We are here to serve the “Underprivileged Children” of Henan, China. We define underprivileged children in 5 ways: orphaned children, children with special needs (mental and/or physical), children who have special needs parents, children whose family is poverty stricken and the left behind children (children who were left behind by their parents either from divorce, incarceration, illness, abandonment, etc.).
We currently have 31 children in our scholarship program: 8 high school students, 16 middle school students, 6 primary school students and 1 kindergarten student. Below are just a couple of their stories:
Ellie (FengZhiHui) was the very first child we met when we went on our first child search back in 2009. She was living in a village with her grandparents. Her dad died and mom ran away. Ellie was 7 years old in the 2nd grade when we found her. We were able to help her get into a better primary school inside the city. She earned her way to the best middle school and then into the best high school in Pingyu. She does well in all her classes but excels in English class!
Thomas (Chen Xin Yuan) joined our program in the 2nd child search we had back in 2010. Thomas’ house in the village was so poor and broken that the government told the local school to let them use an old abandoned classroom as a house. As we walked up to their house we noticed a few things right away. First was that Thomas, a 5 year old, was outside playing by himself while his grandfather was inside laying sick in bed. His grandfather, who was 81 years old, half blind, deaf and so weak that he could hardly walk. The second thing we noticed was how dirty Thomas was; almost like he had not been cleaned in a very long time. The third thing that we noticed was that Thomas was not in school, later we found out that his grandfather was too poor to afford for him to go to school….even though they lived in the school he could not attend classes. Thomas was socially slow. He didn’t have anyone to teach him the very basic things like how to behave or even how to eat properly. We hired a special-needs teacher to help Thomas with basic things like how to obey simple commands. We could immediately begin seeing huge improvements in Thomas’ life, so much that he was able to go start going to a public kindergarten. One day, about a year after our help, a teacher from the same school he lived at, came to visit him. She burst into tears in unbelief that this clean, well behaved and very smart boy was Thomas. He is now in his 2nd year of middle school with a bright future ahead of him.
Anna (Wang Yan) also joined our program in our 2nd child search back in 2010. She and her twin baby brothers, were what at the time was concerned on a “black list”. Their parents are both mentally handicapped and were wed illegally, and as such, Anna and her brothers did not have birth certificates. Anna, her brothers and her parents all lived in one house under the care of a 85+ year old grandmother. Anna was 6 years old in the 1st grade when she joined our program. At first, she failed nearly every school exam and could not complete the assigned homework. Our teachers worked very hard encouraging her, letting her know that she was smart and that they believed in her. This spoke a lot to her and she started trying very hard to improve, which she did. By the 2nd grade, she was in the top of her class. She now is in the last year of middle school in one of the best schools in Pingyu. We have high hopes that she will get into the best high school and later into a good university.
Wally (Yan Cheng Cheng) joined our program in 2017 when he was 6 years old. His parents died leaving him with an uncle and aunt who abandoned him at a homeless shelter. He was tested at the hospital and was diagnosed to be mentally slow. We could also tell that he was verbally, emotionally and physically abused too. As he was so special, it took Wally much longer than normal to adjust to his new lifestyle. Wally never had any education before his arrival. He, like Thomas, needed to be taught very basic life skills, like how to eat with utensils. He has needed one-on-one tutoring with our teachers. Most concepts being very hard to learn for him. For example, trying to teach him to count when numbers have absolute no meaning to him. How can a person add 1+1 if they don’t even understand what 1 even means. Thankfully after a year of encouragement and practice, Wally can count 1-100 and can do basic math and reading exercises. He is currently enjoying his last year of kindergarten and improving slowly but surely. We hope to continue working with him to get him ready to start 1st grade next year. He is already behind as most other 8 year olds are starting 2nd grade.