People's livelihood is no small matter, and every detail reflects care. Recently, the comprehensive service centers for the elderly and children in Yuping Community of Yuping Street and Mashu Community of Mashu Town in Qiaojia County have been completed and put into use, providing elderly people with companions for activities and left-behind children with a place for activities, further improving the care service system for the elderly and children in the jurisdiction.
On September 23, the Qiaojia County Elderly Association organized its first activity at the Yuping Community comprehensive service center for the elderly and children. Elderly people enthusiastically walked into their new home, played table tennis, played Chinese chess, and learned about the center's internal layout. The three-story Yuping Community comprehensive service center for the elderly and children is located at the Qiaojia County Gymnasium and includes activity rooms, a library, a calligraphy and painting room, a rehearsal room, a makeup room, and a multifunctional hall. Its most distinctive feature is the Qiaojia County Place Name Culture Museum, which allows everyone to learn about the origins, history, and cultural changes of place names in each township and street of Qiaojia. The service center integrates functions such as learning, sports, rehearsal, and performance, and will be used jointly by multiple social organizations.
The delivery and use of the community comprehensive service center for the elderly and children has provided us with a relatively relaxed environment, allowing us to have care, happiness, and purpose in old age. We must take good care of our health, maintain a joyful mood, and actively contribute to the harmonious development of Qiaojia, said Ran Qihui, president of the Qiaojia County Elderly Association.
In recent years, Qiaojia County has always adhered to a people-centered development philosophy, placed the work related to the elderly and children in a prominent position, focused on the two core needs of elderly care and companionship and the healthy growth of minors, coordinated and integrated community public resources, strengthened service positions, expanded service content, and improved service mechanisms. It has made every effort to build standardized, inclusive, and regular community comprehensive service positions, fully implemented care measures, and worked to solve livelihood challenges.
The comprehensive service center for the elderly and children has given elderly people a good place. Everyone can talk with one another about what is on their minds, and mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships or neighborhood relationships can benefit from mutual learning. When people speak what should be said and offer advice when needed, neighborhood disputes decrease, which is greatly beneficial to everyone's unity, said Chen Panxiong, a resident of Yuping Community.
At present, Qiaojia County has built 3 comprehensive service centers for the elderly and children, 9 basic elderly care service institutions, 4 home-based elderly care service centers, 6 community daytime care centers, 6 community happiness canteens, and 189 activity venues for the elderly. The coverage rate of community elderly care service facilities has reached 80%. It has integrated existing women's homes, Party member activity rooms, libraries, rural reading rooms, and cultural halls to create children's homes, with 116 children's homes completed and 76 under construction, achieving full coverage by the end of this year.
Gao Zeping, head of the Social Welfare and Social Affairs Section of the County Civil Affairs Bureau, introduced: The completion of service facilities for the elderly and children has filled the shortcomings in community public services, created a good atmosphere in which the whole society cares for the elderly and children, enriched the cultural lives of the elderly and children, and given the people a greater sense of happiness and fulfillment.
At present, the county has 1,239 elderly people with special difficulties, who receive care through service positions such as community daytime care centers and activity venues for the elderly. During the 2025 winter vacation and the 2026 summer vacation, relying on children's homes and the minors protection center, Qiaojia County opened 65 village and community children's home sites and organized 153 volunteers to carry out centralized care services for nearly 2,000 left-behind, disadvantaged, and migrant children during the winter and summer vacations. It also guided social organizations such as Huiai and Datong and college student volunteers to participate in care services, carrying out more than 70 care activities such as Material Plus Service, Warm Love Action, Hand-in-Hand Plan, Love Warms the Sunset and Delicious Meals, and Yunnan Has Blessings and Colorful Childhood, effectively enriching the spiritual and cultural lives of left-behind children and the elderly.
Next, Qiaojia County will strengthen the operation and management of elderly care service institutions and the development of elderly care service teams, gradually equip the 16 urban community daytime care centers, elderly service centers, activity venues for the elderly, and happiness canteens in the county seat, and ensure full coverage of community elderly care service facilities. It will build and strengthen children's home service positions, continue to carry out centralized winter and summer vacation care services for left-behind children, and carry out regular care and protection work for left-behind and disadvantaged children, so that warm care for the elderly and children takes root at their doorsteps.