OVERVIEW:
This project supports children in central China who have a physical or mental disability -many of whom were abandoned as babies. We are helping restore their dignity and worth, providing them with love, hope and opportunity through enhanced occupational, therapeutic and educational support. Support services include residential care and a community support project to parents of children with disabilities within the community.
WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT IT:
The local team leading this project are on the cutting edge of providing quality, individual tailored care and personal development. This occurs through education to disabled children incorporating multiple learning methods. They are setting a new standard for care and education of disabled children and have demonstrated the effectiveness of their program. This is being done in close cooperation with the Chinese Government who is eager to improve it’s standards of care based on what it is seeing! Local authorities speak highly of the program and want to see this model of care and education replicated in other provinces.
THE NEED:
With a history of a “one child policy” Chinese families have a preference for male children to carry on the family name and provide for their parents in old age. Unfortunately this has led to the abandonment of children born with a disability. In recent years the government has become more relaxed with the one child policy, however it is too late for the existing abandoned children. Our implementing partner’s practice seeks to not just put a ‘band-aid’ on what has happened, but rather show by example that all children have worth and need to be cared for well. This is having a major influence on the way disabled children are cared for and change has already begun across the nation of China.
LIFE CHANGE:
