Bethel China

The theme for this project update report is "Family!"

Families are important, and we strongly believe this at Bethel China. In the past two months, seven of our children have been adopted. It has been beautiful to see new families come together and we are thankful that these kids have such a bright future ahead of them.

In order to share some stories about families who have chosen to adopt a child with a visual impairment, we have published an Ebook called "Exposed to Hope: Stories from families who have adopted a child with a visual impairment". Thirteen families submitted their stories for the book. You can purchase a copy for $2.99 via this link. 

Although we advocate for adoption, and love to share these beautiful stories, the fact is that all adoption stories begin with loss. Loss of family as children are abandoned because of their visual impairment. One reason that families may abandon their child is due to despair that they will not have access to educational resources and, medical care, and without this, a children cannot grow up to live a fulfilling life.

Bethel's Family Outreach project is a way to support families who have a child with a visual impairment. We run trainings and create and publish educational materials. At our last training in June 2014, over 40 people attended, including mothers, fathers and grandparents and teachers. Bethel teachers go through a series of topics related to education, and families also have access to our materials (including blogs, a manual and a DVD series).

As well as this practical training, Bethel's Family Outreach provides a foundation of emotional support. Parents who have a child with special needs often feel lonely and without hope. By introducing them to other parents in the same position, we see hope renewed and restored, as they share their joys and challenges with one another.

Families are important. That’s why at Bethel China, we operate as a big family, we promote adoption, and we help to give hope to parents.

Links:

• http://www.bethelchina.org/exposed-to-hope-stories-from-families-who-have-adopted-a-child-with-a-visual-impairment/

The Lighthouse – Expecting Babies!

For the past year and a half, the ‘Lighthouse Project’ has been home to our 6 children and young people aged 10+ who have multi-disabilities. They have all flourished living in their home with an amazing team. They live on an amazing site in a converted French monastery in North Beijing.

Now we have been able to renovate more of the site, and we are going to open up some more of it as an Early Intervention Centre for babies. Five little ones have just moved in, and we are so excited to see them grow up!

The babies are all aged between 1-2 years old, and they include Yang Yang (Richard), Chen Fei (Faith), Yan Feng (Freddie), Qiu Ye (Luke) and Peng Peng (Priscilla).

Yang Yang and Qiu Ye even have little videos about them!

Early intervention is vitally important in the lives of children. Learning to walk, talk, play and love requires a lot of attention and love from Bethel China's caregivers and teachers. As well as this, there is a medical aspect to early intervention. Children born with some eye conditions can be treated to prevent vision loss, but in the majority of cases it should be treated before the age of 3 years.

Apart from these reasons, we also think that babies are so cute and we want to cuddle them from as early an age as possible!

Once these babies are settled, we hope to open up the home to welcome more children. More importantly, we want the Lighthouse Baby Home to be an example of good quality early intervention for blind children in China.

To sponsor one of these babies, or any of the other children in Bethel China's care, please visit www.bethelchina.org/sponsor-a-child. Payments can be set up monthly through Global Giving.

Thank you for your support!