Half The Sky : China Weather Crisis Update 2

Here’s an update on conditions and needs at the HTS institutions. Some will be repetition from last night. I think it will be useful to have all in one list. I will post this on our website as well and update whenever I can.

We’re still trying to get through to a few orphanages. We’ll provide information regarding those and other orphanages needing help just as soon as we have it. In general the needs are for fuel, food, disposable diapers, warm clothing and bedding. Prices are soaring because no goods can be shipped and cold weather has destroyed all winter crops. Half the Sky is responding to the emergency by getting funds directly to the institutions in a variety of ways.

Beihai, Guangxi – Although ill-prepared for the bitter cold, the institution has so far managed to keep the children warm and fed.

Changzhou, Jiangsu – suffered the largest snowfall in Jiangsu Province.
Several buildings have collapsed. But the institution rushed to prepare for the cold and the children are fine.

Chengdu, Sichuan – is experiencing the coldest winter in memory. They need a large room heater, diapers, shoes, socks and winter jackets.

Chenzhou, Hunan – still facing the most difficulties of the orphanages we’ve reached. They’ve had no electricity or running water for 8 days and there is almost no possibility that power will be restored before New Year’s Eve (the 6th of February.) Because of the blackout, the hospital is closed. 20 children are ill and being cared for by institution staff as well as they can. The banks are closed so staff is contributing personal funds to buy food, coal and diapers. Prices are skyrocketing as all roads to Chenzhou remain impassable.

Chongqing – warm and well, despite the terrible cold

Chuzhou, Anhui - has both water and power. Only public transportation has failed. HTS nannies and teachers are walking to work. They are leaving home extra early to be there for the children.

Fuzhou, Jiangxi - lost power for a few days but now it is back to normal.
The snow stopped a couple of days ago but now is falling again. The directors and HTS staff have gathered all the children into one big room to keep them warm. They’ve bought New Years clothes for the children and will have a party no matter how bad the weather. This year, however, the foster parents will stay home to keep the children safe. The institution has enough food and water. They want us to focus on those in more serious trouble and ask us please not to worry.

Gaoyou, Jiangsu – Despite incredibly heavy snow, the children are warm and well.

Guangzhou, Guangdong – This city is truly unaccustomed to cold and it is getting more difficult to find necessities to keep children warm. They ask for 30 space heaters and warm bedding.

Guilin, Guangxi - has two broken HTS heater/air conditioners in the Infant Nurture rooms and they’ve asked us to replace. The rooms are very, very cold. They ask for more soft matting for the floors and also snow boots for our HTS nannies who’ve been slipping and falling in the ice and snow as they come to work. They are so ill-equipped to handle severe weather.

Guiyang, Guizhou – no report yet.

Haikou, Haikou – Even sunny Hainan Island is experiencing a chill. The orphanage request a clothes dryer to keep the children in clean warm clothes.

Hefei, Anhui – reports that they have everything under control and the children are warm and well-fed.

Huangshi, Hubei – is in desperate need of disposable diapers. They ask for funds to purchase since goods can’t be sent to them right now. All heater/air conditioners have stopped functioning. They need quilts and warm clothes for the children. Several HTS nannies have fallen on the ice on their way to work and they need medicine to treat cuts and bruises.

Jiujiang, Jiangxi – had another heavy snow storm last night. Pipes have burst and the five boilers are broken. They are unable to bathe the children and are having trouble keeping them warm. They need quilts, bedding, warm shoes and space heaters. They need medicine for infant coughs and colds.

Lianyungang, Jiangsu – is doing the best they can despite the lowest temperatures in history. While they still insist we help others first, they do request winter jackets for the children, warm mats to cover the floor and bottles for babies with cleft lip/palate. The last item we’ll have to ship from Beijing as soon as we are able.

Luoyang, Henan – all is well. They are accustomed to the cold.

Maoming, Guangdong - no report yet

Maonan District, Maoming, Guangdong – In the sunny south, they have never seen this kind of cold and damp weather before. It’s been a month with another month in the forecast. They need space heaters. Local citizens have donated warm clothes and blankets for the children.

Nanchang, Jiangxi – asks for warm floor mats and disposable diapers. They need a working room heater. Their electrical supply has been sporadic and with only a small generator, they’re not confident they can continue to provide heat to keep the children warm.

Nanjing, Jiangsu – continues to manage, despite the heavy snows. They would like 200 children’s blankets but insist that we look after others with greater needs first.

Nanning, Guangxi – is experiencing its worst winter in 48 years. They are doing their best to weather the storm but could use 6 large space heaters,
86 warm quilts for our Family Village and disposable diapers. Like many places, they are having trouble finding affordable food right now and would appreciate a subsidy to help through this difficult time.

Qingyuan, Guangdong – no report yet.

Sanya, Hainan – all is well in this southernmost tip of China.

Shaoguan, Guangdong – needs disposable diapers for 27 babies. They need 3 large room heaters and warm mats for the floors.

Shaoyang, Hunan - has seen heavy snow every day for 20 days. There is sufficient water and, for the moment, there is power, so the children are warm. However, 5 of 6 power poles have been downed by weather. Only one stands and the institution fears it will fall as well, leaving them without electricity. Much of the rest of the city is already dark.
Children and caregivers continue to work and play together. High school students are cramming for exams and trying to ignore the cold. Everyone prays that the power pole will continue to stand.

Wuhan, Hubei – is having a very hard time finding affordable food, “even cabbage.” They ask for food subsidies for the Family Village, 20 space heaters and 50 warm quilts. Heaters are working but there is no water for bathing. The local community has offered to take children in for the Chinese New Year and the institution feels this may be the best decision to keep them safe, so their requests are only for the Family Village.

Wuzhou, Guangdong – is enduring bitter cold. They need warm mats for the floors, disposable diapers, warm clothes and shoes for the children.

Xiangtan, Hunan - has had snow for the past 10 days. The main water pipe is “broken again.” There is no water for cooking right now but they do have electricity, coal and blankets. They are still able to buy food but prices have gone way up. Not all of the HTS nannies can get to work every day. They are keeping the programs going as well as they can and make sure that at least five nurturing nannies are there with the babies every day, along with the institution’s caregivers.

