China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is to hire 60 marriage
counselors for the soldiers and their spouses in the Beijing
Military Area Command.
They are the first group of marriage counselors in the "Save the
Marriage" project, initiated by the All-China Women's Federation in
an attempt to curb the rising number of marital and family
problems.
"Soldiers' families are a special group. It's common for the
couples to live in different places, and there are many marital,
family and children's education problems in their marriages," said
a federation expert.
Besides psychology and professional training, marriage and
family counselors must have a good grasp of sociology, physiology,
marriage law, marriage culture and parenthood education, he said.
They must know how to communicate effectively with their clients
and give good advice.
Experts were invited to give a 20-day training course for the
counselors on sociology, the history of marriage and family,
marriage law, education, ethnicity and psychology.
The federation said it would train more marriage counselors for
the armed forces and civilian service.
According to government figures, China's divorce rate has risen
each year since 2002. A total of 1.78 million couples split in
2005, up 7.2 percent on the previous year.
No statistics are available on marriage and divorce in the armed
forces.
(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2007)