Sanitation workers pose for a photo after being honored for their contributions at a ceremony at the north square of Shenzhen Book City CBD Store in Futian District yesterday, Sanitation Workers’ Day. They were among the 1,000 sanitation workers who were rewarded 1,000 yuan each at the ceremony. Sun Yuchen
A total of 1,000 frontline sanitation workers were honored yesterday for their excellent contributions as the “city’s beauticians” at a ceremony celebrating the city’s fifth and Guangdong Province’s 28th Sanitation Worker’s Day, which falls on Oct. 26 each year.
Ten representatives of the 1,000 workers received the Excellent Sanitation Worker certificate at the ceremony held yesterday morning at the north square of Shenzhen Book City CBD Store in Futian District.
Each of the 1,000 workers has accumulated more than five years of working hours. They each received 1,000 yuan (US$157) as a gift, according to the Shenzhen Municipal Urban Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau, the event’s organizer.
A total of 50 sanitation workers were invited to attend the ceremony yesterday.
During the ceremony, a video was shown to tell some model sanitation workers’ stories.
Lu Xiaohua, 24, operates sweeping machines. After graduating from university, Lu joined the city’s sanitation workers’ team.
He teaches street cleaners to use the facilities to clean streets.
“My major is mechanical engineering in university. I want to use what I have learned to help my colleagues improve work efficiency and reduce workload,” said Lu.
At the same time, a charity program was officially launched at the ceremony to offer the city’s sanitation workers a meal each week. Under this program, sanitation workers only need to pay 0.01 yuan for their meals.
It is said that the program has been piloted in Futian District since this August and extended to the whole city starting mid-October. Some 600,000 meals are expected to be given out this year. The program was jointly launched by Beautiful Shenzhen Foundation, Tencent Charity Foundation and Tencent’s WeChat Pay.
On a separate occasion yesterday, 30 frontline sanitation workers who are mainly responsible for the sanitation at the Civic Center area in Futian were also each given 1,000 yuan for their hard work.
Shenzhen has employed 60,000 people for city cleaning services.
The Sanitation Workers’ Day was first launched in 1987 in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province and then spread to other parts of the country. This was an attempt to increase the public’s awareness and appreciation for the work of street cleaners.