Lao
Wang's Orphanage
A
Safe Haven
for AnHui's Unwanted Children
Lao
Wang's
(pronounced like "loud" without the "d", and "Wrong" without the "r")
Orphanage was once a factory owned by Lao
Wang located
just outside Fu
Yang in the AnHui Province. Once empty after ceasing
to trade as a
factory, Lao Wang began taking in unwanted and
abandoned children of all ages. He and his wife had several
children, one of whom was mentally challenged. He could not
understand how people could abandon their children, so along with his
wife, they transformed their factory into a home. They took
on a huge commitment which has now grown to over 200 children.
They range in age from a 40-day-old infant (unwanted because
she only has half an arm) to youths and disabled people into their
twenties. For more information you can visit their websites:
www.csgy.com.cn
and
www.wangjiayu.org.
We were first shown this orphanage by a caring group
of women here in Shanghai that has provided running
toilets, over 35 live-in staff that help care for the children, a
full-time doctor, and a physio therapist that spent a
month assessing the needs of the children and training the live-in
staff. But the Lao Wang Orphanage still needs help. With the
current in-house helpers and the 200+ children, Lao Wang and his wife
have a vast number of mouths to feed every day. They have
a good supply of vegetables and flour, but no rice,
eggs, or fruit, and an ongoing need for milk powder, infant formula,
diapers and hygiene products.
In January
2009, the dire straits of the Lao Wang Orphanage was brought
to the attention of our leader and co-founder Julie Martens.
Being the enviably passionate woman she is, she immediately
took action and immersed herself into efforts to help this safe haven
orphanage for the unwanted children of AnHui. It wasn't long
after that the MiFan MaMa's were born.
The
MiFan MaMa’s group consists
of expatriate women living in Shanghai.
We all come from different backgrounds and have various strengths that
have
meshed together brilliantly by the grace of God. Julie Martens
is the common
thread that weaves us all together. Her relentless pursuits to improve
the
quality of life for these children are inspiring and breathtaking. Her
passion
convicts the hearts of all who know her, and of that, our organization
was
born.
The
name "MiFan MaMa" was chosen because "MiFan" means "rice" and "Ma Ma"
is the appropriate term for "mother" here in China where
we reside. William Faulkner
once said “The man who removes a mountain, begins by carrying away
small
stones.” Day by day, week by week, month by month, we work to remove
the stones
that bear down on these children. Through your continued support we
thrive to
keep this vision alive.
As I am sure you already
know, rice is a
staple food in the Chinese diet, and
these children do not have it. Every day
there are
300
people
going without rice for even one meal.
Rice is only
about
34
RMB per 10kg, and
one serving
of rice is
30g. Lets
break this down.
300 people
x 100g = 30,000g
of rice a day for one day
30kg a day / 10kg per bag = 3
bags of rice a day
3 bags x 34 RMB = 102
RMB for rice for one day
102 RMB per day x 30 days
= 3,060 RMB per month
102 RMB = 15 USD = 9 GBP
As you can see, with the expense of buying rice being so
large, Lao
Wang and his wife
simply cannot
afford to provide this seemingly common necessity to their ever-growing
family. They need help --
we've
made
it easy.