Xinyang, Henan – is accustomed to the cold and all is well.

Yibin, Sichuan – no report yet.

Yiyang, Hunan – still has electricity but the water has been shutting off and on. They have stockpiled food for the children. The greatest challenge is for the nannies to get to work. Because the buses are down, they must walk on icy roads.

Yueyang, Hunan - also has no electricity. The one functioning power generator is being used in the children’s dormitory. They are relying on coal heat but the price has tripled in recent days. They are running out of food and have applied to the local Bureau of Civil Affairs for funds to buy more. Our HTS nannies have been walking for hours to get to work, often slipping on the ice, “even though they try to be cautious.”

To contribute to Half the Sky’s Little Mouse Emergency Fund to meet these emergency needs and others, click here http://give.halfthesky.org/prostores/servlet/Categories?category=Little+Mouse+Emergency+Fund


Thank you again, everyone. You are just incredible!

More updates soon.

Jenny

Jenny Bowen
Executive Director
Half the Sky Foundation
www.halfthesky.org





China-Babies Research

Half The Sky : China Weather Crisis Update

Dear amazing friends,

I don’t have words to tell you what your stunning response to the crisis in China means to us all. The donations have been rolling in every few minutes. Unfortunately, urgent phone calls from orphanages in trouble have been rolling in as well. With your help though, we are determined to keep the children safe and well through this mess.

Latest reports tell us that this weather is likely to continue for another 10 days.

Because local governments are overwhelmed by the situation, it seems that there is, in many places, no relief beyond what we can provide. We have not been able to find news of any international relief organizations working on the ground although the China Red Cross is apparently providing some meals to stranded motorists.

As it is impossible to get new supplies of goods to the markets, costs of basic necessities are doubling, even tripling in some cases. We are now working with the Ministry of Civil Affairs (which has the responsibility of dealing with natural disasters nation-wide) to determine which institutions outside the HTS community need our help as well. We will continue funding the costs of basic goods until the money runs out.

In answer to some of your questions:

We can’t ship the necessary diapers, blankets, clothing, food ourselves.
There is no transport that can get through right now. We will continue working to find a way.

In the meantime, we are wiring funds where banks remain open. Where banks are closed, we are guaranteeing reimbursement to any citizen who funds the purchase of needed goods for the children.

In every case, the institutions are calling us to state the needs, we approve, and they know they must provide us receipts for all purchases.

I know that many of you have had trouble with our website and making sure that your donations are going to the Little Mouse Emergency Fund. I apologize for that. If you are concerned, you can send an email to donations@halfthesky.org to instruct us. We do know that most of the gifts coming in are intended for the fund. We’ve now placed a special “Little Mouse” button on our home page which will take you right to the fund page or you can get there by clicking http://give.halfthesky.org/prostores/servlet/Categories?category=Little+Mouse+Emergency+Fund


If you are still having problems donating online, please try again. Or call us in the US at +1-510-525-3377 or in Asia at +852- 2520-5266 or by clicking on “Donate Now” or go to http://www.halfthesky.org/help/docs/usdonation-orderform.pdf to download a form to mail or fax. Donations are tax-deductible in US, Canada and Hong Kong.

I am going to send you another email with news about specific welfare institutions. I wanted to get this brief update out to you first.

And I wanted to tell you how deeply, deeply moved the orphanage directors, staff and all of us at Half the Sky are by your concern and your generosity.

What an amazing community we have!

I’ll be back with more news just as soon as I can compile all these notes.
Less than an hour, I promise!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Jenny

Jenny Bowen
Executive Director
Half the Sky Foundation
www.halfthesky.org





China-Babies Research

Urgent Plea From Half The Sky

Hello again,

Welfare institutions in south and central China are having the hardest time dealing with the weather disaster. This part of the country is simply not equipped to deal with extreme cold or heavy snow and ice. The most common critical problems are power outages, lack of safe drinking and cooking water, lack of fuel, diapers and public transportation. In many places where buses have stopped running, our Half the Sky nannies have been walking hours (in one case, 4 hours) along icy roads to get to the children. As conditions worsen, our nannies and teachers are remaining at the institutions day and night. They have given up the idea of going home to their own families for the holidays. They need quilts. They need warm clothing. They need coal, water, disposable diapers and food.

Here are the reports I have thus far, while in-flight. I will send more soon. Where you don’t see a report, either all is well or I don’t yet have information. I will tell you when we’ve heard from everyone. We’ve also given all the directors an emergency number to call when/if the situation changes.

Hunan Province –

Chenzhou has had no electricity or water for six days. They are relying on coal for heat and cooking. The supermarkets and banks are closed.
Staff is using personal money for baby food, diapers, coal and water.
Costs are rising due to shortages. They have a natural well which, thankfully, is not frozen. Even the older children are helping to fetch water. They have perhaps six days of food remaining. The local government is overwhelmed by the disaster and is unable to help much.

Shaoyang has seen heavy snow every day for 20 days. There is sufficient water and, for the moment, there is power, so the children are warm.
However, 5 of 6 power poles have been downed by weather. Only one stands and the institution fears it will fall as well, leaving them without electricity. Much of the rest of the city is already dark. Children and caregivers continue to work and play together. High school students are cramming for exams and trying to ignore the cold. Everyone prays that the power pole will continue to stand.

Yueyang also has no electricity. The one functioning power generator is being used in the children’s dormitory. They are relying on coal heat but the price has tripled in recent days. They are running out of food and have applied to the local Bureau of Civil Affairs for funds to buy more.
Our HTS nannies have been walking for hours to get to work, often slipping on the ice, “even though they try to be cautious.”

Xiangtan has had snow for the past 10 days. The main water pipe is “broken again.” There is no water for cooking right now but they do have electricity, coal and blankets. They are still able to buy food but prices have gone way up. Not all of the HTS nannies can get to work every day. They are keeping the programs going as well as they can and make sure that at least five nurturing nannies are there with the babies every day, along with the institution’s caregivers.

Jiangsu Province –

Changzhou has seen some heavy snows but the director reports that the children are fine. The director says that he’s doing his best to ensure that the children do not suffer. Public transportation is crippled by the snow and HTS nannies and teachers are waiting for hours to catch a bus for home or even walking home in the snowy dark.

