Background on FCC's Partnership with the Amity Foundation
My family joined FCC New York a few years ago, even though we live in Northern Virginia, as we were excited about FCC's collaboration with the Chinese Christian organization, the Amity Foundation. Amity has been actively helping the thousands of orphaned and abandoned children in China since 1985. Amity provides aid to the orphans who are living in the state-run social welfare institutes through various projects such as the Education Project, the "Grandma Project" and the Foster Care Project, among many others.
We are so grateful to support Amity as they are a Chinese Christian organization and they fundamentally understand the complex needs of both the orphans and the state run social welfare institutes.
For more detailed information on the Amity Orphan Support Projects, please follow this link, choose 'English', 'Programs', and 'Social Welfare Office'.
Families with Children from China (FCC) is one of the primary supporters of the Amity Foundation. In 2004 FCC donated over $210,00 for Orphanage Assistance in China ($51,000 for Hugging Grandmas, $19,000 for Nursing Teams, $93,000 for Foster Care, and $36,000 for Education Programs, among many others).
FCC sends 100% of each dollar it receives to China.
$100 supports a child in school for a full year
$250 supports a Grandma for six months
$300-$450 supports a child in foster care for a full year
$500+ pays for a cleft palate repair or other surgery
The programs that FCC supports have helped thousands of children in more than 90 orphanages in 16 provinces. For more information on FCC's support to Amity and to China's orphanages, please proceed to FCC New York.
Our Visits with Amity and the Foster Care Families
On our visit to Nanjing, the Director of Amity's Social Welfare Office, Wu An An, agreed to meet with us and show us the progress of the FCC/Amity Foster Care Project.
Our daughter shown with Wu An An at the entrance of the Amity Foundation offices. Amity is located nearby the campus of Nanjing University.
We spent several days with the ever gracious Zhou Bo, who oversees many of the Amity Foster Care Projects.
Ms. Zhou Bo
Our daughter with Jin Ping (Orphanage Director, Nanjing SWI) and Zhou Bo (Amity Foundation). During our visits to the Nanjing SWI, we saw the effectiveness of the "Hugging Grannies" Project. On numerous occasions we saw warm Grandmas hugging and playing with many children. We placed a few photos of the Amity sponsored Grandmas in the Nanjing SWI section.
Wu An An and Zhou Bo have incredibly busy schedules as they travel to numerous social welfare institutes and Foster Care families to ensure that Amity's support funding is spent in the wisest and most efficient manner to help the maximum number of children.
They keep extensive spreadsheets on the progress of all of their Foster care children. In addition, both the local social welfare institutes and Amity make numerous follow-up visits to the Foster Care families to make sure the children and Foster Care parents are satisfied. Many times the Foster Care parents of special needs children require additional training, support, equipment, and follow-up care.
Our van ride to the villages (front to back - our daughter, a nurse, Fan Da Zhen, a local district social worker, and Zhou Bo [not shown in the back].
Foster Care parents bring their children to a local district building to receive medical care and shots from the nurse. In addition, the social welfare institutes and Amity can monitor the children's progress during these visits.
My wife explains our daughter's past life at the Nanjing Social Welfare Institute, much to the interest of the local families.
Our daughter with a Foster Care girl who is soon to be adopted. She loves to play dress up.
This girl unfortunately has a tumor in her head. She is incredibly bright and enthusiastic. She ran to her room and showed us a school award she received. She finished second in her class in spite of her orphanage/ Foster Care background. Her Foster Care mom is very prod of her academic achievements. The girl's penmanship was fantastic. Her Chinese characters were flawless. In addition, her artwork, such as papercuts of birds, was simply beautiful. We don't think she will be a candidate for adoption given her illness.
Typical backyard view of a village Foster Care family in Jiangsu Province. These were all great homes with plenty of areas for children to play.
A Foster Dad helps his son to sit on a stool. Fan Da Zhen, at the door, documents the boys progress. The child has cerebral palsy and falls down a lot. Unfortunately, he is not able to attend school because he is so unstable.
He completes many puzzles, such as Legos, because the social workers thought it would help his coordination.
Zhou Bo, wearing white shirt, also observes and comments on the boy's progress.
Success! He assembles a car.
Cute girl who looked happy and is well cared for by her Foster Care parents.
Above are two Foster Care mothers with their kids. The Foster Care dads live in adjoining houses shown in the background. The mother in the yellow shirt had grown to love her Foster Care son in the wheelchair. Once her husband had joked that the boy would be returning to his orphanage and the Foster Mom cried all night, even after the husband told her it was a joke.
One Foster Family lives to the left and one to the right. One brother lives in each house with their families and the grandfather lives in the center house. This is a great setup to give support to Foster Care children.
Fan Da Zhen jokes with two Foster Care girls who have severe water on the brain. The Foster Care mothers really were attached to the girls in spite of their medical problems. We all stopped to have lunch at this house. It was a nice meal with about 12 dishes to choose from.
Dave with one of the cute girls with water on the brain.
Mei Ling stands with a Foster Care boy (in red shirt). He is named Chu (same as our daughter). They were probably at the Nanjing SWI together. He appeared to have developmental delays. His Foster Care mother shown on the left was very kind to her kids.
Dave, Sheryl, and Mei Ling take in one of the nice backyard views in the countryside.
This Foster Care mother just received some special boots for her Foster Care son. He only had a couple of toes on each foot. As a result, he had balancing problems. These boots were donated by a family from Holland who had an adopted son with the same handicap. They found the boots helped their son to walk, so they now donate support boots to other children. Thanks!
Fan Da Zhen lets him try out the support boots.
Wow, he is walking much better.....
Sheryl and Mei Ling talk with a loving and dedicated Foster mom and her Foster Care child.
This girl had to stop attending school because she had some severe falls due to balancing problems. Afterwards, the Foster Care mom quit work to home school her girl. It is extremely uncommon for a mother to quit work in China to home school a child. To us it showed that she had completely bonded with her Foster Care daughter.
When we first met Zhou Bo it was clear that she was a big advocate for the FCC/ Amity Foster Care Program. After our visits to the villages to see the Foster Care children, we now completely agree with her. We personally saw many Foster Care parents who truly enjoyed and supported their kids. No orphanage, no matter how good could compete with these loving Foster Care Parents. Our family believes that the Amity Foster Care Program has been a huge success for the kids. Please Keep Supporting the FCC Aid for the Amity Projects.