Foster families brighten lives of a few lucky kids

By Rex Rhoades , Executive Editor
Saturday, August 11, 2007

USM L-A College team sees how love and attention, along with some outside help, is making a world of difference.

The foster parents were waiting patiently when the group of college students and faculty from Maine arrived at the orphanage. They stood with their clean, well-dressed children, most in wheelchairs.

The parents had come to this orphanage in Lu'an, China, for advice, eager to learn from a group of occupational therapists from Lewiston-Auburn College how to improve the lives of the disabled children in their care.

This is a major success story in China, moving disabled children from orphanages into homes so they can be part of a family. This foster program is sponsored by an international group, Love Without Boundaries, which is providing foster care for 300 children in 12 Chinese cities.

LWB estimates there are more than 1 million orphans in China, only 2 percent of whom will find an adoptive home. For $35 per month, LWB says, anyone can "allow a child to have the priceless gift of being loved" in a family setting.

It could be the beginning of a movement toward a foster-care system similar to that of the United States, and away from institutionalizing orphans and disabled children.

The L-A College occupational therapists on the team went right to work, and ran right into a problem: the language barrier. The group had one bilingual guide, and he was being pulled to other rooms in the orphanage.

Without the guide, the OTs couldn't communicate with the foster mothers, and they couldn't even be sure of the child's age or name.

While most in the L-A College group could speak a few words of Chinese, and most Chinese can speak a few words of English, it was often frustratingly difficult for the students and faculty members to obtain even basic information about their assigned children.

Soon, though, the indispensable interpreter returned and the therapy assessments began.

Feeding a child

In one room, occupational therapist Karen Betts was trying to show a mother a better technique for bottle feeding her child with cerebral palsy.

She demonstrated, then she had the mother imitate. The language barrier was overcome by pantomime and example, and that small success was met with laughter and hugs.

In a second room, faculty member Roxie Black, Ph.D. director of the Masters in Occupational Therapy Program at Lewiston-Auburn College, was working with another child with cerebral palsy.


Black put the child on a mat table and soon had him doing exercises that forced him to stretch his torso from one side to another. She explained the movements to the interpreter, who then explained them to the mother, who nodded her understanding.

Then the mother gave it a try, and the child and mother received a round of applause.

Love Without Boundaries has made a striking difference at this place, and its work is recognized by a large, brass plaque at the entryway to the orphanage.

The international group has decorated the orphanage's rooms with painted murals and purchased much of the physical therapy equipment in one room. There are staircases for teaching disabled children to negotiate steps, and parallel bars for helping them learn to walk. The rooms are decorated with colorful cutouts of trees, flowers and suns.

Love Without Borders began this foster program two years ago, and it's obviously working. These children are clearly loved and well cared for.

Many programs

But the organization does more. It arranges lifesaving heart operations and reconstructive surgeries to correct physical problems in orphans, like cleft palates.

The group also sponsors the education of 200 children and teen orphans, ranging from pre-school to college. It funds new schools, renovates existing ones, provides teacher training and purchases supplies, according to the organization's Web site.

It also runs nutrition programs in 16 orphanages, supplying high-quality formula and rice cereal.

The difference between this orphanage and the one the USM team had left the day before is striking. The building is bright, the children have toys and equipment, and the caretakers do not seem overwhelmed.

When, after two days, it comes time to leave, an official from the home boards our bus to thank us.

"China loves you," she said through our interpreter. Looking at the beaming faces of the USM team, the feeling was clearly mutual.

To help

To sponsor a surgery, feed a child, or support a foster family, contact:

Love Without Boundaries

306 S. Bryant, Suite C

PMB 145

Edmond, OK 73034

or visit: www.lovewithoutboundaries.com