Nanjing reports no problems at all despite the heavy snows. I tried to fly into Nanjing yesterday but it was not possible.

Anhui Province -

Chuzhou has both water and power. Only public transportation has failed.
HTS nannies and teachers are walking to work. They are leaving home extra early to be there for the children.

Guangxi Province –

Guilin has two broken HTS heater/air conditioners in the Infant Nurture rooms and they’ve asked us to replace. The rooms are very, very cold.
They ask for more soft matting for the floors and also snow boots for our HTS nannies who’ve been slipping and falling in the ice and snow as they come to work. They are so ill-equipped to handle severe weather.

Jiangxi Province –

Fuzhou lost power for a few days but now it is back to normal. The snow stopped a couple of days ago but now is falling again. The directors and HTS staff have gathered all the children into one big room to keep them warm. They’ve bought New Years clothes for the children and will have a party no matter how bad the weather. This year, however, the foster parents will stay home to keep the children safe. The institution has enough food and water. They want us to focus on those in more serious trouble and ask us please not to worry.

Jiujiang says they’ve never faced such bitter weather. They desperately need disposable diapers. Washable diapers cannot be dried. They need warm clothes, shoes, gloves hats quilts and warm mats for the floors.
They need medicine for infant coughs and colds.

Hubei Province –

Wuhan suffers heavy snows but they still have power. Heaters are working but there is no water for bathing. The local community has offered to take children in for the Chinese New Year and the institution feels this may be the best decision to keep them safe.

Huangshi reports that the freeze is so severe that all heater/air conditioners have stopped functioning. They need quilts and warm clothes for the children. They need disposable diapers. Several HTS nannies have fallen on the ice on their way to work and they need medicine to treat cuts and bruises.

Gathering these reports together makes me think about how careful we have always been at Half the Sky to maintain our focus on nurture and education programs. Ours is not a medical or relief organization. There are many wonderful groups who do that work. Probably the primary reason we’ve been able to accomplish so much and reach so many children is because we’ve maintained our focus on our core mission -- providing nurturing care for children who’ve lost their families..

But a moment like this really cannot be ignored. The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in the US taught us that no matter how wealthy a country might be, its vulnerable citizens (old, poor, ill, and orphaned children) are the ones who suffer most when disaster strikes. Even as China seems to be entering the first world, a disaster like this is quite simply crippling.
We know that orphaned children will be among those who suffer the damage most.

I say this because I think we should break one of Half the Sky’s rules and, if there are sufficient funds raised in the Little Mouse Emergency Fund, we should offer relief (water, food, diapers, quilts, clothing) to any orphanage where children need help. Let’s see how this goes. If people are as generous as I think they might be, we will work with the provincial Bureaus of Civil Affairs in every hard-hit community, and offer assistance to all welfare institutions where there is need.

Please lend a hand, however you can. You can donate to the Little Mouse Emergency Fund by calling us in the US at +1-510-525-3377 or in Asia at
+852- 2520-5266 or by visiting us at www.halfthesky.org. Once there,
+you
can click on “Donate Now”
http://give.halfthesky.org/prostores/servlet/Categories?category=Direct+Contributions
or go to http://www.halfthesky.org/help/docs/usdonation-orderform.pdf to download a form to mail or fax. Donations are tax-deductible in US, Canada and Hong Kong.

Please forward this message and tell your friends and family.

I will be back with an update very, very soon.

Thank you!

Jenny

Jenny Bowen
Executive Director
Half the Sky Foundation
www.halfthesky.org





China-Babies Research

What Kind of World Do You Want?

My wife Misty has the biggest heart in the world when it comes to kids. As a man, it still boggles my little male brain how she can sit and watch adoption and baby videos over and over, and cry the entire time.

But thats one of the reasons why she is so perfect for running China-Babies, and why I love her so very much.

At her request, I am posting this video on Autism and how it affects the lives of so many innocent children.

What Kind of World Do You Want?





China-Babies Research

What is the Hague Convention?

by Laurie Stern, Minnesota Public Radio
January 24, 2008



The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption (HCICA) was established in the Netherlands in 1993 as part of an ongoing series of global meetings to standardize laws among participating countries.

The United States helped draft the HCICA and will sign the document on April 1, 2008, which means it will do adoptions only with Hague-compliant countries.

So if Guatemala has not reformed its system by that date, the U.S. will no longer approve adoptions from Guatemala.

The HCICA aims to protect children, biological and adoptive parents by having each country establish a national authority to oversee adoptions. The central authority accredits agencies and lawyers who process adoptions, and keeps track of children and fees associated with adoption.

It makes paramount the rights of children and biological mothers, and encourages adoption by biological family members and families from the country where the child is born.

The United States needed 15 years to sign HCICA because that's how long it took to standardize international adoption rules that had been state-regulated.

Guatemala, which signed the HCICA Jan. 1, 2008, has just established a central authority, and is in the process of promulgating new guidelines for adoptions. That process could take a long time, and that's why it's so difficult to predict the future of U.S. adoptions from Guatemala.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/01/24/guatemalasidebar/





China-Babies Research

Coming Home: Adoptions of Chinese Children Increasing

Despite strict regulations, adopting Chinese children is attracting more American parents.
Release Date: 01/23/2008


By KAELYN FORDE ECKENRODE and CHELSEA MASON

Three-year-old Hannah Robertson spins around and tosses her sweater to her mother. She anxiously adjusts her Minnie Mouse dress and grabs her friend Kiana’s hand. Smiling ear to ear, the girls are like any other best friends meeting Minnie Mouse for the first time. Where and how the girls met each other, however, is what makes this day all the more special.

The parents of Hannah and Kiana, who declined to provide her last name because of privacy concerns, both adopted them from China in 2005. Part of the same group organized by Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI), a nonprofit adoption agency based in Denver that helps coordinate adoptions from China, to adopt their children in China, the girls’ parents say they remember anxiously waiting to meet their daughters just as their daughters now wait to meet Minnie Mouse, forming relationships along the way.

