CONTACT: Reggie Littlejohn, President, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
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PHONE: 310.592.5722 (in D.C. this week)
EMAIL: reggielittle
WEBSITE: www.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: LITTLEJOHN TO UN: BABY GIRLS, WIDOWS STILL AT RISK IN CHINA – “IT IS BETTER TO DIE . . .”
Women’s Rights Without Frontiersis
collaborating with the Women’s United Nations Reporting Network to
sponsor an event at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
Monday, March 11 at 10:30 a.m. at the Church Center of the U.N., 8thFloor, 777 United Nations Plaza, NY 10017.
“Zhen
Ting’s” husband passed away with necrosis of the bone five years
ago. She still remembers his last months, in and out of the hospital.
The doctor finally told Zhen Ting to take her husband home and buy him
his favorite foods. They had run out of money for hospitalization, and
there was nothing more that could be done to save him.
Zhen
Ting’s daughter-in-law became very angry at the cost of her
father-in-law’s illness. The daughter-in-law yelled at this helpless,
elderly couple. She told the neighbors, “It is better to die than live
in pain and make the whole family suffer, spending all our savings so
that we will become homeless people.” The daughter-in-law held out the
example of an elderly woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer. She
hanged herself on a tree in the back yard, to save her family from
having to pay medical expenses.
Zhen
Ting says that her son is an introverted person; he would never stand
up to his wife. She had no support, no one to turn to, when a
fieldworker from Women’s Rights Without Frontiers told her about our
“Save a Widow” Campaign. Zhen Ting is deeply grateful for the monthly
visit and monetary support she is now receiving. She says that even
though her own son has abandoned her, kind strangers from far away are
willing to help her. She told our fieldworker, “God is showing mercy to
me and sent me an angel.”
China
has the highest female suicide rate in the world. According to a State
Department Report, 590 women end their lives every day in China. China
also has a skyrocketing rate of senior suicide, which has increased
500% in the past 20 years, as the One Child Policy has destroyed the
family structure in China.
China’s current elderly population is 241 million, 17.3 % of the nation’s total population, and rising. China’s elderly population is set to peak at nearly half a billion, or 35% of the total population, in 2050.
Sadly, senior suicide is on the rise. According to a reportin
the China Daily -- a Chinese government–affiliated English language
news outlet -- the suicide rate of rural Chinese elderly has increased
500% in the past two decades, from 100 to 500 per 100,000. According to
sociologist Liu Yanwu, who studied the issue for six years, “. . . I
was more shocked by the lack of concern in villages where the elderly
commit suicide . . . It seems that death is nothing to fear, and suicide
is a normal, even a happy end.”
In
the past, elders were venerated and cared for by their children and
grandchildren. “Filial piety was valued in old China, but many elderly
people in rural areas can no longer depend on their children as a result
of the great economic and social changes over the past three decades,”
continues Liu, “and the pension system fails to compensate . . . In
China, farmers are vulnerable, and old farmers are the most vulnerable.”
Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers,
stated, “the studies show that the elderly, especially elderly widows
who traditionally have depended on their children to support them in old
age, are becoming destitute and so desperate that they are committing
suicide. They are the invisible victims of the demographic disaster
caused by the One Child Policy and are in urgent need of help.
Women’s Rights Without Frontiersis committed to helping Chinese women at every stage of their lives. Our “Save a Girl” Campaignhelps
baby girls to be born, instead of being selectively aborted or
abandoned because they are girls. Likewise, we help their mothers
defend themselves against the pressure to abort or abandon their baby
girls. And now through our “Save a Widow” Campaign,
we are extending help to elderly widows, to ease their suffering and
give them dignity and new hope in the twilight season of their lives.
These
efforts are not enough to help all the baby girls or all the abandoned
widows in China. We call upon the Chinese government to step up its
efforts to help those most vulnerable.
Related Links
Can China Afford Rapid Aging?
Suicide Among Elderly Increases
China’s Elderly Population to Peak at Half a Billion in 2050
China’s Elderly Population Continues to Rise, With 241 Million Now Over 60
Save a Widow Campaign
Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2017 Report, “Population Control” section at p. 158
Ageing China: Changes and Challenges
China: The Disturbing Trend of Elderly Suicide
Suicide Among the Elderly in Mainland China
How China’s Rural Elderly Are Being Left Behind and Taking Their Lives, updated
Why are so many elderly Asians killing themselves? https://www.
China’s Rural Poor Bear the Brunt of the Nation’s Aging Crisis
Relying on Whom? Poverty and Consumption Financing of China’s Elderly
Reggie Littlejohn, President
Women's Rights Without Frontiers
www.
Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Women's Rights Without Frontiers
www.
Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=
