Guangxi...here we come...for 2013

Heading to Guangxi again this October!

We can’t wait to meet up with our staff, Matthew, Helen and Lucy who do such wonderful work with orphans, our special children, and our village girls. 

They truly change lives, with your help!

We will also be meeting up with friends from around the world, who help in our work.

             This year we will visit our girls in Guilin, DouAn and Desheng. 

They all come from impoverished areas and homes. 

They all work hard, have a wonderful spirit and are so thankful for the opportunity to go to school. 

Their joy inspires us when we visit them! 

Sponsors have sent photos, letters and gifts, which the girls love to receive. 

And we often bring back small gifts, cards, letters from the girls to their sponsors :-). 

Our Sponsorship Programme truly is a two way experience - giving and sharing between two worlds….and the Ripple Effect for both groups is simply unquantifiable?

We will visit our Grace and Hope for Children, Foster Care children in Nanning and Desheng, bringing them new bags with lots of goodies inside, supplied by their sponsors. 

Each year we take photo updates from adopted children and small gifts to encourage the foster mothers in their wonderful work for these children.

It is such a privilege to be there and be part of this life-changing Teamwork.

This year, we will be taking medical supplies for Butterfly Children's Hospice, another UK run charity, to aid them in their wonderful work for very sick orphans in China - thank you so much to everyone who has donated to help with this.

    We also hope to be be able to help with some surgeries..more on this later.

It is very special for us to be able to meet our Special children in our New Hope Programme and the hard-working birth mothers and foster mothers who struggle to meet their needs.

Here is a wee report from Marion, our Special Needs Volunteer……

Hope4China - Special Needs Support

I currently help Linda and H4C by sending out all the reports for the Yongning children in foster care  with Grace and Hope for Children. . All the children in the Yongning SWI have special needs of some sort - many have quite complex learning, physical and medical needs.

I enjoy reading all the reports before passing them on to the sponsors and look forward to hearing about how the children are doing. Like most of us, I especially enjoy seeing the photos of the children and watching them as they grow and develop new skills.

However, as I looked through the last batch of reports and photos I was saddened to read about one child in particular who had been suffering for some time from terrible toothache which they hadn’t been able to tell anyone about until they had become quite ill and had to go to hospital. I was upset to think that this child, and probably many others like them, were suffering because of poor dental hygiene. We all know how painful toothache can be. Imagine if you had that pain day after day and had no way to tell anyone… I had also seen children in photos with drool on their chins and T-shirts. Occasionally there would be a foster carer in the background holding an old towel which I presumed they were using to wipe the drool away. Sometimes a face cloth was tucked down the neck of the child’s T-shirt. The foster families undoubtedly do the best they can in hard pressed situations but the images of these children stuck in my mind.

I was determined to try and help in some little way. Education and practical support for foster families is desperately needed but sadly, from here in Scotland, I knew there wasn’t a huge amount I could offer. However, I spoke with Linda and came up with a few practical things we could do to make a small start.

We did a little bit of fundraising to purchase some Collis Toothbrushes which Linda will take out to China with her in October. Collis toothbrushes are very helpful for people with disabilities and are recommended by dentists. They have curved bristles to brush the sides and edges of the teeth at the same time. More importantly they brush the gum line. They are fairly easy to use and are very effective. Of course, they are also expensive at £7 each. Hopefully the foster families will use these with some of the children, however we will need a constant supply of these brushes to keep up the good work once the brushing starts.  

The second thing I decided to do was make some ‘dribble napkins’ for the older children. These are fairly standard pieces of kit for children who need them here in the UK and are much more hygienic and ‘cooler’ than the towels and facecloths I’d seen in the photos.

The girl’s napkins were straightforward. I bought some towelling and some pink spotty fabric which would do nicely for girls of any age and got my sewing machine out. 

Fabric for the older boy’s proved more of a challenge! Finding something age appropriate and attractive eluded me then a friend of Linda’s came to the rescue with some nearly new boys T-shirts with perfect images on the front. Another couple of nights at the sewing machine and I’d produced some great looking napkins (even if I say so myself!)

These will also wing their way to Yongning in October with Linda and hopefully, with a little encouragement, the children will use and feel the benefit of these too.

