If you love kids, it is an easy decision.

If you would like to make a donation for a specific project or to one of the general funds, please contact us.

Altrusa is a non-profit organization in the United States, so your contributions are tax-deductible. 

We work extremely closely with the orphanage staff members and Amity Foundation workers, so that we can assess needs and also so that you will know exactly how your donation is being spent.

We purchase as many of our medical supplies, clothing items, books, nutritional supplements and pieces of equipment as possible in China.  At a rate of 8.26 yuan to the U.S. dollar, your money goes a long way.  We also save on duty fees by doing this and are able to get the needed items to the orphanages faster.

Altrusa has virtually no overhead, because we are staffed completely by volunteers.  Most of us have or are in the process of adopting a child from China.  Thus, you can be assured that your contribution is going directly to the kids.

The Amity Foundation does receive 7% of your donation, to help fund their administrative costs.  However, it is important to remember that it is largely their volunteers and medical team who are "in the field".  Amity also requires that the local government, as well as the local people each contribute a third of the money and/or labor for each major project.  We feel that this is an extremely fair approach.

A Letter from Jane Brown, founder of PlayShops Programs for Children Adopted from China...

"Hi All,

This and the other programs Amity runs are wonderful!! Amity, from what I understand, now supports programs in almost 100 orphanages.  They purchase their supplies and hire laborers from within China which boosts the local economy -- contributing positively to children and families who might otherwise remain in poverty and add to the population of children in the orphanages.  They work to support not only the children who will be adopted soon, but the children who may never find adoptive families.  They seem to know how to connect with the provincial officials in culturally sensitive ways so that they are able to arrange to work with a particular orphanage and gain assurance for the adoptive families who will support the projects that their money is well-used, since they seem to be skilled in holding folks accountable in measurable ways.  They don't seem to spend much, if any money, on paying the way for their volunteers who travel to China -- which to me is important so that I know that ALL of my money is going TO the children.  They are able to tell me, by the way, how much of my dollar amount is spent directly on the programs -- another important thing for me as a donor or potential donor to a charity.

This Hugging Granny program is, to me, a very very critical one for children in orphanages who, otherwise, can't receive much individualized attention from busy caregivers.  It will increase children's growth and development at critical stages when adoptive parents haven't yet entered the picture (early infancy through the toddler years),  increase children's ability to eventually attach to their parents, and give a significant boost to pre-language development since every hug, every smile, every touch promotes brain growth and helps a child to know that his/her attempts at nonverbal communication COUNT!  These are the building-blocks for language development and are like money in the bank for later, when children are at home and trying to learn and reproduce language.

One more thing that I'd like to point out is this.  Many internationally-adopted adult adoptees tell us that they, as a community, struggle with survivor guilt -- guilt over those children who were left behind in orphanages and never got to have the opportunities they had after they were adopted.  They wonder why it was they and not those others who were given these blessings and it sits heavy upon them.  Actively working, as a family, to make positive contributions to the orphanages is one way to help our children avoid having to develop survivor guilt.  It can help enhance our children's lives by adding meaning to the fact that they were adopted because it can help individual children know that they can give back -- that they can help to care for those left behind them.

This, to me, is a compelling reason TO give orphanage donations -- and in a way that is culturally-sensitive -- that doesn't feel condescending by telling the Chinese what they need or to which children the money should go. (Sometimes the adult adoptees criticize adoptive parents and those involved in adoption at the loading-end of colonialism -- of imposing our Western standards on the rest of the world and taking over all the decision-making instead of supporting the structures that are or could be put in place by the in-country government/governmental department/orphanage administrators themselves).

I hope we will all support this and other Amity programs!"

Jane Brown, MSW

Top