Hundreds of Beijing couples clamouring to adopt orphans

SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE
Peter Simpson
May 21, 2008
South China Morning Post

Adoption hotlines in Beijing were in meltdown from calls made by
couples offering to care for Sichuan's quake orphans, officials said
yesterday.

Ever since adoption hotlines were opened last week, "hundreds of
thousands" of Beijing couples had offered homes to children who lost
relatives, said Wu Shixiong, director of the Beijing Civil Affairs
Bureau.

"Hundreds of calls are being taken daily from families wanting to
help by adopting children from Sichuan. It underscores the sense of
unity over the tragedy," Mr Wu said.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs said yesterday that 70 children had so
far been classed as orphans.

Within hours of the quake, Mr Wu's department began working with the
Sichuan Provincial Civil Affairs Bureau, the Ministry of Civil
Affairs and the China Adoption Centre to ensure there was an
efficient adoption process. Three hotlines were set up - one
specifically for people in the capital who want to adopt.

Mr Wu said applicants would receive forms rapidly and the process of
matching orphans with adopted parents would start soon.

There are fears that the adoption process will prove too slow to cope
with the influx of orphans.

Mr Wu would not confirm whether the adoption laws would be changed,
such as the one-child policy, which strictly governs the size of
families in certain regions.

Under adoption rules passed in 1990 by the National People's
Congress, applicants should not have children. If the law remains,
thousands of couples in the capital could be left disappointed in
seeking to expand their single-child families and provide a home for
one of the bereaved young.

Kate Redman of Save the Children - who arrived in Chengdu last night
to assist with the orphan crisis - urged the authorities and
potential adopters to be patient. "Adopting is not to be taken
lightly and plenty of time is needed to consider all the options and
complications," she said.

The priority was to find children's relatives as many would have
extended families, she said.

The deputy chief for the Ministry of Civil Affairs' welfare
department, Li Bo, said the adoption procedure would be activated
only after "basic order" is restored. He said the work to identify
the children and find their families was ongoing. "We will activate
the procedure as soon as the identification is completed."

Although orphans and other child survivors of the quake are at high
risk of psychological trauma and need special care, they have been
treated in relief camps or wards for adults.

In Mianyang , children without parents were simply left at Jiuzhou
Stadium to live with the 40,000 other victims in soiled tents.

In Chengdu's West China Hospital, the understaffed paediatric
department did not have the resources to counsel children who had
probably been orphaned.

Additional reporting by Chris Zhang, Ng Tze-wei and Fiona Tam in
Beijing





China-Babies Research

Death toll in China earthquake rises to 7,600

China.Earthquake

In this photo distributed by the official Xinhua news agency, rescuers searc...
54 minutes ago

BEIJING — A massive earthquake struck central China on Monday, killing more than 7,600 people and trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their school, state media reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province after the 7.8-magnitude quake, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply.

Xinhua cited the Sichuan provincial government as saying 7,651 people died, but the situation in at least two counties remain unclear.

The earthquake sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand.

Rescuers had recovered at least 50 bodies from the debris of the school building in Juyuan township, about 60 miles from the epicenter. Xinhua did not say if any students had been pulled out alive.

An unknown number of students also were reported buried after buildings collapsed at five other schools in Deyang city in Sichuan, Xinhua reported.

It said its reporters saw buried teenagers struggling to break loose from underneath the rubble of the three-story building in Juyuan "while others were crying out for help."

Two girls were quoted by Xinhua as saying they escaped because they had "run faster than others."

The earthquake hit less than three months before the start of the Beijing Summer Olympics, when China hopes to use to showcase its rise in the world.

Shanghai's main index inched up Monday, but the advance was capped by worries over inflation and potential damage from the earthquake. Analysts said that shares of companies located in the Sichuan region may fall in coming sessions due to the quake.

It struck about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu in the middle of the afternoon when classrooms and office towers were full. There were several smaller aftershocks, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

Calls into the city did not go through as panicked residents quickly overloaded the telephone system. The quake affected telephone and power networks, and even state media appeared to have few details of the disaster.