“We made lifelong friends,” said Hannah’s father, Graham Robertson. “We know the girls will be lifelong friends, too."

Over 120,000 children are adopted in the United States every year. In 2006, 6,520 of them came from China, joining more than 56,000 previous adoptees from China.

Though the number of foreign children adopted into American families has risen substantially since the 1950s, international adoption has grown exponentially in recent years, with Chinese children by far the largest group. In 2005, Chinese children accounted for 7,939 of the 22,710 international adoptees, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Robertson said he and his wife Nancy first learned about Chinese adoption opportunities from a colleague who invited the couple to a CCAI reunion picnic for 80 girls adopted from China. Seeing so many happy children running around motivated Robertson and his wife to complete the large stack of necessary adoption paperwork, he said.

Despite the costs of travel, the extensive paperwork, and the lengthy wait involved, international adoption has become an appealing option for some families who want a child. With increased use of birth control and abortions in the United States, unwanted pregnancy rates are decreasing and fewer American children are available for adoption, according to a 1998 study by S. K. Henshaw published in the journal Family Planning Perspectives.

Many families choose Chinese adoption programs because they are comparatively well regulated and ethical, and the children are generally healthy, Leigh Anna Graf, Client Service and Relations Director at Texas-based Great Wall China Adoption, wrote in an email. Great Wall China is one of the most well-known adoption agencies specializing in Chinese adoptions, and averages 300 to 500 adoptions a year.

The ability for an adoption to be finalized in China with parents immediately given their child along with the relatively young age of the adoptees also prove attractive for many families. Last year, almost half of the children adopted from China were under a year old, and only 250 children were over the age of four years old. Adoptions from China have become so commonplace they even inspired an episode of FOX’s animated comedy The Simpsons in 2005.

Other families have cultural or other personal ties to China that lead them to consider Chinese adoption, Graf said. Joel Klammer, a teacher at Concordia International School in Shanghai, said he was led to China by such connections.

After years of working with his wife in orphanages in China and Vietnam, Klammer reconsidered adoption and brought home Aaron, who is now two years old, in 2006.

“We never planned on adopting a child,” he said, “but after seeing so many children in need, we knew that we had room in our family for at least one adopted child.”.

Anna Hu, also a teacher at the Concordia International School, cited cultural ties of a different kind in her choice to adopt a Chinese daughter. “My main reason [for adopting in China] is my ethnicity,” she said. “I am Chinese-American.”

While Chinese adoption is by far the most popular international option, it remains restricted by the Chinese government. Regulations are tighter than in the United States, where adoptions are bound mostly by state law and agency-specific policies, and occasionally, the will of the birthparent.

For Americans adopting domestically, it is generally easier to adopt when a couple has been married for at least three years, though single parents are also legally permitted to adopt. The minimum and maximum age of the adoptive parents also vary by state from 18 to 40 years old, although there are exceptions. A drug-free lifestyle is universally required, and private agencies can also show preference toward other lifestyle choices, including religious beliefs.

Chinese regulations, however, are stricter, and have recently become more so, with the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA), an agency within China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, issuing new regulations effective for all applications received after May 1 last year. Parents must now be married for a minimum of two years, and couples in which one or both partners who have been divorced are subject to longer time constraints. Both parents must be between the ages of 30 and 50 years old, and demonstrate the physical and mental capability to raise a child. Many diseases or disabilities are immediate grounds for ineligibility, including obesity, facial deformations and blindness in one eye. Educational, financial and criminal histories are also considered, as well as present family size (a family with more than five children may not adopt).

Some adoptive parents say they are glad they are not subject to these new restrictions. Hu, who is single and turning 50 years old this year, considered adopting another child before the new restrictions eliminated the possibility.

“I feel so blessed that I made the decision to adopt before this new law,” Hu said.
Though restrictions are strict, the paperwork necessary for an adoption is more problematic for many families.

“At this point, the primary issue for parents is the extended wait time from registering their paperwork with the CCAA to receiving a referral for a child,” Graf said. “This has gone up steadily over the last year and a half. It is now at 23 months.”

Aside from all of the paperwork, the bureaucracy can be even worse.

“My wife ended up getting fingerprinted three times at the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai because they were either smudged or lost before reaching their destination,” Klammer said. “It finally came down to us having a local notary sign a letter indicating that we were employed and sane!”

Still, Robertson said the trouble was worth it. “Sometimes I can’t even remember the paperwork needed now that we have our daughter,” Robertson said.

The number of Chinese infant girls available for adoption is directly related to cultural and political issues in China.

The influence of China’s one-child policy remains a driving force for sending children overseas. 95 percent of adopted Chinese children are girls, reflecting the cultural preference for boys when many families are permitted only one child. Because sons are expected to care for parents in old age and daughters for their parents-in-law, the lack of a son can be terrifying to a couple. When allowed only one child, some parents feel forced to abandon baby girls.

But for those who cannot have children at all, these baby girls are welcomed. “She was just perfect and is still the perfect blessing for me,” says Hu. “I picked her up on December 26th, 2005--my best ever Christmas present.”

The lack of domestic adoption in China also contributes to overcrowded orphanages.
Chinese culture has traditionally placed an emphasis on blood ties, and has, according to some scholars, therefore discouraged the adoption of a stranger’s child. Indeed, the first legislation regarding adoption in modern China’s history was not passed until 1992. While it is not unheard of, and is becoming more and more socially acceptable in China, domestic adoption remains uncommon.

Still, a recent USA Today article reports that increasing domestic adoptions may also lessen the number of Chinese children adopted by U.S. families in the future.

Financial considerations are also not to be overlooked. In her 2002 article in Law and Society Review, scholar Kay Ann Johnson noted that U.S.-based agencies generally estimate the cost of international adoptions at over ten thousand dollars, not including travel expenses to China as required by the Chinese government. The government and the orphanages themselves can net up to five thousand dollars per child, which has led some scholars, including Johnson, to see adopted children as an export. The money, however, is often much-needed in China’s orphanage system, and there has been a marked improvement in the facilities and care of children since international adoptions increased.

The money, it seems, is worth it for some families, though. Robertson said he cannot imagine life without Hannah.

