Bethel China

As children become teenagers, it is even more important that we treat them as individuals.

Dong Fang (Eric) is a 12-year-old boy who has been in Bethel’s care for three years. He is very clever. He had never learned Braille before coming to Bethel, and after just a few weeks, he could read! He was one in the first group of children who started going to the Beijing School for the Blind.

Dong Fang’s first year at school was a struggle.  As he is very clever and picks things up quickly, he was often bored in class, and he chose to push the boundaries of what he could get away with. He frequently ran away from his school classroom and his teachers were very angry. They resorted to asking his ayis to always stand outside the door to catch him on his way out.

Eventually, his ayis and teachers realised that whenever Dong Fang ran away from class, he headed straight for the elevator. He has a very technical mind and he loves anything to do with engineering. He kept asking questions about how the elevator worked.

At the beginning of the semester in March this year, Dong Fang was told that if he stayed at school during his classes, worked hard, and passed his exams, then he would be able to visit an elevator factory for his birthday. Thinking of this reward was the motivation that he needed. He worked hard, and during the summer holidays, he was allowed to visit the Schindler Offices in Beijing.

The Schindler team were wonderful! They spent some time giving the kids a presentation about the electronics behind elevators, and told them about the fastest and strongest ones in the world. Their presentation was fun, interactive and creative-perfect for children who are blind.

After the presentations, they took the kids to the escalators and elevators to see how the theories are put into practice. The whole day was very hands on and educational.

Dong Fang loved it! At the end, the Schindler team gave him a hat for his birthday.

The kids that we have at Bethel are like any other child. Each one is very different, they need different motivations, goals and rewards, and they need to be treated as individuals. It was a wonderful experience for Dong Fang’s caregivers and teachers to see him so excited to learn about different engineering projects. He is such a sweet boy!

Thank you for supporting Bethel’s vision to see every child with a visual life life to the fullest. We believe that children like Dong Fang can grow up to be an engineer. He has the mind, and the drive, and the determination to do so. It is our job to give our kids the opportunities to learn about different careers that they can work towards.

We have expanded our vision to support children with visual impairments in China, not just orphans, but also children who still have parents. Bethel has found that that the parents of visually impaired children are often isolated, feel alone and don’t have the resources to teach their children how to grow and learn and live life to the fullest.

During the last week of June, Bethel’s Project 555 held a workshop on how to care for and educate young children with visual impairments. Over 20 parents (and grandparents) who have young children with blindness, 10 participants came from orphanages, foster homes and schools attended the week of training workshops.

We were happy to welcome many parents and grandparents to the training so that they could become better equipped to meet their children’s needs.  In China there are special schools for children with blindness who are of primary school age and above, but it is difficult to find a pre-school or kindergarten. Bethel hopes to fill in the gap by providing training and other resources to parents. By the end of the week, everyone on the team had got to know one another. Having a community of people in the same situation helps everyone realise that they are not alone.

The workshop covered many topics, including early childhood development, low vision, braille, fine motor skills, self-help skills and sensory integration. 8 of Bethel's teachers from our school taught the classes.

During the workshop week, participants were taught how to guide a person who is blind, how to use an adaptive mobility device, and how to use a white cane. They were blindfolded to try all of these skills.  By having these experiences with the blindfold, participants will be better able to help their children learn the skills.

Another workshop topic was art, taught by Teacher Yang, a teacher at Bethel’s Doudian Center.  In the art class, participants had a paper with a raised line shape already on it, such as a flower.  Using tactile materials such as tissue paper with glue, they could create a tactile picture that they could feel and enjoy later. 

Our kids who live at Bethel receive great care and education, but they are still orphans, without a family to call their own. To be in a family is still the most important aspect of a child's development, and so we hope that in reaching out to parents, we can help to reduce the number of visually impaired children in orphanages, in a small way.

We hope that everyone left the training feeling equipped and encouraged!