"In Chengdu, mobile telecommunication convertors have experienced jams and thousands of servers were out of service," said Sha Yuejia, deputy chief executive officer of China Mobile.

Although it was difficult to telephone Chengdu, an Israeli student, Ronen Medzini, sent a text message to The Associated Press saying there were power and water outages there.

"Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting," he said.

Xinhua said an underground water pipe ruptured near the city's southern railway station, flooding a main thoroughfare. Reporters saw buildings with cracks in their walls but no collapses, Xinhua said.

The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 930 miles to the north, less than three months before the Chinese capital was expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics.

Many Beijing office towers were evacuated, including the building housing the media offices for the organizers of the Olympics, which start in August. None of the Olympic venues was damaged.

"I've lived in Taipei and California and I've been through quakes before. This is the most I've ever felt," said James McGregor, a business consultant who was inside the LG Towers in Beijing's business district. "The floor was moving underneath me."

In Fuyang, 660 miles to the east, chandeliers in the lobby of the Buckingham Palace Hotel swayed. "We've never felt anything like this our whole lives," said a hotel employee surnamed Zhu.

Patients at the Fuyang People's No. 1 Hospital were evacuated. An hour after the quake, a half-dozen patients in blue-striped pajamas stood outside the hospital. One was laying on a hospital bed in the parking lot.

Skyscrapers in Shanghai swayed and most office occupants went rushing into the streets.

In the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 100 miles off the southeastern Chinese coast, buildings swayed when the quake hit. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, where some people hurried out of swaying office buildings and into the streets downtown. A building in the Thai capital of Bangkok also was evacuated after the quake was felt there.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake is considered a major event, capable of causing widespread damage and injuries in populated areas.

The last serious earthquake in China was in 2003, when a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu county in the west of Xinjiang.

China's deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing 240,000 people.





China-Babies Research

The Top 5 Reasons For The Slowdown in Adoptions from China

We have been asked recently by one of our clients to look into the reasons for the recent slowdowns in adoptions from China, and the increased wait times.

This is the information that we have been provided by one of our partners in China.

She actually predicted this happening about two years ago. These are the reasons she states for what is currently happening with adoptions from
China:

1. With the Olympics coming and many foreigners heading to China, it is an issue of "saving face" in China. They feel it reflects poorly on their country that they have so many orphaned children, and so many international adoptions. They do not want to portray that image to the international community.

2. With so many girls being adopted out of China, there is a serious imbalance in the gender ratio in China and they are becoming aware of the long term problems this will create.

3. China has raised the standards foreign families must comply with. More stringent requirements including income, marital status, health standards, etc. have made it more difficult for parents to qualify to adopt through China.

4. There is an increase in domestic adoptions in China. More families in China are choosing to adopt from through the Chinese adoption system, and they are of course given first priority to adopt over an international adoption.

5. Because the Chinese economy is doing much better than in the past, the standard of living is improving over there. Many abandoned babies used to come from the villages. Because of the improved economy, the families in the villages are now keeping their babies, instead of abandoning them. The number of abandoned babies is decreasing significantly. Many of the babies still being abandoned have health issues, which most adoptive families don't want.

Based on all of the above info, our partner indicates that the amount of children adopted internationally will continue to decline and the wait times will be much longer.

She couldn't predict numbers or length of time for wait, but said it is unlikely that it will return to what we have seen in the past.

Misty: "I hope this helps those who are wondering. I am sorry for those in the wait period, I remember how hard that time was for me. I pray those of you waiting are able to get a referral soon and able to get your child before it gets any worse."

Misty





China-Babies Research

Update From Half The Sky

Hello and a belated Happy Spring!

In February, during the last hectic days of the Little Mouse emergency, when we were trying to protect so many children from China’s winter storms, I got a phone call. Half the Sky was to be honored in a most extraordinary way. We had been selected to receive the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In Oxford, England. Presented by former US President, Jimmy Carter.

I sat there teary-eyed as I continued updating the list of urgent needs at orphanages hard-hit by the storms. We’ve won a few awards and some fine recognition in Half the Sky's 10 fantastic years - but the Skoll Award is not just another award. It is given each year to a few select organizations whose proven innovations have “the potential for large-scale influence on critical challenges of our time.”

