The Chinese children dancing away drug addiction
A small, donor-funded education centre is helping Jingpo children escape the deadly cycle of their heroin-infested community near the Myanmar border
At first glance, this children’s education centre looks similar to any other. Its walls are decorated with pupils’ paintings. Fairy-tale books are piled up everywhere. Children of all ages are running around, dancing, laughing and playing.
But on closer inspection, a different picture emerges. Its bamboo structure gives away its ethnic background. The children speak a language that only 100,000 people in the world understand.
And behind their laughs lies a dark truth – most come from families poisoned by drug abuse. One quarter of them have already lost a parent to addiction.
Located in Dehong prefecture in Yunnan (雲南) province, China, a stone’s throw from Myanmar, the education centre and villages surrounding it are in the heart of China’s drug war.
The Jingpo people of Dehong face an identity crisis, struggling to cope with China’s frenetic march toward modernisation while living within walking distance of the second-largest opium-producing area in the world. The result is an entire community living under the shadow of drugs.
To prevent children falling prey to addiction, the education centre’s dance floors and play areas offer a novel weapon: happiness.
