Orphans come in all cultures

Last week I told you about my recent trip to Qinghai Province when we visited Xining Children's Home. We also took our group of visitors to Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where we have been co-managing Huangnan Children's Home since 2008.

This home is very different to Xining Children’s Home because 80% of the children are Tibetan and come from nomadic families. The rest are Mongolian, Hui, and Tu - minority tribes on the Tibetan Plateau, and the remainder are Han Chinese. Orphans are more at risk among nomads.

Sadly, it is quite common for children to lose one or both of their parents because the people are extremely poor and living conditions are very harsh. When only one parent dies, and the remaining parent remarries, the new spouse often rejects the children. These children are sent to live in our Home. If children are unfortunate enough to lose both parents the extended family and community is usually too poor to care for them, so they too are sent to Huangnan Children's Home.

By the time many of the older children arrive at the home they are far behind academically because of erratic or non-existent early childhood education. Many of these children are quite intelligent, but most become frustrated if they are unable to catch up with their peers. Outside intervention is essential so that these children may have the opportunity to fulfil their God-given potential and break the generations-long poverty cycle.

We arrived at Huangnan Children's home and found the students happily involved in a vocational training programme that has been developed in co-operation with the local vocational training institute. The children proudly demonstrated their new ability to do silk painting, which was greatly admired by our tour group. A member of our group had fun giving students of the hospitality and tourism industry a ten minute lesson on how to interact with foreign tourists.  Other children are learning to be kindergarten teachers. It was also exciting to see students in a fully equipped music room, where each one had a keyboard to practice on, something their peers in many orphanages in China have no access to.

One hundred and sixty children are presently learning various skills and with your faithful support we can continue to show these beautiful children that they are able to become constructive members of society, and that it is possible to break out of the poverty cycle, where many of their families have been trapped for hundreds of years.

Thank you for making this vital service possible!