Our work is being recognized not just for the lives we have helped directly, but also for the positive changes we are helping to bring about for all of China’s orphaned children. I am so proud of Half the Sky. I am so proud of you - of all of us who have worked so hard and given so much!

The Skoll World Forum at Oxford was amazing. You can see some of it here:
http://socialedge.org/features/skoll-world-forum , including presentations by Jimmy Carter and Al Gore. I met dozens of extraordinary people from 35 countries, each one doing their bit to make the world a better place.

The Award comes with a monetary gift. That gift will help us formally evaluate the effectiveness of each aspect of our four HTS programs so that we can understand how best to teach others what we have learned. That gift will also help us expand our outreach so that others around the world will hear the voices of institutionalized children and learn how they can help. But that gift won’t run our programs or support our hundreds of loving nannies, teachers and foster parents. For that, we must turn to you, the community of friends who make our work possible.

Being part of the Little Mouse emergency response was a stunning experience for all of us at Half the Sky. Our community care together like never before. And you brought along perhaps 2,000 of your friends, family members, colleagues and neighbors. But not one cent of those phenomenally generous donations will go to support Half the Sky programs.

People sometimes tell us they assume that, because HTS programs have been so successful, we don’t need their help anymore. The very opposite is true!

Now, as we re-group and recover from Little Mouse and carry on with our efforts to bring family-like nurturing care to ALL of China’s orphaned children, we need your help more than ever.

The great news is, there are all kinds of ways you can help keep Half the Sky’s vital programs alive and growing.

Celebrate Mother’s Day with Half the Sky – We have a beautiful Nanny Sponsorship certificate that we hope you will want to present to every mother, grandmother, mother-to-be in your life.
http://give.halfthesky.org/prostores/servlet/Detail?no=76

Sponsor a child – Many, many of the children in our programs still don’t have sponsors. We will be adding more children this spring and fall as we open four new Half the Sky centers (more about that below.) http://www.halfthesky.org/help/sponsorships.php#spchild

Help older children live their dreams -
http://www.halfthesky.org/help/sponsorships.php#bssponsor

Help children who can’t be adopted know the love of a forever family - http://www.halfthesky.org/help/sponsorships.php#spfamily

Or underwrite the costs of a variety of special projects, each one with the power to change young lives - http://www.halfthesky.org/help/sponsoraproject.php

In fact, however you decide to help, you will touch a child’s life.
That’s a promise.

A little bit of news:
Funds from the Little Mouse Emergency Fund have been fully distributed to the 98 orphanages that needed help. We visited with the Vice Minister at the end of February; you can see our final wrap-up here http://www.halfthesky.org/work/littlemouse.php. We’re now working with the Ministry of Civil Affairs on emergency preparedness kits for all the orphanages.

Because of the storms, we were asked to postpone our spring builds. The Guiyang build will now happen in May. Hangzhou has been postponed until fall.

Next week we will travel and select the sites for our already-planned fall builds (funds permitting, of course!) We’ll announce the cities immediately after. We are now accepting applications from those who would like to join a work crew in early September.
http://www.halfthesky.org/help/docs/chinacrewform.pdf

Our wonderful annual Spring Progress Report newsletter is in the works right now and should go out in the mail next month. If you have a change of mailing address or would like to get on the list, please notify us http://www.halfthesky.org/newsroom/mailinglist.php

Thank you, every one of you, for helping Half the Sky make better the lives of so many children.

More news soon!

With love and gratitude,

Jenny

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





China-Babies Research

International adoptive families share experiences

By Christina M. Mitchell/staff
cmitchell@newsleader.com

HARRISONBURG —The clicking sound of the bamboo sticks hitting the floor keeps time as 8-year-old Abby Lachance jumps.

Her long black pigtail and colorful beaded necklace bounce as she moves to the beat, two short jumps and then a slight pause on the third.



The sticks move in an opposite rhythm to her feet, first apart, then together, as Abby bounces in and out of their wooden boundaries.

Then a second girl half Abby's size joins in, and the beat slows a bit as the younger girl learns the steps. The two hold hands and jump together, like near-twins in their pink and red silk pajamas — special outfits for this special day.

