Day 2: XuChang

Today saw more evaluations by our Physical Therapist and Occupational Therapist. Aimee and Leslie have already begun working with each child's ayi to teach them how to work with the children. For example, our Kendall has some challenges with eating and her nanny was taught how to use spoon placement to help Kendall more successfully be able to eat off a spoon. She also learned how to position the spoon so Kendall can swallow better.

We put together some of the high chairs our supporters bought to start showing the nannies how to let the kids "work" in the chairs. They will have a chance to feel their food, practice fine motor skills in picking up their food and work on posture and trunk strength as well as head and neck control.

Lunch was amazing again. We are eating in the orphanage cafeteria each day and the cook ( aka chef) is very talented. Today's favorites included an egg and tomato soup, eggplant and tomato dish and chicken and cabbage dishes! We are being well fed!

After nap time, we followed our Amelia on a walk with her ayi. They explored the blossoming trees on the orphanage grounds.

The children are already enjoying their new toys. A bunch of kids rushed to join their ayi who was drumming on our "peanut" which can be used to build core strength. They were so enjoying just having fun with it. The piggy bank with plastic coins was a big hit with kids practicing fine motor skills ( shh! They don't know their play is therapy!) And just putting things in a bucket  and taking them back out again was a good time.

 

 We will have dinner with the head of local civil affairs this week and the orphanage director has invited the media. It will be a way to bring more exposure to the children and the orphanage and perhaps garner more interest from the public in helping orphans.

Each one of the kids we have met are so precious. We are falling in love! Thanks again for your support. We are so lucky to have Aimee and Leslie with us to help these children, train the nannies and help children that will be in their care in the future.

Why did you do that?

Recently a First Hugs sponsor sent me a great question. Why, she asked, did you change the amount to fully sponsor one child from $1000 to $2000?  When we did that, it was purely to reflect changes in our budget when we moved our program from XinXiang to XuChang.  In the interest of being fully transparent, I am going to share our costs with you.

First of all, labor is more expensive in XuChang . In XinXiang we paid each of 6 staff 1400 yuan monthly plus we paid them for holidays. We paid our room manager 2400 yuan monthly. The SWI paid their insurance. At XuChang, we pay each of 9 staff members 2500 yuan monthly. We have 20 children at XuChang, up from 15 we budgeted for at XinXiang (Although we sometimes had up to 17 children at XX.) We also hired one nanny at XuChang to cook for the children (insuring that the children get good nutritious food and plenty of it!) and cleaning. When she is finished, she spends time with the children. We also pay our manager from XinXiang 2000 yuan monthly to go to XuChang two days weekly.

Most of our donors are drawn to sponsor children. They get quarterly reports and photos. So we made sponsorship for one child $2,000. We expect it will take several sponsors to fully sponsor each child. If all children are fully sponsored, we will have raised $40,000 (20 children times $2,000 full sponsorship) of our $51,000 budget.

There is no doubt we are facing an extra challenge this coming year to raise more money than ever. Our budget has gone from $30,000 to $50,000. We are dedicated to changing things at XuChang for the children. We are hopeful many people will join us in seeing a bright future for these children.

We are planning our annual trip to China in March. We are very excited to visit our program at XuChang for the first time. Krista Dolan and Moya Smith from the First Hugs board will be traveling. As always, we pay all of our own travel expenses. No money from First Hugs goes towards any travel expenses. This trip, an occupational therapist and a physical therapist will be traveling with us. Both have children adopted from China and both are passionate about helping orphans. They will pay their own expenses as well. Every cent raised for First Hugs goes to the children; to pay the nannies’ salaries.