Report of the Field Visit to Nanchang Orphanage

March 31 - April 1, 2002 by Dr. Peggy Gurrad

Amity Hugging Grannies working at the orphanage in Nanchang wear jackets saying that "It's Better to Give Than to Receive" and we agree!

There are now ten Amity Hugging Grannies in this orphanage.  Most are retired medical and education professionals.  All love the kids and their work.

Ms. Chen felt that what they needed most was clothes.  She spent some time going to several stalls to get the best price and finally settled on a couple where the shirts were about $1.00 to $1.50 each in US dollars and the pants and overalls were $1.50 to $2.00.  

So we decided that some of the orphanage staff would do more shopping the following day without us and then show us what they’d bought before we left.

Here we are hauling one of the sacks of clothing back to the van!

So far the nearby kindergarten has refused to accept these children.  But Amity is emphasizing that they must stay in the same foster homes and that the problem of the schooling must be solved.  There are some other schools in the area that the orphanage can try.  

The foster mothers were very devoted and proud of their foster children.  And the children are thriving, so much improved from how they were initially at the orphanage, before the assistance of the Hugging Grannies and then the benefit of foster care.

Most of the children left in the orphanage are special needs children and are now living in the area that had housed the healthy toddlers and preschoolers when I visited in 1999.  Our Hugging Grandmas are focusing their attention on these children.  

When we visited one of the foster homes where two Hepatitis B children lived, these children sang the songs for us that they had learned from the Grannies and still remembered.  They were very lively and engaging.  It was such a change from the listless children that I saw in 1999 sitting in potty chairs lined up against the wall, not even able to walk because they never had the opportunity.  Later we came back to this room and gave the children T-shirts that Betsy had brought with her that had been decorated (painted) by a group at home as well as some other little toys we’d brought with us.

We've made great progress at getting these children into foster care.  It hasn't been easy because families are often fearful of catching Hepatitis and often won't agree to sponsor a child with Hepatitis B.  One child had been in foster care and went for surgery on her clubfoot.   During her hospital stay she was found to be Hepatitis B positive and her foster mom refused to take her back.  So she is now at the Nanchang orphanage and is very sad and quiet, not speaking.  In her foster home she had been very active and talkative.  She's on our waiting list to place in a new foster home as soon as an opening comes up.  

When the orphanage staff has a difficult time finding a home they tend to give up and ask to place the healthy children instead.  So it's taken quite a bit of perseverance on Amity's part to get these children into foster care and keep them there.  This is one of the reasons that we have raised the stipend for the foster families willing to foster a child with Hepatitis B.  

And if they're old enough to go to school then the orphanage staff runs into problems because the kindergartens or schools refuse to accept them.  The orphanage staff will then try to use this as a reason why the child should come back to the orphanage.  But Amity has insisted they find a school that will accept them.   A few times they've even resorted to finding a journalist that would write an article about the school's refusal to accept the student.  We've funded blood tests for the prospective foster families and vaccines for those family members who are Hep B negative.

Next were some of the children in “Group 6” and “Group 5”.   These children have more severe disabilities, some with Cerebral Palsy.  Several Grannies are focusing on these children, each working intensively with two children. 

They have brought about some remarkable changes in these children and some of the Cerebral Palsy children have been able to enter foster homes after this dedicated attention from a Granny.

Some of the severely handicapped children had just laid in bed or sat in a chair all day long, not able to communicate or show recognition for caretakers, unable to feed or toilet themselves.   Many were quite malnourished and thin.   The Grannies fed them, often-bringing nutritious food from home.  The children gained weight and were much healthier.  Now most of them are able to sit independently and many can walk.   They show emotions and recognize their Granny and some can speak and feed themselves. 

We had a meeting with the Grannies where they introduced themselves, told what profession they were retired from and how they got interested in being a Granny.  More details are included in the photo explanations.  They told about some of the children they’d helped and how rewarding it was to be a Hugging Granny.  It was very touching, these Grannies expend a lot of physical and emotional energy on these children and although the results are often dramatic they take time.  They were eager to tell us about their experiences, gathering around Dr. Hong (the Amity person in charge of the Grannies) later to tell her more stories about “their” children.

Outside, as we were walking back towards the orphanage gate we met Fu Liu Hua, an orphan born 1976 who now is an orphanage worker.  She is blind in one eye and we paid for her to have surgery (removal of an enlarged ovary).  And then we ran into two of the older orphans and a staff member that had just returned from shopping with the other half of the money I’d brought.  

One of older orphans that went shopping was a teenage girl who had surgery on her legs paid for by Amity.  Due to past polio her legs were fixed in a bent position and she could not stand but only squat when I saw her on my June 1999 visit.  When I saw her in November 1999 she had just had surgery a few months prior and was learning to walk with crutches and braces.  Now she is able to stand upright and walk unassisted!  We also met one of the boys whose leg (post polio) surgery we recently paid for, possibly WTH.

After lunch we made a quick trip back to the orphanage to see some children in need of surgery.   There was HYW, a baby with congenital heart disease whose fingers appeared bluish especially when contrasted with mine, and a baby with a  clubfoot condition.  And then HDZ, a baby with congenital heart disease in urgent need of heart surgery.  We also saw some other infants in cribs in these rooms.

And on the way out I saw some of the Hepatitis B children after the Grannies had gone home (all three came in the morning that day instead of one in the afternoon like usual because of our visit).  They were sitting in little chairs again against the wall, looking quite sad.  Hopefully we can get these children in foster care homes soon!

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