“I love when we’re sitting on the floor reading and she puts her head on my chest,” Robertson said. “Or picking her up at preschool, when she runs over as fast as she can and grabs my leg, yelling, ‘Daddy! Daddy!’ Just making that connection with her is amazing.”

http://uschina.usc.edu/(A(qPdwUlOUyAEkAAAAOWJlYjk2YzYtOWRhYy00YmE4LWE3ZGMtNTNhNjQzOTNjZTg5pkQf5TsOuz9PsKlZj3TRvALRA-Y1)S(c2pu5y55zrzfzs552jbqcn45))/ShowFeature.aspx?articleID=1215&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1






China-Babies Research

Police arrest a group of orphans "guilty" of living with an underground Christian

In the village of Sanhe, Hubei province, the police interrupted the Christmas festivities of a little orphanage run by a famous Christian leader, who has been arrested 12 times for his leading role in the life of China's unauthorised domestic churches.

Sanhe (AsiaNews) - Police in the central province of Hubei arrested, on Christmas Eve, a group of orphans and Christian volunteers who were preparing to celebrate the holiday with them. The agents confined the children to a hotel, and "convinced" the owner of the land that the orphanage stands on to evict the renters. This is the charge of the China Aid Association (CAA), a non-governmental organisation based in the United States that works for religious freedom in China.

According to the CAA, Protestant pastor Ming Xuan Zhang - who takes care of the orphans - spent the days after Christmas looking for a new location for his institute, with no success. This is because the director of public security for the village of Sanhe, together with officials of the Religious Bureau and United Work Front Department, threatened the landowners who "might have decided to help Ming".

This persecution is explained by the leading role that pastor Zhang plays in China's unauthorised domestic churches. Affectionately known as "Bike", the Protestant leader has been arrested twelve times by the authorities, who are trying to separate him from the Christian communities.

In 2006, American president George W. Bush asked to meet with Zhang during an official visit to China. The permission was not granted, because of the "disappearance" of Zhang. In reality, says the CAA, the police of Hubei detained him and kept him out of sight for the entire duration of the president's trip.

The Protestant leader has twice written to Chinese president Hu Jintao seeking justice, and asking for a stop to this campaign of persecution against himself and his orphans. He received no reply, and his orphans continue to live without a home of their own.

Beijing permits the practice of evangelical Christianity only within the Movement of the Three Autonomies (MTA), created in 1950 after Mao came to power, foreign missionaries were expelled, and Chinese Christian leaders were imprisoned. The unofficial statistics say that in China there are 10 million official Protestants, all united in the MTA.

The unauthorised Protestants, who meet in unregistered "domestic churches", are estimated at over 50 million. Over the past year, the government arrested 1,958 of them, between pastors and faithful.

According to a secret document of the Chinese communist party of Hubei province, which was leaked to the West last November, there is a campaign underway in China to "normalise" the underground Protestant Churches by offering them two possibilities: either join the Movement of the Three Autonomies (the Protestant communities led by the patriotic associations) or be suppressed.

The campaign is in clear opposition to the UN guidelines on religious freedom, which ban the distinction between religious activities that are licit (because they are controlled by the state) and activities that are illicit only because they are not controlled by the government.

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=11256&size=A





China-Babies Research

Couple weaves Red Thread from River Falls

Debbie Griffin River Falls Journal
Published Friday, January 11, 2008

Local residents Tim and Jane Steinmetz use their professional skills in careers at the River Falls Area Hospital but also work to weave strong cloth into Red Thread Charities.

The organization serves the needs of Chinese orphans with training and humanitarian programs.

He’s a doctor and she’s a nurse at RFAH, and the two have made three, three-week trips to China with hopes to return this fall and maybe every year.



Jane Steinmetz encourages the orphanage staff members to take pictures of all the babies as they grow and develop.

The Steinmetzes adopted their daughter Quin from China in 2003. That led them to mission work there in 2005. After that, Danling Cai, who lives in Edina, Minn., contacted them about Red Thread Charities.

They’ve taken kindergartener Quin with them for each trip, and Jane says about their six-year-old on the 16-hour flight: “She’s a great traveler.”

She’s glad for Quin to get exposure to her native culture and learn along with her parents. The family always has an interpreter but is learning bits of Mandarin.


Job of the heart

“Our trips are working trips,” Tim explained.

The first time, they conducted exams to check each child’s medical condition. Orphanages have staff called doctors, but Tim said they don’t have the extensive education or training that a licensed physician or specialist has.

Orphanages run on a small, limited budget that’s never enough, according to the Steinmetzes.

Tim said China has good technology but lacks resources. Access to medical care can be extremely limited, especially in areas far from big cities.

The volunteers trained people and gave talks that some hospital doctors attended.

“We had about 100 people at the one talk we gave…,” he said.

On the last trip, they helped an audiologist friend conduct hearing tests. The couple often spends nights at official dinners with diplomats and hospital heads.

They were excited when a recent trip yielded one official’s commitment to give orphans half-price health care — a significant breakthrough.

The Steinmetzes said they’ve learned a lot about the kids’ lives. Their hearts go out, especially to the “special-needs” orphans.

“They are very, very few physical therapists in China,” said Jane.

Tim said, “After our first trip, we realized what they (kids) really need is physical therapy.”

The couple connected with the Hudson-based Special Children Center, its director Nancy Lawton Shirley and its 13-year pediatric physical therapist, Kiki Dickinson. They all went to China in October, caring for special-needs kids and teaching orphanage staff simultaneously.

For example, orphanage staff wasn’t sure what to do about a boy who cried constantly. The therapists recognized his autism and stopped his crying by placing him on a bouncy ball.

Tim said, “We make a three-year commitment to every orphanage we go to.”

That entails training, equipment and long-distance consultations.

For example, a new child came to one of the orphanages and the doctors had questions, wondered if the boy should be in leg braces. Talking with other physicians and reviewing pictures revealed that the boy would grow out of the condition and doesn’t need braces.


Hard lessons

Jane said the people are kind, hard-working and always willing to listen.

“The Chinese are so ready to learn,” she commented.

She said the one-child limit in China impacts orphanages. Laws don’t allow people to give up babies for adoption. Families face huge, unaffordable fines if they have an additional child.

