This little girl from the Jiujiang orphanage needs surgery on her cleft lip. See the information at the bottom of this page if you can help.
Letter From Mr.
Cao
Director of Jiujiang Social Welfare Institute
A family that has adopted from Jiujiang feels quite fortunate to have a wonderful Chinese woman, Yannie Fan, teaching their daughter and a group of adopted Chinese girls Chinese language, culture, songs and dance. During the summer of 2000 Yannie took a trip to China and visited several of the orphanages that her students were from, including the Jiujiang orphanage. This family writes, "Yannie has become very involved with us and our children. We feel very lucky
because she is a very intelligent, wise and compassionate person. When she went to China in the summer she took on the extraordinary mission of personally visiting many of the orphanages which our children are from. This was quite a phenomenal task physically and emotionally. We were very surprised to hear that the orphanage which most concerned her was Jiujiang because when we saw it in July 1996 it had looked quite good." An account of Yannie's visit to Jiujiang is at www.usaweb1.com/chinatrip/jiujian1.htm.Because of her concern for the children at the Jiujiang orphanage Yannie has asked that I share a letter from Mr. Cao, director of the Jiujiang orphanage, at the website so that more families can hear about the needs there and about the loving concern that Mr. Cao and the staff have for the children.. She writes, "As Mr. Cao mentioned to me when I visited the orphanage, the Institution has a very good relationship with Amity. Parents who would like to make donation can send money to Amity and ask Amity to pass it to Jiujiang."
Director Cao's Letter
October 11th, 2000
Dear Ms. Fan,
How are you? I was so glad to receive your letter two days ago. You are so deeply concerned about the children at the Institution even as you were when you bid farewell to us in the summer. I am deeply touched by this devotion and by what you have been doing not just by volunteering yourself to the children but also by building up a friendship bridge between us and the parents who adopted or will adopt children from our Institution. We can feel the loving, caring and friendship from all the families. Please tell all the Jiujiang families, and the families to be, that the main mission of our Institution is to take good care of all the children who have no home to stay in. Once the children come to our big home, our caregivers and aunts devote all they have to feed them, take good care of them and show mother love to them. We believe that caring for children like them is a sublime mission to us who have infinite faith in civil welfare affairs.
The number of our children has now reached more than 150 (not including children in foster care). Our budget is fairly tight. To make it worse, some young children are coming with disabilities and diseases. The situation barely makes two ends meet. Nowadays we have been working on two projects -- the rehabilitation equipment and medical equipment. The rehabilitation building you saw in the summer has been handed over to the Institution. We are trying very hard to have the building equipped with some basic rehabilitation installations. With some basic equipment, many of our children would be able to become independent when gown up. Unfortunately we have some teenagers who have already missed the critical period for limb rehabilitation and now have to depend on others for their daily life.
In the meantime, we are searching for resources to purchase medical equipment, such as ECG (electrocardiograph) and B Ultrasound machine. With this equipment children with hepatitis, splenomegaly and heart diseases (such as rheumatic or congenital), can get immediate diagnosis and treatment without delay or paying for expensive clinical visits and hospitalization. We, and on the behalf of the children, would be very grateful if the families understand the situation and would like to donate, even if just partially, for the equipment.
With the financial support of Amity in Nanjing, we now have a twin incubator. (Note from Yannie: "In my report on Jiujiang orphanage, there had been eight sets of twins enrolled in recent years. By the time I went to visit, only two whole sets and two half sets survived while two half sets and four whole sets had died. They were longing for an incubator to save lives of immature infants.) And also with the financial support of Amity, I sent an eight-month-old baby girl (whom you saw in that crib) last month to Wuhan Children's Hospital for a heart surgery. The little girl is doing fine at this moment.
Please extend my cordial greetings to all the families who show great concerns and loving to our children.
Best,
Cao, Junbiao
Director of Jiujiang Social Welfare Institution
The incubator mentioned above was purchased by funds sent to Amity from Altrusa Foundation and had been received in the memory of adoptive parent Cheryl Snope. The funds for the baby girl's heart surgery ("Katie") were also sent to Amity from Altrusa Foundation and were contributed by many adoptive parents and waiting parents. So far in 2001 we've also been able to provide funds for the following: 20 Children's Beds ($725), a set of rehabilitation equipment ($1295), and an electrocardiogram machine ($842).
The current needs at Jiujiang are support for the six Hugging Grannies and money to provide cleft lip surgery for Cao Rui. If you'd like to help the Jiujiang orphanage please send your tax deductible donation to:
Altrusa Foundation of Longview-Kelso
Attention: Peggy
Gurrad
P.O. Box 1354
Longview, WA
98632
Just include a note that your donation is to be used at Jiujiang. You can specify a certain project or write "wherever most needed". For more detailed information visit http://http://www.altrusa.ws
Please e-mail me at peggy@gurrad.com if you have any questions.