Judicial department of Fujian spares no effort to lift village out of poverty

With 66 villagers from 18 households living under the poverty line, Jizhou, a village in the eastern province of Fujian, is one of the major targets of the province's poverty alleviation effort.

Fortunately, since the end of 2017 when the provincial judicial department dispatched officials to the village to take charge of the poverty relief work, the situation there has improved significantly.

Within a month after their arrival, the officials visited all of the 185 households in the village, carefully recording their specific difficulties. Their high efficiency helped them quickly win the villagers' trust.

Since 2018, with a total of 830,000 yuan ($120,700) in government funding, the officials have managed to attract nearly 15 million yuan in investment from enterprises, enough for them to launch a series of projects aimed at improving villagers' livelihoods.

With the investment, they renovated what used to a merely 3.5 meters-wide sandy alley leading to the village into a 6.5 meters-wide concrete road.

In addition, they accomplished 21 projects to facilitate local agricultural production, overhauled the local power grid, improved the living environment, and even repaired the village's cultural relics.

They also actively introduced such industries as tourism and warehousing to the village in an effort to diversify villagers' income sources.

To address the village's shortage of medical services, the officials organized experienced doctors to offer free diagnosis services. They also made such services regular by setting up a medical office in the village where doctors were available twice a week.

During every public emergency, whether it be the rain storm in 2019 or the COVID-19 outbreak, the officials always quickly raised sufficient relief materials for the villagers.

Apart from the material support, the department has taken various steps to enhance legal services for the villagers. They set up a public free legal service office, cultivated the local rule of law culture by painting legal information on walls, launched an online legal service platform, and sent lawyer teams to the village to counsel villagers face-to-face.

With such all-round support from the department, the village is now on a fast track to prosperity.