The choice many make is the only one they think they have: Leave their baby where someone will find it and take it to an orphanage.

The Steinmetzes said that most Chinese generally agree with the one-child policy because of the country’s immense population. About 1.3 billion people live in China, compared to just over 300 million in the United States.

The couple went to one orphanage where the way of life is cold — literally. It has happy people but no heat. It’s below a geographic boundary that dictates which buildings can have heat and which can’t.

“Somebody had to draw a line, and that’s where the line is drawn,” Tim said.

Jane said it’s shocking that the kids and staff literally live and sleep in their coats, bundled with several layers of clothing underneath. She learned and accepted that’s just “how it is” for them.

The charity will be donating money to heat one room of the orphanage, where Jane said the kids can get physical therapy wearing only one layer of clothes.

The couple’s work also helps prevent misdiagnosis and encourage early diagnosis — two things that can really help the kids.


Small world

Jane said about their mission work: “It’s very rewarding for us.”

As Red Thread’s network grows, so does its ability to help.

Jane keeps in touch with many other parents who’ve adopted from the country. While on their first trip, the Steinmetzes’ son, Nick, came along and took lots of pictures.

Jane’s contacted parents who adopted from that orphanage and provided them a baby picture of their child, something many adoptive parents can’t ever get when adopting an older child.

She and Tim examined a baby who was later adopted by people in Madison. Jane said she e-mailed the parents their child’s baby picture and exchanged contact information.

Then she realized that she works at the hospital with the adopted child’s aunt.

Jane said about the connections, “We have a lot of weird, small world stuff like that.”

One little girl the couple examined while in China, ended up adopted and in the same St. Paul dance class as Quin.

The couple said Cai, Red Thread Charities director, makes things happen. They say she’s passionate, organized and well connected. They say she paved the way for all the progress volunteer groups are making to improve the orphans’ quality of life.

Tim sums up his and Jane’s multi-faceted work in China: “Our goal is to help each child do the best they can.”

The Steinmetzes encourage anyone interested in helping or learning more about Red Thread Charities, to log onto its Web site at www.redthreadtour.org or contact Cai at dcai55435@yahoo.com or 952-927-4705 and Cheryl Heley at cwheley@aol.com or 612-743-3810.

Reach Debbie Griffin at dgriffin@rivertowns.net or 426-1048.

http://www.riverfallsjournal.com/articles/index.cfm?id=85625§ion=news&freebie_check&CFID=83235667&CFTOKEN=92910257&jsessionid=8830f42fb5b4555a6311





China-Babies Research

Nepal delay agonizing for mom-to-be

By Nancy Bartley

Seattle Times staff reporter



Margaret King holds a picture of Ajaya, the son she was promised.


ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Margaret King, of Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood, holds a jacket she purchased in Katmandu for the child she hopes to adopt. She once thought the jacket would be too big for her child's homecoming but now fears it is too small to fit the 13-month-old boy.

In Margaret King's Rainier Beach bungalow sits a white crib that for more than a year has been filled with tiny T-shirts and diapers rapidly becoming too small for the baby she fell in love with.

Across the globe, the son she was promised, Ajaya, remains in a Nepal orphanage, a victim of politics.

Since April, when the Maoist party won seats in Nepal's parliament, all foreign adoptions have been in limbo — including Ajaya's. Some of the adopting families from the Seattle area have moved to Nepal to be near the babies and lobby the ministry in hope of speeding up the process.

The Tacoma-based Faith International is the primary adoption service for Nepali children in the U.S. Before last April, the agency matched about five families with Nepali infants each month, said John Meske, executive director.

The Nepali adoptions were ideal for American families because, unlike Chinese adoptions, which could take up to two years, they could be completed in six months and cost about the same — $19,000. It also was possible to adopt infants.

But in April, Maoist party member Bishwa Karma was given control over the Women, Children and Social Welfare ministry, one of the smaller ministries in Nepal. One of the first things Karma did was halt foreign adoptions and begin re-evaluating Nepal's adoption laws — a process the families see as excruciatingly slow.

As in Guatemala, which also is going through changes in its adoption procedures, there were allegations of Nepali children being given up for adoption for financial incentives and through false documentation, Meske said.

Located between India and China, Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, with about 40 percent of the population below the poverty line.

The Maoists were elected to parliament after giving up a 10-year battle to overthrow Nepal's monarchy, and Karma "just wanted new terms and conditions" for adoptions, Meske said.

"We, like many other countries, argued that you maintain the status quo" while you're reviewing the laws, Meske said. "You don't stop the processing of adoptions. The longer the child stays in an institution, the more harmful it is to development." But he said Karma wasn't very receptive to the argument.

On Sunday, Pampha Bhusal, a feminist, was appointed to replace Karma, a move that Meske thinks is positive.

In the interim, the changes in procedures have caused a backlog of children at the Faith International-affiliated orphanage outside Katmandu and left no room for new orphans.



And it has caused grief for some 450 prospective parents worldwide who are waiting to be united with the children they were promised. Among them is King.

Her house is filled with photos of Ajaya, now 13 months old, and she receives monthly reports from the orphanage. But she is saddened to think of what she's missing — his first attempts to crawl, to walk and to speak.

It's painful for the parents who have to wait, Meske acknowledged. "They've been matched with children and bonded with them, but they are not their children in the legal sense."

Yet there is hope, he said.

Holly Tanner, 36, an Olympia physical therapist, learned on Christmas Eve that she can get her baby in mid-January. Ashok is now 19 months old. She met him in November 2006 when he was placed in her arms at the orphanage. She visited again over the summer.

"What's been really hard is the suspense. ... If we knew in advance [that it would take much longer] we could have mentally prepared ourselves. So many of the parents are so shy of getting excited. You protect your heart because you want your child home so much," Tanner said.

Nepal requires adoptive parents to make two trips — the first to meet the child they are matched with and the second to pick up the child. In between, numerous documents from both the U.S. and Nepal require approval.

King first met Ajaya in February when he was 10 weeks old.

"I've been trying to become a mother for such a long time; it was kind of surreal," she said.

