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Foundation highlights plight of latchkey kids

Children and members of A-pay, a local pop band, pose for photos at an event held to raise funds for the Child Welfare League Foundation, which supports ``latchkey children.'' PHOTO: CNA

"Little Sheng," 11, turns his TV on full blast daily until the wee hours in his cramped, corrugated-metal shack in the mountains. The flashing images and noise help to drive away the loneliness amid the eerie twitter of crickets and the darkness outside.

While most children loathe dragging themselves out of bed to attend school, Sheng, a "latchkey kid" whose mother ran out on him while he was still in diapers, loves school. In fact, Sheng loves to go anywhere that isn't a miserable shanty -- the only home his mostly absent father can provide on a rural bus driver's salary, Child Welfare League Foundation director Wang Yu-min (王育敏) said.

"The best part of Little Sheng's day everyday is when the local noodle vendor gives him a free hard-boiled egg to munch on," Wang said yesterday at the foundation's fundraiser to help "latchkey kids" -- children who, for one reason or another, spend most of their time at home unsupervised.

The foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to children's welfare, said that Sheng was just one among tens of thousands of latchkey children nationwide.

Citing the results of a recent survey based on 1,791 questionnaires distributed to primary schools around the country, Wang said that 20,000 minors currently lack parental supervision.

"This is a widespread phenomenon that we've come across in our work," she said, referring to the work done by the foundation's social workers in assisting needy families.

"From the time they wake up in the morning to the time they fall asleep, these kids are largely on their own: They feed themselves, wash their own clothes, perform house chores -- they take care of themselves in just about every way imaginable everyday," she said.

Sadly, the latchkey kids' efforts to fend for themselves sometimes fall short, with fatal consequences.

Wang cited 18 widely reported cases last year of latchkey children who died or were injured in falls from highrise apartments, fires and other mishaps.

One residential fire claimed the lives of three school-age brothers, home alone, who burned to death hugging one another in their fright, the foundation said.

A declining economy in which parents are forced to take on more than one job is behind the growing number of latchkey kids, Wang said.

Latchkey kids typically come of age in single-parent families, with more than 60 percent of these single parents working twice as long as the average blue-collar worker, she added.

Stuck in dire financial straits and a brutal rat race, latchkey kids' parents can scarcely afford to provide their children with babysitters or afterschool services, she said.

So where does that leave Little Sheng? Luckily, the foundation gives him a helping hand by regularly dispatching its social workers to check in on him. But, according to the release, Sheng still spends many nights alone, dozing in front of a TV that is more companion than appliance to the boy.

In the words of local film star Yang Kui-mei (楊貴媚), who described herself as a former latchkey kid while helping to host yesterday's fundraiser, children like Little Sheng must "hang tough."

"While science makes leaps and bounds, the human heart is becoming lonelier," she said. "Be brave. Be tough."
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