Half the Sky is growing

08/28/07
Posted By: grant in the China Adoption Blog at 06:05 AM. 347 words.
Categories: Chinese Red Tape
Half the Sky is growing.

There are interesting things afoot at one of our favorite charities, Half the Sky. They've gotten the go-ahead from the Chinese government to help improve over 300 children's welfare institutions across the country. The Blue Sky plan is starting with 31 model children's centers, starting with one that's already underway in Wuhan. They want one center in every province in China, so that, as President Hu JinTao put it, "orphans and disabled children... can live under the same blue sky... as us all."

Half the Sky is a charity based on hugs, which is nice.

I mean, it's more than nice - hugs are vitally important to little bodies and minds, as it turns out. Babies need hugs in order to develop properly. And that's what Half the Sky does - it helps child welfare institutes give all the babies the attention and affection they need, by hiring and training nannies, and giving them room for coddling.

They also train preschool teachers, run a Big Sisters program and what they call the Family Village Program, which is basically a special needs foster care program for kids who are too "medically or developmentally challenged" to be adopted through the government-run program.

I've mentioned them before, during their successful run in the Global Giving Open, and Chicago Tribune writer and mom Kelly Haramis likes 'em too (check out the July 5 entry), and so do scads of adoptive parents who've bought their rather attractive photo book of kids in welfare institutes, called Mei Mei, Little Sister: Portraits from a Chinese Orphanage. The photos are by Richard Bowen, who started the charity with his wife Jenny after they adopted their daughter Maya in 1998 - and saw personally how much affection can transform a baby in just a year.

The name comes from a Chinese proverb, "Women hold up half the sky," and from a delightful Chinese folk tale about a hummingbird who helps hold up the sky. Just a little - but it makes a difference.