She went to the orphanage and was suddenly handed a tiny baby. "He was beautiful and perfect and so tiny. It was something I've been waiting for a long time. I stayed there for almost three weeks to give myself time to get acclimated to this new reality."

Like Tanner, King, a 41-year-old social worker, will be a single mother. She returned to Nepal in August to renew her acquaintance with her son. Now that she's back home, nothing is harder than worrying about his welfare and seeing the childless crib, the tiny clothes Ajaya is growing too big for without ever getting to wear.

He's a quiet and serious child who — like most of the babies — was abandoned, King said. Infants are often abandoned in Nepal by mothers who can't afford to care for them or by unmarried women who face harsh consequences for becoming mothers.

King wonders if prolonging Ajaya's stay in the orphanage, even though it has caring nannies, will make attachment difficult for him later. And she is concerned about his health. Like Ashok, Ajaya has had pneumonia.

"It never dawned on me that he wouldn't be here by Christmas," King said.

She wants a chance to introduce her son to her family in Minnesota. She wants once again to look into the dark eyes of the baby she first held as she thought of the years she had spent trying to conceive, her miscarriages and deep longing for motherhood, and the thought that came to her on their first meeting: "So you're the one I dreamed of."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004102257_adopt01m.html





China-Babies Research

Fortune’s Sisters

Cary Conover for The New York Times



THREE’S COMPANY Adopted in China, Leah Potoff, left, Hazel Parker-Myers and Annabelle Laserson are best friends in brownstone Brooklyn.

By BROOKE HAUSER
Published: January 6, 2008

THERE is an ancient Chinese myth that people who are destined to meet are connected from birth by invisible red thread. For three Brooklyn mothers who were strangers until a few years ago, the legend has a deeply personal resonance. In early 2004, when they traveled in the same group to adopt year-old girls in China, Martha Laserson, Molly Parker-Myers and Lauren Uram made a discovery that would thread their families together for life.


During a visit to the orphanage where the babies lived, in Anhui Province of southeast China, the women were told that their daughters not only knew one another but were also crib mates.

Before they became Annabelle Laserson, Hazel Parker-Myers and Leah Potoff, the little girls were Dong Dong, Ping Ping and Qiang Qiang, and they slept side by side. Before they developed a taste for New York-style pizza, they ate a rice porridge called congee from the same spoon.

Before the well-tended pigtails and chin-length bobs, they wore matching institutional buzz cuts. And now, living in brownstone Brooklyn, nearly 7,000 miles away from the place they were born, they are best friends.

“It was still dark as we headed out, and we were all in our private bubbles of nervousness and joy. We were going to meet our babies. As it got lighter, I marveled at the countryside — the water buffalo, the fields, the little villages — I wanted to memorize the surroundings to describe to my little girl in the years to come. She, after all, would be raised in Brooklyn (along with two of her crib mates), and not one of these farm villages we passed, although she may well have started out there.”

From Molly Parker-Myers’s diary, Jan. 5, 2005 (the first anniversary of the girls’ adoption)

Four years ago, Mrs. Parker-Myers, Mrs. Laserson and Ms. Uram were delivered to their daughters. These days, the girls see one another regularly, marking the passages of childhood by attending one another’s birthday parties and eating Chinese takeout with their families. Thanks to their daughters’ unique bond, the three women also belong to an exclusive mothers’ group of three.

All these connections played themselves out during a late summer picnic in Prospect Park. The women took turns breaking up bubble-blowing fights and watching the girls collect bouquets of sticks under a canopy of trees. When the mothers weren’t wiping little noses, their talk gravitated to subjects like New York’s ever-growing population of adopted Chinese girls. While there is no exact count of the number of Chinese adoptees in the city, nearly 70,000 have found homes in American families since 1992.

“That’s one of the biggest reasons why we chose to adopt from China,” said Mrs. Parker-Myers, who has a heart-shaped face and thick brown hair. “I felt like it was this sisterhood in a way. Our daughters will have someone else to grow with and bounce around ideas with, but they’ll also have a connection to their babyhood. That’s invaluable.”

Given the local prevalence of children adopted from China in recent years, it is not uncommon for New York families to uncover orphanage ties. Dr. Jane Aronson, a Manhattan pediatrician who specializes in treating children who were adopted abroad and who is known as “the Orphan Doctor,” often overhears her patients quizzing one another in her waiting room about the circumstances under which they adopted their Chinese babies.

“Looking for missing answers — and there are so many — when you have a moment of connection, it’s very powerful,” Dr. Aronson said. “It’s wonderful because it’s history, it’s roots, it’s family — it’s orphanage family. And often it’s the only family the kid has from the country where they were adopted.”

In Search of Memories

“Finally, we were let out at the lobby. We knew we would be leaving this place with our babies in our arms. The lobby was adorned with lavish decorations for the upcoming Lunar New Year, and was a sea of red and gold. We noticed only vaguely, I think, because we were all so thrilled — and because we all had to pee desperately! I remember all the moms-to-be rushing to the bathroom together, chatting, chatting, filled with nervous energy.” Jan. 5, 2005

In an effort to mend their daughters’ broken ties to their birthplace, the three mothers cling to the few scraps of information they have and, in their different ways, try to piece together a patchwork of memories, however threadbare.


Mrs. Parker-Myers, 35, a preschool teacher who lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Kensington with her husband, Lars, a manager of jewelry trade shows, is the writer of the group. She chronicled their two-week journey to China in an eloquent adoption diary that includes comment on everything from the sparrow kebabs and goat testicles that she encountered during her first days in Beijing to the mothers’ attempts to absorb the essence of the country that their daughters never knew.


Ms. Uram, a quiet-mannered illustrator with ginger-colored hair in her late 40s, is the archivist. In the Lefferts Manor brownstone where she lives with her husband, Leni Potoff, an art conservator, she has carefully stored away dozens of artifacts from the couple’s trip to China, among them a Going Home Barbie, a limited-edition doll given to adoptive parents that is accessorized with a detachable Chinese baby, and the clothes Leah wore in the orphanage, carefully wrapped in red tissue paper.

