Homebound sewing jobs bring a better life to the doorstep

Upon hearing an approaching motorcycle, Lan Manxiu stops sewing, hops off her seat and hobbles out of the house. Her wages are arriving.

Of all the noises, the 37-yearold likes the sound from the humming of a motorcycle engine the most.

Every day, the loaded motorcycle delivers clothing material ready for sewing in the morning, and picks up the sewn clothes for sale in the evening.

The sewing machine, which Lan has to climb onto a cushioned chair to reach, has become her cash cow.

Lan was born with a humpback in a remote village in poverty-stricken Ruijin city in East China’s Jiangxi province. She married a man whose leg was amputated after being bitten by a snake during his childhood.

Last year, the family was lifted out of poverty after her husband found a job at a clothing plant in Northeast China and when she started sewing clothes at home.

When the motorcycle stopped at Lan’s house, she was given 800 yuan ($120) — her salary for December.

The motorcyclist who delivered her the money is Liu Chunhua. Liu runs the clothing workshop and is the owner of the sewing machine.

Liu distributed some of his sewing machines from his workshop to those who had trouble working away from home in 2017.

His motorcycle has become the only means of transport for clothing deliveries and pickups between the plant and the homes.

Although the village has newly built concrete roads, the tires on the motorcycle show wear and tear. For a motorcycle that was bought in 2017, the meter already shows a travel run of 33,000 kilometers.

Villager Wen Dongmei has earned 20,000 yuan by sewing clothes.

Wen and her husband became extremely impoverished three years ago when they quit their jobs in a large city to take care of their son, who was diagnosed with kidney disease.

Sewing at home not only brings income, but it also enables Wen to take care of her son. Her husband found a job at a vegetable cooperative in the village, making 100 yuan a day. Their income is enough for the family to get by.

“Although my son still has to take pills, the medical bills can be mostly covered by public healthcare,” Wen said.

Profiting from the workshop, Liu plans to buy more sewing machines this year.

Ruijin is recognized as the “red capital” and the cradle of the Chinese revolution because the forerunner of the People’s Republic of China — the provisional central government of the Chinese Soviet Republic — was founded there in 1931.

However, the city has fallen behind the rest of China and now ranks as one of the poorest places in the country.

China has pledged to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020, and industrial workshops aimed at alleviating poverty have been set up at the doorsteps of impoverished families to offer them jobs, even from home.

The number of workshops like Liu’s has reached 85, hiring more than 700 impoverished villagers in 2018, said Song Pingrong, vice-mayor of the city. In July, Ruijin announced that it had successfully shed its poverty status.

“Every evening when I hear the sound of the motorcycle engine, I know it is a sign of a better life,” Lan said.