First Person | Zhang Zhiwei

Finding and returning children who were abducted is one thing, helping them settle back into with their families is another challenge entirely.

As a lawyer, I used to just offer legal assistance to victim's families, but money is never going to heal the mental damage that has been caused.

When a child is abducted at a very early age they have no idea about their family and there is no emotional relationship. So when they are returned they are often shy and unwilling to be near their biological parents.

I could see these children just didn't know how to face the future and were in desperate need of counseling. Families, too, need help adjusting. In fact, they are often more traumatized than the child, especially if that boy or girl had time to bond with their adoptive parents.

In my role as director of China University of Political Science and Law's Center for International Cooperation Against Human Trafficking, in 2010 I established a volunteer group to offer counseling to victims and their families.

We talk and we share, whether that is face to face, through e-mails, on QQ instant messenger, whatever it takes to help these people restart their lives.

I've invited every trained psychologist I've met to join our team and tried to learn the skills to help victims. But the number of volunteers is still far from enough.

Zhang Zhiwei was talking to China Daily reporter Cao Yin.

(China Daily 01/22/2013 page5)