Just as we are getting used to the orphanage, the children, staff and have a good flow, it’s time to say good-bye. The time has come to visit our last orphanage on this 10 day journey, The Children’s Love Manor. Because of the tour we had on our first full day in Chongqing, our team was expecting great things.
Innovative mega-orphanage opens in Chongqing
- Xinhua and Staff Reporter
- 2011-11-27
- 11:07 (GMT+8)
Children and volunteers have a meal at the Chongqing Love Manor, China's largest child welfare institution, which opened on Nov. 24. (Photo/CFP)
China's largest child welfare institution opened in Chongqingon Thursday, offering salaries to couples to live on site and form family units with orphaned children.The innovative scheme is to be treated as a pilot project by UNICEF, with a view to introducing it to orphanages elsewhere.The Chongqing Love Manor, located in the municipality's Tieshanping Forest Park, will pair three or four orphaned children with a couple, with the new family unit living in the 88,000-sq-meter complex which incorporates educational, medical and sporting facilities.The man and woman must be a genuine couple. The woman, who must be between the age of 35 and 50 and literate, will be paid a monthly salary of 1,500 yuan (US$235), comparable with the average wage for Chongqing.While the men will be allowed to work outside of the institution, the women will become full-time staff members.With the scheme, the center's management hopes to create a realistic family setting for the children and an attractive proposition for adults willing to look after orphaned children. Over 500 children have already settled into Chongqing Love Manor, which has room for 15,000 kids in total. Shuttle buses will take the 140 of them who are of an appropriate age to a nearby school.Apart from the kids in the "caring families" program, others will be looked after by professional childcare workers and teachers. There are also specially designed facilities on site for children with disabilities.The Chongqing Love Manor will actively explore raising "caring families" with its excellent facilities in medical care, physical therapy and special education programs for orphans and disabled kids, said Liu Tao, director of the municipality's civil affairs department. "The newly formed families will need some time to settle. However, if the kids in one family do not get along well with each other or the 'parents,' we will consider readjusting them," Liu added.One of the institution's new charges, a 10-year-old orphan surnamed Lu who from the region of the Three Gorges Dam near Chongqing, seemed impressed. "I will finally be able to experience, like my classmates, what it's like when my 'mom' calls me back for dinner," Lu said.The Chongqing Love Manor has set an example for China's child welfare institutions with its humane design and experimental model, said Li Liguo, the country's minister of civil affairs, which has allotted 20 million yuan (US$3.15 million) to support the institution.
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Chongqing Love Manor 重庆市儿童爱心庄园
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Honestly, this facility broke every idea, stereotype and preconceived notion that I had regarding orphanages. This was the most impressive childcare facility I have ever seen…anywhere. The grounds were immaculate which included play facilities and walking trails.
(View of Chongqing Love Manor from the walking trail that surrounds the facility)
The childcare rooms, cafeteria and “apartments” for the foster families were equivalent or better to something you might see here in the United States. I was…simply put, amazed. Some of the “specialty” rooms for the children included:
- Sensory Integration Room (which per our PT, was the nicest she had EVER seen)
- Teaching Kitchen (to help teach the children a trade and how to cook in preparation for independent living)
- Driving Room (with large flat screen televisions and toy cars and roads to help teach the children how to drive and road regulations)
- Mock Grocery Store (to teach the children how to shop for themselves and manage money)
- Music Room (packed with 6 of each, new, various instruments)
- Acupuncture Room
- Aquatics Therapy Room
- Beauty Shop (to teach children a trade)
- Physical and Occupational Therapy Room
- Tea Room
And these are just to name a few…the facilities seemed to take any child’s, every need into account.
(Children and some of their caregivers doing "exercises/dancing" outside)
(A hall in the facility during our tour)
(Cribs and room with some of the younger babies sleep)
(Sensory Integration Room)
(Music Room)
(Music Room)
(Beauty Shop)
(A Physical and Occupational Therapy Room)
(A Physical and Occupational Therapy Room)
(Tea Room)
The problem lies with staffing. While all these rooms were wonderful, it does no good if there is not appropriate staffing who know how to use the abundance of tools. That’s where we hope to come in, in the near future…to help train and educate staff members in using these wonderful tools and gadgets.
As you can see, after seeing the facilities, we expected the children would be doing wonderfully. I was surprised by what we found. Because the facility was so new when we visited, the children we assessed had only been there for around 6 months. Prior to them arriving, most likely they came from severely neglectful and poorer orphanages. So, the children were in about the same shape as the children we saw at the previous orphanage. Hopefully soon, this may change.
During the next 3 days, we spent the majority of our time here. The first two were devoted solely to assessing children as our previous days have been. Our nights were saved for “teaming” and discussing our findings and meeting with American’s in Chonqing carrying out their lives work…these people consisted of “M” teams and 3 sweet women who have devoted their time to taking in special needs children in a home, medical foster care environment. It was inspiring to learn what these amazing people are doing for the kingdom. The 3rd day and final day at the orphanage was a little different. We were able to sleep a little later and then head over to the orphanage. Once there, we saw a few more children, took a walk through the trails outside of the orphanage and we had a very important meeting. People at the meeting consisted of representatives from CCCWA, staff and directors from both orphanages, our teams and various professionals and professors from the community. We were able to discuss our future involvement and have a very candid conversation regarding care for their children. After this very, productive meeting, we took pictures and per our requests, were led to rooms where we could just “play” with babies. All of our staff had been itching, hoping and praying to be able to just play with babies while we were there. We did and it was amazing. Needless to say I fell absolutely in love with one precious little girl (it’s impossible not too). Man, I wish I were “paperwork”ready. J
(Time to eat J)
(Sleeping baby - all bundled and in split pants)
("My Baby" - In respect for her and her future family's privacy, I had to pick a picture where you can't see her face well...but believe me - she is absolutely gorgeous...and perfect J)
After leaving the orphanage, which was a bittersweet moment, we went back to our hotel, headed out for one last night of shopping at the market and then packed and rested up for our long day of travel.
(Inside the market)
(View from the top deck of the market)
(View from the top deck of the market)
(Beautifully carved artwork on the wall of the market)
(There were lots of cats on leashes in China - here is one in the market J)
A Forever Home….
Like I did preciously for the Chongqing SWI, I want to take a moment to tell you about a child who really touched my heart at the Children’s Love Manor. He is a handsome, 6 year old little boy who has been diagnosed with polio. Here is an excerpt from my assessment.
_________ is a precious, 6 year old boy who is currently in a special education class within the orphanage. Some of his interests include looking at pictures and playing with toys. Per the specialist’s observation _________ smiles a lot, is an extremely hard worker, responds well to praise and has a very sweet disposition. Due to his special needs, his gross motor skills are limited though he is able to catch a large ball that has been thrown to him and can walk (unsteadily) with the help of the wall. His cognitive, fine motor and communication skills are at approximately the 48-60 month level. He is able to count orally to 20, identifies number symbols 1-5, can count at least 10 objects consecutively, draws a circle, square, triangle, diagonal and zigzag line in imitation, identifies name when written, complete a task with some attention and reinforcing, holds a crayon using a 3-finger grasp, names action when looking at a picture, sort according to shape, size and length, identify objects based on appearance and category, understands common opposites, answers yes/no questions correctly, can obey commands and requests, can build a tower by stacking blocks, reproduces a two-dimensional block design and completes a picture of a stick person. This information was obtained via observation and caregiver report. The availability of a translator greatly affects the accuracy and completion of this assessment.
