Orphans into loving foster families in China

What a difference a few months make! We sent out our last update in early February, which told you about a new community centre built in a remarkable village in Yunnan Province.

As you know, we are working with social welfare institutions (orphanages) across China, training them in family care (adoption and foster care) so that they can set and run their own family care programmes. This means they can move children out of the orphanage and into the safe, secure and loving environment of a local family.

The current epidemic has put our training on hold, although the team have been extremely busy planning for the next phase of our work, converting our training materials into online resources, which will eventually be accessible to orphanages and foster parents across China. 

The impact of COVID-19 has had far-reaching implications for all of us. As the virus has spread across the world, we have faced new challenges, including physical and psychological health risks, school and business closures, family confinement, isolation and economic vulnerability.

Children within orphanages are particularly vulnerable to serious infectious illnesses. Orphanages tend to be extremely crowded and infections spread swiftly. As well as COVID-19, these include respiratory tract infections, intestinal parasites, and tuberculosis.

This epidemic has affirmed that children are better off in families, rather than in orphanages. If you would consider supporting us again in the future, we would be extremely appreciative. Thank you for staying connected to our work.

Many of you will have seen our short film, ‘The Village’, telling the incredible story of Lu Quan in China; a village which has come together to transform the lives of hundreds of orphaned and abandoned children, many of whom are severely disabled.

In 2019 the incredible work of these villagers was given a boost by the completion of a Care for Children-funded building project aimed at enhancing local service provision. Nestled amongst the breathtaking green mountains of Yunnan Province sits the tiny village of Lu Quan, where something truly remarkable has happened.

In 2000, 700 children were living in the nearby Kunming Child Welfare Institution, with little hope of ever having a family of their own. Shockingly, 93% of these children had some form of disability. When Care for Children introduced our family placement model to the Kunming orphanage, Lu Quan’s remarkable Village Elder was inspired to get involved.

Under his leadership, by 2015, 53 families in the village were fostering over 160 children, many of whom suffer from severe disabilities and need constant care and attention. The total population of the village was just 370. The incredible sacrifice and love displayed by these people is the perfect example of why children need to grow up in families, not institutions. The children in these families receive the unique care, attention and consistency that loving parents can provide.

 The completion of the community resource centre in 2019 marks the final part of the transition from institutional care to family-based care in the community for vulnerable children.

You can read more about the return to Luquan in our 2020 Annual Report, available on our website.

Nana’s biological parents weren’t capable of caring for a baby with a cleft palate, so they abandoned Nana as a new-born. Even though she was placed in foster care as a toddler, Nana grew up carrying the weight of her biological parents’ rejection. She felt her parents didn’t want her and had placed her into an orphanage because she was not good enough. 

Nana thought it was all her fault. She believed she was unlovable. 

But Nana’s foster mother laboured to change Nana’s negative view of herself for years. She worked hard to make Nana feel that she was loved, wanted, and valued in spite of her gender and disability. Nana’s foster mother wanted to help Nana understand that she was not to blame.

Nana couldn’t bring herself to believe her foster mother at first but the foster mother was persistent. 

The love and belief of her foster mother slowly changed Nana. Today, Nana knows that she is loved. She believes that she is important and worthy, and this has changed everything about the way she interacts with the world. Nana doesn’t hide anymore. She is a much more confident child than she was before, taking part in classroom activities and making friends. Nana recently performed the leading role in a school play.

Now that Nana knows she is loved she believes that she matters, and she is happier and healthier because of it. That is the value of a family. 

Your support helps train and equip staff in orphanages to move children such as Nana out of orphanages and into local foster families. Thank you for your support and for staying connected with our work.

Every month, we're working hard to ensure more children are moved out of orphanages and into loving foster families. Our work isn't a quick fix; we're providing long-term solutions to a complex challenge, and helping governments in Asia create sustainable models.

There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, but the goal is always to provide the opportunity for children to thrive in the unique care of a family. On a recent trip to China, we returned to a village in Luquan, Yunnan Province, where in 2015 we filmed 'The Village'. You can watch that video here.

Remarkably, this one village has fostered hundreds of children, with multiple generations of families now welcoming children into their homes. It is wonderful to see this cultural transformation taking place, with vulnerable children given new hope by these amazing families.

While in Luquan, we attended the opening of the new Community Resource Centre, the culmination of years of work in partnership with the Chinese government and the IKEA Foundation. This brilliant facility will revolutionise the care that vulnerable children receive, providing physiotherapy, special needs education and many other services for the fostered children in the community.

The Community Resource Centre is the best example of our long term goal, enabling increased independence and long-term sustainability for the foster care system in China, meaning many more generations of children can grow up in loving foster families.

We're so grateful for your amazing support, and we know that these children's lives couldn't be transformed without you.

Mr. Qiao became a social worker because he wanted to help people. He just didn’t think those people would be children. 

“I used to care for the elderly before joining the Kunming Children’s Social Welfare Institute, so I felt like I transitioned from a son to a father. I remember asking myself, How can I become a good father?” 

He turned out to be a great father. In fact, he excelled in his work so much that he was promoted to be the director of the institution. 

“I realised that when I served the children even a little bit, they appreciated it and would give much more in return."

We’ve known Qiao for over a decade now, and we are consistently encouraged by his work. 

“Our goal is always to provide all the children with a happy life and support the foster parents, so they can enjoy their work. This has been my purpose from the very beginning.”

He was quick to recognise the benefits of foster parents and has become an advocate for a community-centred approach to childcare. 

“One of our project sites is in Luquan (Yunnan Province), where a community of foster parents looks after the orphans together. It has become a culture of raising children in the community, and it has been awarded as a model of best practice in foster care nationwide.”

Qiao has seen the way the families have built even stronger bonds with their community through their shared commitment to providing homes for children.

“They support each other, learn from each other, and discuss openly what they need to improve together. Their practice and action of kindness also inspired other surrounding villages. More and more families are joining them to foster children!”

In addition, Qiao has seen the way foster care is able to address a child’s needs for love and security and help that child grow into a healthy adult.

“I think what they [foster families] do the best is they have helped the children grow up holistically, and the children in Luquan are more complete psychologically."

We have hope for the future of orphan care in China because of people like Qiao. His dedication to finding the best way to support orphans in China is what will move that system forward. 

“China’s success is not related to de-institutionalisation [removing orphanages] but remodelling their services to meet the needs of the children they serve."

Your support helps train and equip individuals, like Qiao, who are working to change the lives of children every day. Thank you for your support.