Although half the sky has a clear mission-to provide family-like care for orphans and disabled children. However, have the first batch of pilot projects established since the summer of 2000 achieved the expected results?
We want to ask, can a baby who lives in the care center of the welfare home and is raised by a full-time grandmother who is full of love and professional training be as strong as a child in a normal family when he grows up?
We also want to ask, whether children can really make progress happily and successfully leap over one development stage after another under the inspiring learning environment and the patient guidance of systematically trained teachers.
Every child needs love to grow up healthily. Can the staff who hold up half the sky establish a warm and deep emotional attachment with the children in the welfare home?
From the pilot project that holds up half the sky to now, the answers we get are all yes!
Babies babble in the nursing center, laugh loudly, learn to hug, naturally show innocent feelings, remember grandma's gentle voice, and always pursue their own figure. Pre-school children who used to be timid and unhappy become cheerful and optimistic. They learned to draw their own sunflowers, ride bicycles, share toys with their peers and warmly welcome their teachers with open arms.
As two pilot projects that hold up half the sky have achieved excellent results and received enthusiastic response from partners in China, the Foundation decided to add two new projects to help more children who cannot benefit from the projects.
In 2002, Half the Sky launched the Big Sister Project to provide learning opportunities for children and adolescents according to their personal interests. Courses include Chinese, computer training, music, art and vocational education. For those children who study hard and successfully enter the university, half the sky also gives subsidies for tuition and miscellaneous fees to help them successfully complete their studies.
In 2005, Half the Sky established Xinhe Home to establish a family with permanent care for disabled children who cannot be adopted. This pioneering work enables children who can only spend their childhood in welfare homes to have the care of their parents, and they can be called "father" and "mother" with love and pride.
In addition to actively promoting the above four projects, Half the Sky has made continuous efforts to publicize and popularize the importance of caring for orphans and disabled children throughout China.
In 2003, Half the Sky celebrated its fifth anniversary and held a national activity in Hefei, Anhui Province to discuss how to improve the quality of nursing education in welfare institutions in China. Under the sponsorship of the Ford Foundation, Half the Sky published a book, For Children, which was co-edited by Chinese and Western educators. Based on the caring training method practiced in Half the Sky, a complete set of training instruction manuals for teachers and grandmothers has been developed to provide high-quality care and upbringing for children in welfare institutions, and all welfare institutions in China can receive the book free of charge.
In 2005, Half the Sky was invited to carry out the new measures of caring for orphans and disabled children by the China Municipal Government, which not only solved the basic food and clothing and medical needs, but also gave individual attention and one-on-one care to each child. With great joy, Half the Sky cooperated with China Adoption Center and participated in drafting a new training manual for children's care in welfare institutions to improve the care level of orphans and disabled children in China.
Since Half the Sky has vowed to help orphans and disabled children support their blue sky, thousands of children living in welfare institutions in China have gained love and care through our programs, and the number is increasing every year. Half the Sky Engineering Center is dotted on the map of China, and each point symbolizes hope and care for orphans and disabled children.
Half the sky can achieve today's achievements because of the love and enthusiastic participation of many supporters. Today, the global society that holds up half the sky is made up of thousands of generous and caring individuals, companies and foundations, who all contribute their efforts to help us hold up a sky of hope for orphans and disabled children. Mr. Luo Dimati
Mr. Lou DeMattei, Chairman of the Board of Directors, used to be a tax lawyer for Bank of America and Intel Corporation before his "semi-retirement", and now he only handles tax and financial matters for a few private clients. He received a law degree from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Dematyi (a famous writer, Ms. Amy Tan) often travel to China to help local orphans. They have residences in California and new york. They have no children, but they have a pet Yorkshire terrier and a cat called a fool. A fool was drawn into a TV cartoon, so that children will remember it forever. Steve Hoffmann Mr. Steve Hoffmann, Chief Financial Officer of the Board of Directors, 1979 joined Hewlett-Packard Company, then transferred to Agilent Technologies, an independent HP company, and recently retired. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He and his wife Patricia Lee adopted two daughters from Guangdong Province, Greer Georgia from Wuchuan (1999) and Amelia Lee from Qingxin County (2002).
Shi huilan
Dr. Nancy L. Spearman
Dr. Shi Huilan has lived in East Asia for 25 years and has lived in Taiwan Province Province, Hongkong, China, Malaysia and Singapore for a long time. She received her doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Hong Kong on 1987. Later, she taught at the University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore, Patulingyong Community College in Kuala Lumpur and George Mei Sen University in Virginia. 1989- 199 1, served as an observer and promoter of interactive skills in the international training management development center of Xerox. 1993- 1995, officer of Taipei Personnel Department of American Association in Taiwan. Dr. Shi's husband, Doug Spelman, is a senior diplomat in the State Council and a former professor of modern history in China. They have two adult daughters, Speichen and Speeren, who still call themselves children of the third culture. Half the sky is dedicated to improving the lives of orphans and disabled children. At present, five projects cover thousands of children, and tens of thousands of children have benefited from these five innovative projects since Half the Sky started working in China in 2000:
Little Sister Infant Care Project: Half the sky employs local caring women to be full-time grandmothers after professional training to provide enlightenment and care for infants in welfare institutions.
Miss Sister's Preschool Education Project: The preschool teachers who are carefully trained by half the sky help children to establish self-confidence, master basic skills and cultivate their love for learning through the unique teaching methods of continuous innovation and integration of the essence of Chinese and Western education, so that children can smoothly enter primary schools.
Big Sister Project: Children who have not received early education will often become problem of juvenile if they are not properly guided. Half the sky provides personalized learning opportunities according to these children's own interests and talents.
Xinhe Home Project: Some children cannot be adopted because of their disabilities. For such children, half the sky has set up a warm permanent family in/near the welfare institution, so that they can grow up happily under the care of the family and the supporting system of medical treatment and rehabilitation in the welfare institution.
China Caring Project: the latest project that holds up half the sky, providing medical and rehabilitation services for vulnerable orphans and disabled babies. Sick children, whether in Beijing intensive care unit, nearby family nursing medical units or hospitals, will be taken care of by professional grandmothers. These children who are struggling to survive will never be lonely again. Half the Sky Foundation is one of the first foreign NGOs to set up a service center in China. Since 2000.
Since the establishment of the first service center, the China service network of Half the Sky Foundation has expanded rapidly. Today, the Foundation serves 30 welfare homes in China 12 provinces and cities.
JennyBrown, executive director of Half the Sky Foundation, said that Half the Sky Foundation has been registered as a charity in Hong Kong, officially named Half the Sky Foundation (Asia) Limited, allowing Hong Kong citizens and enterprises to make direct donations to support the care for orphans in China.
Hong Kong has always been a city that is enthusiastic about public welfare. Many citizens and enterprises have generously supported Half the Sky Foundation's work in caring for orphans in China, and the number of people who are good at this work is increasing. After the opening of the Hong Kong office, Hong Kong citizens and enterprises can provide more help to orphans in China, cooperate with and support the efforts of the China government, and truly improve the lives of orphans.
The Director-General of Invest Hong Kong, Mr Mike Rowse, said that the Half the Sky Foundation is welcome to set up a branch in Hong Kong. He firmly believes that Hong Kong is an ideal place for the Half the Sky Foundation and other international NGOs to achieve their goals.
Half the Sky Foundation is committed to providing one-on-one care and care for more than 3,200 orphans in Chinese mainland, and has been supported by 40,000 philanthropists and enterprises around the world.
Half the Sky Foundation cooperates with China Municipal Government, China Population Welfare Foundation, China Social Workers Association and other NGOs in China.