Mrs. Laserson, a social worker with a petite athletic build who is in her early 40s, lives in Park Slope with her husband, David, a stockbroker, and their 9-year-old biological son. Unlike the fastidiously organized Ms. Uram, Mrs. Laserson is a bit of a pack rat. But despite the jumble of toys and books that clutter her two-story brick home, she can meticulously recount each laborious step of the adoption process.

It’s unlikely that the three women would have become fast friends had they not traveled together to Asia. But they waited together in China. They were in the same room when their babies were placed in their arms. They were together at the orphanage when they discovered that their daughters had shared the same crib. They were even together when they saw the locations where the three abandoned babies had been found before being brought to the orphanage.

“I know that if anything ever happened to me, Leah could always come to you with questions,” Ms. Uram recently told the other two women. “Because you were there.”

The Threads of Their Lives

“The main caregiver took Ping Ping in her arms, crying and saying her name and giving her lots of hugs and kisses. It was very emotional. She held Ping Ping and Dong Dong (Annabelle, another future Brooklynite) together, and we told her how they were going to live in the same place in the U.S., and they’d see each other often.” Jan. 8, 2004

The girls are now 5, the age at which many adoptive children are just beginning to understand that they are somehow different.

One fall morning, Hazel Parker- Myers followed her mother into the family’s living room and put to her a tricky two-part question: “How many childs do you have?” she asked, scribbling invisible notes into a pad. “And how did they come into your family?”

Like Ms. Uram and Mrs. Laserson, Mrs. Parker-Myers has often told her daughter the story of her adoption. One Sunday morning over homemade biscuits and marmalade, they looked through the pictures in Hazel’s adoption album while her mother recited the abridged version of Hazel’s story: In addition to Leah and Annabelle, its characters includes the caregivers at the orphanage, or aunties as they were called.

“You were in China living with your aunties, right?” Mrs. Parker-Myers prompted, as they paused over a picture of a tearful Chinese caregiver cradling two toddlers in pink and blue bunting. (Annabelle, the baby in pink, has the identical photograph in her album.) “And we were living in Brooklyn, and we wanted to adopt a baby.”

As the girls get older, their mothers will ration out the precious few remaining details of their stories. But first, they have to decide which story they want to tell.

On the one hand, there is the heartwarming tale of the three orphans who shared a crib in China and are now friends in Brooklyn. But as Mrs. Parker-Myers put it, “We don’t want to be seen as clueless adoptive parents who are just thinking that our child’s life is a fairy tale, because obviously it’s not.”

Soon after the adoption, Mrs. Parker-Myers stopped subscribing to the red-thread theory, which many adoptive parents of Chinese children have embraced as a way to imagine the fated bond between parent and child. “You can’t rely on mythology to explain their story because it isn’t the whole story,” she said.


Nor is she alone in these feelings. Having read about older transracial adoptees, some of whom say they resent having lost their cultural identity, these three mothers worry about what their daughters will think when they are no longer the silent characters of their own stories but their authors — and editors.

The conflict over what to share and what not to share underscores the differences among the three women. At the picnic in Prospect Park, Ms. Uram bristled when Mrs. Parker-Myers began to tell one of Hazel’s favorite stories, about how the orphanage caregivers lined up the babies at the edge of their crib and fed them congee from the same spoon.

“I don’t think you should do it,” Ms. Uram scolded. “It’s a sad story.”

Mrs. Parker-Myers shrugged off the comment. “I think it seems pretty practical myself,” she said. “If I had triplets, I’d feed them like that, too.”

There was a pause. Finally, in an effort to ease the mood, Mrs. Laserson said, “I think it’s a big cultural difference.”

Growing Up, Perhaps Apart

“It’s really been fun to get to know these other families. This is a real bonding experience. The three Brooklyn families are already planning to have a mothers’ group with our girls.”

Jan. 9, 2004

As their memories of the trip to China fade, the three mothers from Brooklyn try to blend subtle touches of their daughters’ first culture into their lives and their homes.

Annabelle and Hazel recently took a Chinese ribbon-dancing class together in Park Slope. At Leah’s house, Ms. Uram and her husband now celebrate Passover with matzo-ball soup served with chopsticks and Chinese ladles. There is already talk of a joint “homeland trip” when the three girls are older.

Still, as their lives unspool in different directions, their invisible red thread will begin to stretch. It already has.

Especially during that first year after their return from China, the mothers relied heavily on one another for support. But as their bonds with their daughters grow stronger, the women are depending on one another less and less.

In part, this is because they have different ideas about child-rearing. Mrs. Parker-Myers wants a progressive education for Hazel, who on a recent afternoon could be found in the family’s living room playing with castanets and shrieking with laughter. Ms. Uram prefers a more structured approach for Leah, who attended preschool at the Red Apple School in Chinatown, perhaps the city’s best-known bilingual school for Chinese students, and is tutored privately in Mandarin.

As the girls grow older, it’s likely that they will also grow apart. The Parker-Myerses are adopting another girl, who is in China awaiting her new family, and they are considering moving away from the city as early as next fall, perhaps to Philadelphia.

On a recent outing to a Chinese restaurant in Park Slope, Mrs. Parker-Myers was tense with expectation and anxiety. “I can’t predict the future,” she said, fumbling with a message from a fortune cookie that offered no clues. “It doesn’t seem very hopeful that we can stay in New York, because, frankly, we can’t afford it.”

The mothers are also preparing themselves and their daughters for the challenges they are likely to face as they get older. But the girls will have to fight certain battles themselves.

“As they move into school, they’re getting the sense that there is a stigma associated with being adopted,” said Amanda Baden, a New York psychologist who specializes in transracial adoptions, and is herself a Chinese daughter of Caucasian parents. “They may get more self-conscious about the fact that their parents look different from them. And they’re starting to understand that for them to have this family means that they might have lost another family.”

It is at that point, the mothers hope, that their daughters’ crib connection, tenuous as it might seem, will be of use to the girls.

“They have other adopted friends from China, but no one else they shared a crib with,” Mrs. Laserson said. “There will be times when they don’t want to be adopted and Chinese. But there will be other times when they need to feel adopted and Chinese. And no matter where they are, they have two other people they can talk to.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/nyregion/thecity/06babi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1






China-Babies Research