A same challenge for Europeans and Chinese…
In Xiangchun Lane, Kaifu District, Changsha, there is a bakery full of love called Bahexidian, which is widely known for its owner, a German couple’s, who has helped the hearing-impaired for many years transforming this Bahexi restaurant into a Chinese non-profit organization. Last year, the German couple, returned to Europe for family and pandemic reasons, had already indicated their plans to return to China. After a few months, the store will be handed over soon. What are their plans after returning home?
The husband’s Chinese name is Wu Zhengrong, and the wife’s name is Du Xuehui. Since its opening 10 years ago, the store has been recruiting proposing advantageous conditions and only hearing-impaired people as bread apprentices, in order to increase their employability skills, and the employees in the store are mainly from this group
The work skills of the employees in the bakery are very mature, the operation of the entire store has been relatively stable. The couple feel that since they came to Changsha 20 years ago, they are about to return to China , the whole society is more and more gratifying to pay attention to and protect the disabled.
The couple was expected to return to China in April 2022, but judging from the current store handover situation, it may be delayed for a while. After they return to China, the store was considering handed over to the Ai Xihui Disabled Children Service Center to manage. They have also been devoted to rehabilitation training and skill training for disabled children for many years. Du Xuehui usually works in this institution. Wu Zhengrong believes that this organization can do more things that he wanted to do but failed to do, and can help more people.
But everyone was reluctant to let him go
“It’s easy to make bread, but difficult to do business. It’s really lucky that this store didn’t collapse », said Wu Zhengrong to a Chinese journalist.
Originally, he wanted to help the hearing-impaired people find employment by learning to make bread, but he probably did not expect that the biggest problem in front of him was learning how to be a boss !
Employment challenge for disabled people
It will be 20 years since Wu Zhengrong and his wife came to Changsha from Germany in March 2002. During this time, they didn’t think about going back.
For the first ten years, this German couple has been working on training and services for people with disabilities, but they have found that employment is a major challenge for this group. So Wu Zhengrong and a German studied the situation, and after saving money for more than a year, they opened Bahexidian at the end of 2011. At this time, they basically maintained the frequency of returning to China twice a year.
In 2012, Wu Zhengrong’s mother felt unwell, and the two decided to return Germany. But brothers and sisters were very supportive of the project in China, saying that they could take care of the mum.
So the couple stayed in Changsha for ten years.
After Wu Zhengrong’s parents died in 2014, they returned to China less and less often. Since the epidemic, they have not returned for more than three years, and usually only rely on video calls to keep in touch with relatives and friends.
Wu Zhengrong was 32 years old when he came to Changsha, and now he is 52 years old. As he gets older, he and his wife miss their hometown in Germany more and more. They also considered returning home to find work. The retirement age in Germany is 67, while in China it is 60. But if you return to Germany at the age of 60, the job may not be so easy to find.
Changsha new situation for disabled people
But the main thing is that the couple feels they are no longer needed here. The current situation of the bakery is stable. If a new force like Ai Xihui joins, maybe there will be more possibilities, and the rehabilitation center where his wife works is also full of manpower. The situation is completely different from when they first came to Changsha, and now the protection for the disabled is relatively complete.
But even in Germany the German lady will remember her disabled friends from Chnagsha because they taught her an invaluable treasure: sign language to communicate with all the deaf people on the planet!