The event, celebrated last Sunday at Mulenburg Lutheran Church in Harrisonburg, was held in honor of the Chinese New Year. It's the annual mini-gala for ValleyAdopt, a regional coalition of families who've adopted or are seeking to adopt children from outside the United States. Both Abby and her small friend were born in China but are growing up here in the Shenandoah Valley.

Part reunion and part support, the event is the largest of several that the group holds each year, chances for parents to get together, share stories and enjoy their children. For the kids, it's also an opportunity to interact with people who look like them — and who don't ask the awkward questions that the outside world sometimes does.

"When people would say, 'Is she yours' or 'Is that your real daughter?'" Kristan Lachance said. "It's just ignorance, and I know what they're asking."

"Part of doing an adoption is learning the terms that we use. I say, 'Do you mean where was she born?'"

Abby was born in China. She spent the first part of her life in an orphanage and then foster care before her mother found her. At the New Year celebration, she and the other children marked the site they were born on a large wall map. The map soon was dotted with neon Post-Its over China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Russia and the United States.

"They used to call it your abandonment site," Lachance said of her daughter's first home. "Now they say her finding place ... I like that it's such a positive term."

Mother and daughter also celebrate "Gotcha Day" or the day Lachance first met Abby. The then-toddler cried at first, until her mother pulled out the exact replica of the blanket the little girl carried in her arms — the match to the one Lachance had mailed.

"It was absolutely beautiful, and it was immediate," friend Nina Siebens said of the bond between mother and daughter.

Siebens was Lachance's travel partner for the long trip to Beijing. The experience inspired Siebens to adopt a daughter of her own, a little girl from Thailand named Mali.

ValleyAdopt began about seven years ago with just a handful of mothers seeking to adopt children from China. The little group grew, however, and now includes nearly 100 members. Though the group's reach stretches from Winchester to Augusta County, families stay connected online through their Yahoo! Group, coordinating events several times a year.

"It's important for us that our children grow up with other families like ours, and learn something about their culture," said Diana Ferguson, one of ValleyAdopt's founding members.

The group's other purpose is to help other families go through the sometimes painfully long wait between filing adoption papers and picking up their child, Ferguson explained.

"When you're waiting, there's nobody else that knows what that wait is like, except for somebody else who's been there," she said.

http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080215/NEWS01/802150335/1002





China-Babies Research

2007 US Federal Income Tax Benefits for Adoptive Parents

We have just hosted a file that outlines the 2007 US Federal income tax benefits for Adoptive Parents.

You can view the file here:

2007 US Federal Income Tax Benefits for Adoptive Parents





China-Babies Research

Children suffer as historic snow hits China

Posted: 12 February, 2008



Ice covers power lines in China. Power throughout southern China was affected by the historic ice and snow.


China (MNN) ― Transportation, power generation and the food supply are slowly getting back to normal in China after the worst winter weather in decades. Dozens of people were killed, and the weather caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

Children's Hope International's Program Director Corey Barron describes the situation. "It snowed from mid-January into early February, and it's being called China's Katrina. Many, many millions of people were devastated by this. There are reports that over 300,000 homes were destroyed, and over 800,000 were damaged."

According to Barron, the snows were unprecedented. "There were snows as far south as Guangzhou in China, which is on the southern tip of China just north of Hong Kong. It just doesn't snow; it's a tropical area down there. And so we have regions that have buildings that are not suited for this cold snowy weather, especially the orphanages."

Children's Hope is doing all they can to help the isolated orphanages that were cut off from supplies, electricity and water for days on end. "We are fundraising to raise money for clothes, food, for heaters. A lot of these orphanages need heaters, diapers, for essentials like water, and formula and charcoal. A lot of these towns were cut off from their suppliers so prices have skyrocketed."

They're partnering with Operation Blessing, a ministry of Christian Broadcasting Network. Barron believes that as they help, "We can make a difference by showing the love of Christ in a crisis situation. There are a lot more than 13 orphanages in China, but we're focusing on these orphanages that have been hit very, very hard."