So… where there is a will there’s a way. I’m hoping my small contribution can help get the ball rolling. Is there anything you feel you could do? Can you sew or knit? Could you make more napkins? Can you help with the Collis toothbrush appeal? If so, contact Linda Greenshields or check out the Hope4China Blog at http://hope4china.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks for reading.

Marion Robertson

So THANK YOU to the many , many people and groups who have helped to bring together all that we need to make this trip and make a difference. 

  You are part of the Team, and we could not do it without you all!!!

Much Love

Linda x

    

Another Scot in Nanning!

Cameron, a former Religious Studies pupil at Buckhaven High School in Scotland, has arrived to spend 3 months working with Matthew and the Team in Nanning!

While China was often discussed in our class, in terms of world views etc, I would never have thought then, that this quiet lad would one day be taking himself off to Nanning to work with our staff in Hope4China.

But so it was, that the beginning of September as I arrived at Buckhaven High School to start work, a message pinged from Matthew in Nanning....

                                        Cameron is here!

                       Slightly exhausted, very relieved, he made it!!!

At the moment he is unable to blog, so I have asked him to share his thoughts here for us.....


"My first impressions of Nanning are best described in one word, 

                                        "AWESOME"! 

The way of life is very different than in Scotland but all the differences are very exciting. The main differences are the roads which could only be described as a "free-for-all", and the food which is also completely different but in a good way because it is all fast, fresh, varied and you can see exactly what you are eating (no secret ingredients like horse meat!). 

          ( Not sure the same can be said for this MacDonald's meal?)

The people in Nanning are very nice and are eager to welcome you into their home for a meal or just to sit and talk about where you come from. 

Caucasian tourists are very rare here so you get unusual stares when you go anywhere in public. Although this was a bit unsettling at first I am starting to get more used to it. Despite this, when people get the chance to talk to you they are all very interested to find out more about you, where you are from (because if you are white then you are considered to be American until people find out otherwise), and why you are in China.

There has not been a minute in Nanning which could be described as boring, as there is always something happening at every time of day and night. I'm looking forward to the rest of my stay and always thinking about what surprises will come in the next day!

The School Visits for the Guangxi Girls Education Programme are fast approaching and I am very excited about travelling around Guangxi doing the visits. 

         I have met some of the girls who study in Nanning at the Office.

I'm looking forward to seeing what life is like outside the city and how it differs from more modern Chinese life. I am also eager to speak to the people from the more rural areas and Matthew also wants me to talk to the girls to give them a different perspective on things.

It is very hard to sum up all that I have experienced already.....but hope this helps?"

                                             Cameron Smith

What price, a smile?

Have you ever had toothache? 

Can you remember the pain?

 It’s awful! It gnaws away at you non stop and affects everything you do until you can have it fixed.

Can you imagine what would it be like if you had toothache and couldn’t tell anyone… or ongoing toothache that was never addressed?

Many of the children we are supporting in China have poor dental hygiene and suffer dental caries. 

This happens for a variety of reasons – poor diet, lack of equipment, lack of education, behaviour, medication etc.

We would like to do something to support our special needs children and their carers in China who need help with this issue.

This photo shows a Collis Toothbrush and as you can see, it looks different from a normal toothbrush. The bristles are curved and brush the surfaces of the teeth and, more importantly the gums, at the same time. They are fairly easy to use and we think could make a big difference to some of the children in China.

Of course, like everything for people with disabilities, they don’t come cheap. These brushes are £7 each and will need replaced on a regular basis.

Do you think you could help?? Just think of the difference between having and not having toothache…

Of course, these brushes won’t solve the problem for those children who already need dental work carried out but if we can support carers to start tooth brushing and help them maintain healthy mouths it would be a fantastic achievement.

                                         What can you do?

If you put 50p in a tub every time you brushed your teeth for a week we could buy a toothbrush!

Get some of your friends, family and colleagues to do this too and Hey Presto…we’re off!

Or you can donate directly on the Hope4China web page using the ‘donate’ button at the side. 

                                http://www.hope4china.com/index.php?p=1

Just think what a difference your money could make.

Many Thanks

Marion