In a two-story home in Xinqiang Community in Guangming, sisters Tan Yanxia and Tan Yanqing spend their days making handicrafts and assembling small industrial parts.

The sisters lost their hearing as children after taking medication improperly and have lived with limited speech and hearing ever since. With support from their mother and a local vocational rehabilitation center, they have learned to earn income through their own skills, making crocheted toys, beaded ornaments and other handicrafts.

The sisters joined the Xinhu Vocational Rehabilitation Center in 2018. The center connects members with small assembly jobs from local factories and provides them with materials and training to develop their handicraft skills.

Tan Yanqing specializes in crochet, making zodiac figures and cartoon ornaments, while Tan Yanxia focuses on beadwork. One of her beaded peacock paintings sold for 1,800 yuan (US$250). The center has also helped them secure custom orders and take part in charity sales and exhibitions.

Although the sisters have limited literacy and use informal sign language that is mainly understood by family members and social workers, they regularly teach themselves new techniques through online tutorials. Social worker Luo Zhenzhu said the sisters can accurately reproduce complex designs once they are given a sample.

Their handicraft income varies depending on the number of orders, ranging from about 700 to nearly 2,000 yuan per month each. They also earn money from factory assembly work and receive government assistance.

The center has also encouraged them to take on quality inspection and registration work at its workshop, allowing them to earn additional subsidies.

For their mother, the sisters’ growing independence is as important as their income.

“They used to rarely go out or have friends,” she said. “Now they go to the rehabilitation center every day, meet more people and have become much more cheerful. That makes me feel more at ease.”

The center’s approach has gradually shifted from providing assistance to helping people with disabilities build skills, find work and participate in their community — giving the sisters a greater sense of independence through their own labor.