Hello From Shanghai - Page 4
 

Coming back from Zhenchan School, I happened to meet a pair of foster parents who were visiting their foster daughter, Baoyue.  The little girl had heart surgery last month and the wound got infected after leaving the hospital.  Thus, she had to come back and stay at the orphanage for additional medical treatment. This was the fifth time the foster parents had come to the orphanage to visit their foster daughter.  The couple was expecting their foster daughter to be well enough to come back home soon.  "Grandpas and grandmas are expecting her to come back", the foster mom tells me.

The foster mother's work unit, located in another county, organized two groups of employees to come to the orphanage to see if they would fall in love with a child.  The couple traveled with five other families in the second group.  It ended up that each of the six families decided to become foster parents and brought one of the children home with them. Now six more orphans are living with foster parents.

The Mom, trying to feed her daughter a fresh litchi, told me that the girl had already had two major surgeries in her six short years of life, and therefore needs double the love and care.  I asked the Dad if they would consider adopting the little girl since they loved her so much.  The man hesitated to say 'yes', explaining instead, that the girl is slower than her peers, and that they did not know whether they would be able to handle the situation in the future.

There is another reason that Chinese foster parents feel hesitant to go from fostering to adoption.  In China, the adoptive parents often hide the fact that a child was adopted, from both the child and those outside the immediate family.  They are afraid the child may run away when they find out the truth.  In some areas, adopted children are looked upon as property for the family clan to own, to be inherited from one generation to the next.  In a family relationship, ties of blood are more important than anything else.

In Shanghai, there are presently 220 children living with foster families. Each family is paid 400 Chinese dollars (yuan) per month, (approx. US $48.00), for caring for the child and 320 Chinese yuan, (approx. US $38.50), for the child's living expenses.  Money to cover the cost of any medical expanses at the medical clinic would be covered in this 320 yuan.  The expenses for Baoyue's surgeries have been sponsored by the Municipal Civil Affairs Department.

The Shanghai Children's Welfare Institution will hold a national convention on July 7th, to discuss the issues of managing the state-run orphanages. An important topic of discussion will be what should be done to better care for the large number of orphans nationwide, given the current less than adequate funding and facilities.

The Shanghai Children's Welfare Institution is the first institute on my trip, and as such, I do not have any other institutes to compare it with.  My overall impressions are that the Shanghai orphanage facilities are adequate.  It is my understanding that much of the funding to equip the facility came from donations and volunteers from all over the city, including the wives of the all the foreign consulates stationed in Shanghai.

On the opposite side, I believe the children need to be shown more respect, such as not talking about them and their circumstances right in front of them.  

My next impression is that there are more boys living at the institution than girls.  And finally, that the percentage of international adoption is small.  In 1998, over one third of all the 80 children adopted from the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institution were adopted internationally.  In 1999, not only were there fewer children adopted internationally, only 30 children in all were adopted from the institute, including both domestic and international adoption.

According to Mr. Huang, the majority of the orphans living at the institute have been handicapped since the beginning of 1990s.  This being so, the authorities are emphasizing foster care as the major channel to solve the problem of overcrowding in the institution.

In the meantime, the Civil Affairs Department and the institution are requesting that more attention and financial support be given to the orphanage from the society.

On the forefront, a new children's welfare institution, expected to cost one hundred million Chinese dollars, is expected to break ground next year. This new facility is designed to provide living services, including room and board, education, rehabilitation, and job training for up to 10,000 orphans.

Saying good-bye at the gate, I ask Ms. Wu to take a picture of me in front of the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institution. A boy comes out from the dinning hall and walks to his school outside the orphanage.  I asked him if he would like to take a picture with me.  As he walked over to stand by me, he was smiling.  After the photo, I wished him good luck and watched as he walked to his school... an empty, long sleeve swinging aside him. This 14 year old boy is learning to be independent... with his only arm.

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