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Monday, March 15, 2010

Lily’s Orphan Care Centre - LOCC Henan

After the morning at Xu Cheng, we went for lunch accompanied by Director Cheng and Vice Director Li of Xin Xiang orphanage, the Director and 2 Vice Directors for Xu Cheng SWI, the Director and Vice Director of Luo He orphanage. It was a charming place where food was ordered by looking at prepared plates that was actually cooked outside. There were jars of liquor (rice wine) lined up inside the door each filled with fasinating things, such as seahorses and snakes and chili peppers!

After lunch we headed out for a 90 min drive to Lou He. There we would visit CCAI’s Lily’s Orphan Care Centre (LOCC). It’s concept is like that of Gracie’s Room except the kids in that program have care for 24 hours a day. They get special care from specially trained nannies (by the way, CCAI offers this training free of charge for the other care takers in this orphanage, but no one has taken up this offer).

There are currently 25 children in LOCC with 17 care givers working 5 days weekly in 12 hour shifts covering 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There is 1 large room with cribs lining the room, there are 2 small rooms off this main room. 1 is a sick room with an incubator (the only incubator we ever saw in all of the orphanages by the way) with a crib and oxygen, it also had medicine lined up neatly and in vials on the counter. The LOCC pays a local doctor to come to see the children.

The next room is an office with a desk and computer where Cenxi, the LOCC supervisor does her paper work. Cenxi travelled with us and Xia to see the other orphanages. She helps Xia take pictures and information on babies whose paperwork should be prepared for adoption. She is a college graduate who speaks some english and obviously has a passion for what she does. She works only day shifts but often travels with children to appointments and surgeries. When she is at the appointments, another LOCC employee acts as supervisor. We saw her interact with the babies and she knows each one very well.

In that room, there was a LOCC worker folding diapers. There are folded in a very special way to insure that the cloth diaper does not impede the children’s movements. At XinXiang the kid’s diapers were very thick between their legs making mobility difficult. We were thrilled to learn that Vice Director Li asked to be taught how to fold them, so this could be implemented at XinXiang. They are so eager to make the lives of the children better. Sometimes its the simple stuff.

The third room was actually 2 rooms with an open doorway between them. Each room had a play area and cribs. The first room has kids about 12 months of age, several repaired cl/cp and one beautiful little boy with albinism. The kids were being held and fed by the nannies along with an American volunteer, Glenn. Glenn, along with his wife,Pam and 2 daughters (4 and 6) adopted from China, were spending 3 months volunteering at the orphanage. We met the whole family and what a great adventure they are on.

The smaller room had a few smaller kids (approx 3 months old) and some about 6 to 9 months. One child just had surgery on his cleft lip just 2 days before and he was looking great. He wasn’t yet back on solid food but was standing at the bar in the play area. He and Moya played the world famous baby game “You give me the ball, and I’ll throw it for you to go get and give to me again..and again...”

At the back of that room were 2 smaller rooms similar to the ones in the front room. One was used as a bathing / changing area and the other held a small fridge and sink and stove as well as some shelves. Fresh food, including eggs and vegetables are brouggt in daily and the children’s food is prepared here. (the children in LOCC only)

They have a system with specially coded tags for each child’s bottle so they can keep track of how many they have had. After the kids are there lunch they were given a bottle of water. It is very important for hydration, but this is time comnuming and very few orphanages do this.

Krista and I stayed in these 2 rooms and played with the kids. Krista was holding a baby with cl/cp, when they came around with water bottles, the ayis offered Krista the bottle (a special one for cleft affected babies) This bottle works differently because the baby cannot suck so there is a rhythmic squeezing of the bottle to let the baby swallow, breathe, swallow etc.. The ayis knelt down beside Krista and very patiently showed her how to do this. This was the Krista first time ever feed a baby with cl/cp and although the ayis was patient. Krista was frightened that the baby would get upset at not being fed properly by her, so the ayis took the baby and gently fed her the bottle!

One thing that we both noticed, was that when a baby would get upset, the ayis would immediately rush over to them and pick them up and rock them. We would see 1 ayis, with a baby in her arms sleeping as she was gently rocking another beside her. The whole time she was smiling and cooing. (this was not the case in the other SWI)

We left at nap time and toured the baby rooms in the regular part of the orphanage. We went to a room where maybe 6 or 7 children about 9 to 12 months of age, were in walkers. There were no toys visable in the room, the room was cold and breezy and the ayis just stood around. One little one with Down’s Syndrome was rocking back and forth in her walker in an attempt to self soothe. Cenxi is going to try to get her moved into LOCC. It is so sad that all of the children cannot get the superior care offered by LOCC (which is literally around the corner on the same floor) and bloom like the kids in LOCC!

“All they need is to be fed, held and played with,” Xia said memorably “it’s so simple”


Another room had older children, with very severe special needs, prehaps 8 of them all lined up against the wall in potty chairs. There was a TV at the end of the room. Three children lay in beds and 1 child was in a chair in front of the TV. All ranged in age from 6 to 10. It’s too hard for us to write more, we only saw them for a minute.. but this is their lives!

The final room we visited at Luo He had 6 babies in it. There were 2 ayis who were trying on jeans when we walked in (obviously surprising them). 4 babies in bouncy chairs, perhaps 5 months old. They were 2 x 2 facing each other, covered with a large blanket. Xia and Cenxi looked at each child’s special need, and took notes to encourage the orphanage to get their paper work sent to Beijing for adoption. One child had a limb difference with her arm ending with a small deformed hand at her elbow, one child had microtia and another had club feet and hands.

1 crib held a sleeping 2 month old who had been jaundiced and the other held a child with cl/cp. We stayed there a bit interacting with the babies. Those babies could all find adoptive families, and they all should have the level of care that LOCC offers.

We left that day emotionally exhausted. We had been to 2 orphanages in 1 day and seen many many kids. We were impressed by the LOCC and feel with the right support - including nannies paid well enough to stay in their jobs and be consistant care givers, and including 24 hour Gracie’s Room care, of our XinXiang kids - our Gracie’s room could be that good. We think XinXiang orphanage is trying their best to work with us to help the children but some changes need to be made with the program. We were emotionally exhausted by what we saw, by inspired by what could be.....

What Dianjiang kids could do....


Please keep all the children in your prayers.

4 comments:

  1. my heart breaks picturing each child you saw. i pray that they can all have the care they deserve, and ultimately, a loving home. thank you for being there and doing what you can.

    elizabeth

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  2. So emotionally overwhelming! I pray too that someday all the kids will have their forever family. ♥

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  3. My heart is breaking for those children......will pray extra hard that they each find their forever families and in the mean time receive a little TLC.

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  4. Looks amazing!!!! /I look forward to your feedback /thanks for this man it was very helpful.


    Child Care Centre

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