According to Barron, you can make a difference with just a $100 gift, which goes a long way. He's asking people to go to HelpAnOrphan.org. "You'll see the different orphanages that we're working with right now and that continues to build. In some instances, roofs collapsed from the weight of the snow, and everything got wet. Or they didn't have enough supplies anyway because they weren't prepared for such cold weather ."

Children's Hope gives needed physical, medical and humanitarian help to orphans at risk and in need, with the ultimate purpose of bringing spiritual life and accompanying hope, faith, strength and direction to all those who are served.

Pray that many will help with the humanitarian disaster. Pray also that God would use this situation to draw caregivers and others to Himself.

http://mnnonline.org/article/10892





China-Babies Research

Some not smiling over Juno's sarcasm on China

Reyhan Harmanci, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

San Rafael real estate agent Lo Mei Seh was shocked when she saw a theatrical trailer for the hit movie "Juno" in December. In one scene, the title character sarcastically tells the rich suburban couple hoping to adopt her unborn child, "You shoulda gone to China. You know, 'cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those T-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events."

Seh, the mother of two adopted Chinese girls, noticed a young Asian girl sitting behind her getting noticeably upset and muttering, "That's so mean and unfair."

"I calmed myself down, saying these things are just going to happen, and as a parent I have to teach my children to be strong," she says. But after that particular scene was shown on televised award shows like the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild awards, she became angry all over again.

"I know some people will say 'lighten up,' but that's not the point," Seh says. "The trailer is misleading" about the complexities of adopting infants from China.

"It's not only hurtful, but harmful," she says.

Seh is not alone: Online message boards and blogs have been lighting up locally and nationally with debates on the heavily promoted scene as parents, teens and other interested parties weigh in. Many defend the movie itself as an unusually positive representation of adoption but bemoan the "iPod scene."

The debate is fueled by the fact that the scene is widely available as a clip on the Internet. In addition, a promotional video on the "Juno" Web page shows star Ellen Page telling screenwriter Diablo Cody that those lines are her favorite of the movie.

While the lines are spoken by a sarcastic, irreverent 16-year-old character, critics say that it plays into the misperception that adopting transnationally is simple and easy and renders the children themselves as little more than accessories. Nothing could be further from the truth, say those who know about the adoption process firsthand.

In an e-mail statement to The Chronicle, director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody say the joke was intended to showcase Juno's teenage ignorance.

"No one could be more sensitive to this idea than myself. My wife and daughter are Chinese, and my sister is adopted," Reitman says. "While I am connected to this on all levels, I have always felt that it is important that we find humor in which we are most sensitive. It is through comedy that we can begin conversation instead of hiding behind political correctness - a wall that simply divides people and stifles communication."

Cody agrees.

"Juno's remark is meant to be casually insensitive in that wince-inducing, quintessentially teenage way," she writes. "The iPod line is a moment of sublime, ridiculous brattiness that was meant to be amusing. It's the kind of thing a kid who'd never experienced that pain would say."

But to the offended parties, the scene feels like an insult.

"Parents are correct to think that it's something very personal," says Susan Soonkeum Cox, vice president of public policy at Oregon's Holt International, a large adoption and children's services agency and an adoptee herself. "This is not to say you shouldn't have a sense of humor, but even though this is supposed to be a clever line, no child wants to think of themselves as throwaway or a souvenir. That's real."

The irony of the "Juno" line is that adopting from China is very difficult. The Chinese government began allowing adoptions to the United States in 1991, and the country became the No. 1 source of international adoptees. Approximately 55,000 Chinese children, 95 percent of them girls, have entered the United States since the early '90s, according to news reports. Adoptions from China reached a high of 7,906 children in 2005, but dropped to 6,493 in 2006 as new Chinese legal restrictions on adoptive parents went into effect. (New restrictions include barring gay parents, single parents, and parents over a certain body mass index and under a certain income level).

It's impossible to pinpoint where the highest concentrations of adopted children have ended up, but Berkeley resident Peggy Scott, the Northern California chapter president of Families with Children from China, says the Bay Area is a hub. She estimates that there are 600 members in her chapter and another 600 in Southern California. Nationwide, Scott estimates the group has a membership of more than 5,000.

