis, the quake-hit areas face an even worse job market this year.

Jia Dechun, director of the makeshift housing area for residents from old Beichuan County, said that less than half of the 7,000 jobless people in his area have found employment, although local government has organized vocational training and provided job information.

Jia said they used to earn a living by house-leasing or running smaller businesses, which didn't require any skills or much physical strength.

"They can't accept the new life style that they have to make more efforts than before to feed their families," Jia said, adding that they have to change their mind before looking for jobs.

Jia admitted it's not easy for them to change.

Fu Huajian, 42, a resident in the region, was former headman at construction sites. He couldn't find post-quake employment until recently.

"I'm too old to compete with younger job hunters. Now I'm living on the deposit," said Fu, whose 17-year-old son died in the quake.

He and some friends enrolled in a driving school hoping they could get licenses and become drivers.

Jia said that employment remained the biggest pressure for him at the moment.

"A job is very important for people here because it helps people forget grief and look forward into a brighter future," he said.

Tian Fugang was lucky to have fixed his goal -- trying to catch up with his teammate Dong Chao, who won a bronze medal in the men's air rifle event at last year's Paralympics.

"I cherish this opportunity very much and will practice hard in order to go to London for the next Paralympics," he said.

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