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May, 2002 | |
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Dear Readers, Betsy has a daughter from Ganzhou (in Jiangxi province) and traveled with Peggy Gurrad on her recent field visit with Amity to the Jiangxi orphanages. She shares the following thoughts... |
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Signing up to accompany Peggy on the Jiangxi
trip this spring (2002) was the easiest thing to do. I knew that I
had a great interest in what she and Amity did in the province, but I
didn't know that this trip would be such a great experience for me! (Betsy is pictured here greeting her daughter's former foster mom.) |
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After making the negotiations with my
husband and family, it was all set - I would travel with Peggy and the
Amity staff persons in the later part of September of last year.
As the time got closer I did all the preparations and set up the travel,
everything fell into place and then September 11th happened. I
don't think I initially realized the full impact of that day, because I
was focused on traveling to China. We live 1.5 hours from New York
City, but I was traveling to my 3rd child's birthplace and I just kept
thinking over those next few days - "I'll get to travel, no
problem. It's the safest time to travel." Well, you
can't fly if the flights are cancelled, and so the wait for the spring
trip started.
So, I remade the flight reservations, planned when and how to meet them in Nanchang and prepared my cameras and notebook. I was afraid of how I would be at the end of each orphanage visit. Would I be devastated by these little one's lives? How would I react to the different places we encountered? Would I want to start the INS paperwork immediately after I returned home? (My husband has pretty much said, "3 kids are enough".) These were questions that did concern me. But I knew that I would handle it, somehow. So, because of my faith, I relied on God to help me while I was there - and I had an AWESOME time during those 12 days and 11 orphanages. If I would need to limit my highlights (believe me I do, because I could go on for pages) it would have to be 3 things: Amity Foundation We all support the work that they do in Jiangxi, but they go much further than the WORK. The support and training that the Amity staff gives to the orphanages is wonderful. It is heartening to see the Directors believe in the Amity philosophy of "Look at every man eye to eye, even if he is lying down." The children, who are the "lost souls" of China, have become "little people of promise" to the orphanage staff. They no longer say, "Oh, they have special needs and can't do anything." Now the staff works together to give the special needs children and all orphans/abandoned children a future. Traveling to 11 different orphanages gave great perspective on which ones get the philosophy, which ones are trying and which ones, sadly, are seeing Amity as a "free lunch". The Amity staff tries not to "write off" any orphanages, because they know that at least they have their foot in the door and can keep offering suggestions. I was truly impressed to see the life altering difference that Amity does. Hugging Grannies These women are saints. Most of the women that we met are retired and have come out of retirement because of a deep commitment to children. Some are retired doctors, nurses or schoolteachers. In some orphanages, the women work with the health of infants and newly abandoned children. In others, their main function is the handicapped/special needs children (from 2 - 12). They are changing the way that children are cared for in the orphanages. Maybe it's because they are respected, because of their former occupation, or maybe it's because the staff sees the difference that they bring to their charges. I don't know, but I love this program. Deaf School in Jiujiang There is a small, private boarding school located out of the city limits that is run by a deaf man and his hearing wife. He had a dream to open a school for children to learn both sign and oral language. The public deaf schools only teach oral language, which if you think about it is a little weird. They can't hear, but the kids are "taught" to speak. I am not an educator, but as I think about it - sign language seems to be the better way to go. We visited this school because there is a little 4-year-old boy there who was recently abandoned by his parents, because they thought he was retarded. Amity met him on a visit and after doing some simple tests concluded that he was deaf. They convinced the orphanage director to send him to this school. He is learning, happy and has a huge family of peers to bond with. Where would this little one be without this school? I just sum this up with a similar question - Where would the ones that remain be without Amity Foundation? My heart grieves for the little (and big) boys and girls that have no Mom or Dad, but with Amity in the picture they at least have some improvements in their lives. Betsy Mowrer |