"China has become what's considered the gold standard for international adoption - legal, fair, straightforward," says Scott, mother of an adopted Chinese-born daughter.

"They were one of the first major countries that required parents to go to the country to pick up their child," Cox says, "and China has a beautiful giving and receiving ceremony for the children. It's a very serious process."

Scott saw "Juno" with her 14-year-old daughter, Abbey, and says they loved the film and the Juno character. But before they saw it, Scott was listening to NPR's "Fresh Air" program when she heard the clip played as an example of the film's snappy dialogue. She says she felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown on her.

"My daughter and I talked about it when I heard it on the radio. I told her I'd heard this line, and I told her it was on 'Fresh Air,' and she went, 'Oh, my gosh.' " But Scott says her daughter's first response was a quip.

"She said, 'Are the e-mails flying yet?' because she knows that's what happens when something comes up ... and sure enough, by the next day, the e-mails were flying."

The national magazine Adoptive Families set up a Web page to discuss "Juno," although editor Susan Caughman says she doesn't think most people involved in adoption, including her 16-year-old Chinese-born daughter, were offended.

Several parents interviewed say that they receive wrong-headed comments regularly as a result of misunderstandings about adoption.

"I think people who are touched by adoption feel like a targeted group," says Beth Hall, founder of Pact, a local nonprofit organization providing adoption services to children of color. "Often they are viewed with positive stereotyping, like 'Oh, it's so wonderful you rescued that child.'

"The flip side is that the child must be so bad, only a saint would take care of him or her."

The parents also say that the "Juno" line also plays on racist Asian stereotypes in an unacceptable way.

"Could you have made that joke with any other minority?" Scott says. "I don't think so. You'd catch hell."

International and transracial adoptions have been in the press more in the past few years thanks to growing multiracial celebrity families such as that of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and a child trafficking scandal involving an adoption agency in Chad in November. Mills College Professor Julia Chinyere Oparah, co-editor of transracial adoption anthology "Outsiders Within" and herself a transracial adoptee, says that there is a long history of "saving" children of color by removing them from their families and communities.

Adoption is a difficult subject in general to talk about: As Hall says, it "makes people nervous."

"Any adoption situation, regardless of international or domestic, always has issues of grief, issues of loss, issues of abandonment. We as adults continually deal with it," says Lisa Marie Rollins, the founder of local group Adopted & Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora who is writing her dissertation on transracial adoption. She said she was "completely taken aback" when she heard the "Juno" lines in a clip.

Oparah echoes that comment: "On an emotional level, I was one of those children that were available for adoption," she says, adding that she was born in Nigeria and raised in England, "so to say that you can get them like iPods, like commodities, it's speaking to the adoption industry, and it's said in a really brutalizing way."

With "Juno" nominated for four Oscars this year, including best picture and best actress, Seh became concerned that the iPod clip would be shown again, this time to a potential audience of more than 1 billion people around the world. She wrote the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The academy is paying attention. Last week, Seh got a call from academy President Sid Ganis, who said in a voice-mail message that he had gotten her letter, was sympathetic to her concerns, and would pass it on to others. The academy, through communications director Leslie Unger, confirmed it had heard from more than one person on the issue. Seh says she hopes the offending clip won't be broadcast when the awards air Feb. 24.

Sound off: Does that line from "Juno" offend you? Call (415) 777-6268 to comment for an Open Mic podcast at sfgate.com/podcasts.

E-mail Reyhan Harmanci at rharmanci@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/13/MNQFUSKQQ.DTL






China-Babies Research

Update on China Weather and Nanchang

Special thanks to several people who have made donations to help out in Nanchang, we are purchasing two large electric space heaters that can also be used for drying diapers, as well as blankets.

Update:

We have made delivery of the blankets and heaters, here is a photo gallery:





The Nanchang SWI sends it thanks!





China-Babies Research

Two nights ago we spoke to our staff in China and the Nanchang SWI has asked us to provide some specific things to help them through the current weather crisis. To this end we have created a fundraiser and will be using the proceeds to buy electric space heaters and blankets.

You can use the widget below to help.

Thank you in advance for your kindness and support.







China-Babies Research