Half the Sky

Half the Sky
Volume IX, Issue 1
Spring 2008
www.halfthesky.org
PROGRESS REPORT - 2008 - SPECIAL EDITION
TEN YEARS — THOUSANDS OF HUGS....
By Jenny Bowen
Executive Director / Half the Sky
Nine years ago, I composed a note while sitting in the Tokyo airport,
waiting to take my first flight to Beijing on behalf of Half the Sky. For
the past year, my husband, I, and a small group of friends, all adoptive parents, had been reaching out and bringing together whatever,
whomever it would take to dare to approach the Chinese government
with a plan to transform the lives of institutionalized children. It was
an idea that plenty of people called impossible.
Now, on behalf of our determined little team, I was about to present
that plan to officials at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, asking for their
permission to launch a pilot project inside government welfare institutions. And I was reaching out to you, our Half the Sky community
– there weren’t many of you then – asking for you to go with me as
we began our ‘impossible’ journey. That government permission did
not come easily...but it came. As they say, the rest is history.
Today, as I write this, I sit in another airport – this time in Wuhan,
China. I’ve just attended our very first Half the Sky / Blue Sky Orientation. Officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs came from Beijing
to preside with me over the opening ceremony. In attendance were
the directors of every single children’s welfare institution in Hubei
Province, as well as officials from five other provinces. All had come
to learn about Half the Sky programs. Each of them would now begin the process making their own all we have learned in the past 10
INSIDE:
Continued on next page
3 - Give Me Wings!
12 - YuFeng at Home
4 - Baby Sisters
13 - YuFeng at School
6 - Blue Sky
14 - Our Volunteers
7 - XiaoLei
15 - Letters from the Sky
8 - Little Sisters
16 - Looking Back
10 - Family Village
20 - Kids4Kids
11 - Village Album
22- Blue Sky Sponsorship
1
Ten years —
Continued from Page 1
years about enriching the lives of orphaned children. From now on,
the Hubei directors will be sending their caregiving staff to the new
HTS Wuhan Blue Sky Model Children’s Center. The Wuhan Center
will eventually offer training in HTS methods to every institution in
the province. Incredibly, with the full permission and assistance of
the Chinese government, over the next five years, this process will be
repeated 30 times in every other province in China. Again, in a way,
I feel the journey is just beginning.
Our anniversary year got off to a classic Half the Sky start. As the
chaotic days China’s Spring Festival Storms consumed us with the
Little Mouse relief effort, we got news that our work was going to be
recognized internationally, at the highest levels, with the tremendous
honor of the Skoll Award.
Within a few weeks we went from reassuring worried orphanage
directors in rural corners of China we’d never heard of to receiving
official government thanks on behalf of thousands of generous donors and laying the groundwork of an emergency preparedness plan
with the Vice-Minister in Beijing to shaking the hand of former US
President Jimmy Carter in Oxford. What we – you and I and Half the
Sky – have accomplished during these ten action-packed years and
where we are going suddenly was undeniable. Half the Sky is making
a real difference and, at least some of the world is watching. We are
changing the face of orphan care in China.
Yesterday I met perhaps twenty orphanage directors whose institutions
averted a disaster through the Little Mouse Emergency Fund. Like
it may have been for you, the emergency was their first introduction
to Half the Sky. We were all so happy to be coming together in this
new effort to bring Half the Sky programs to their province. We have
gone from becoming new friends to becoming colleagues.
So how has come to this? Here’s history in a snapshot:
1998 – Half the Sky was born; a caring network of supporters and
professionals began to take shape
1999 – Half the Sky received government permission to launch 2
pilot programs
2000 – Pilot programs launched in Hefei, Anhui and Changzhou,
Jiangsu
2001 – New programs in Changzhou and in Chuzhou, Anhui
2002 – New programs in Chongqing; Chengdu, Sichuan; Shanghai;
and Chenzhou, Hunan
2003 – New programs in Shaoyang, Xiangtan, and Yueyang, Hunan;
and in Guilin, Beihai, and Wuzhou, Guanxi
2004 – New programs in Nanchang, Jiujiang and Fuzhou, Jiangxi;
and in Luoyang and Xingyang, Henan
2005 – New programs in Gaoyou and Lianyungang, Jiangsu; in
Haikou and Sanya, Hainan; in Yiyang, Hunan and in Guangzhou,
Guangdong; First Family Village; New programs for children
orphaned by AIDS in Henan; Government invites Half the Sky to
help develop national guidelines for orphan care
2006 – New programs in Yibin, Sichuan; in Shenzhen, Guangdong;
in Nanning, Guangxi, in Nanjing, Jiangsu; and in Tianjin; Four new
Family Villages; China’s President Hu JinTao proclaims importance
of nurturing orphan care; Blue Sky Plan is announced
2007 – Chinese Government invites Half the Sky to introduce its
programs throughout China via Blue Sky Plan; New programs
in Maoming, Maonan, Qingyuan and Shaoguan, Guangdong; in
Wuhan and Huangshi, Hubei; Four new Family Villages; Blue Sky
cooperation is launched in Wuhan – first Blue Sky Model Center
And this year, assuming we can meet the goals of our annual Children’s
Day Challenge (coming to a mailbox to you soon!) there will be five
new Half the Sky/Blue Sky model centers in five new provinces; 2-3
upgraded centers; two Blue Sky provincial trainings. Also, this year
we celebrate! At the end of May we kick off with a gala in Hong Kong
on Children’s Day weekend. In June we launch a new website for the
thousands of kids who help Half the Sky called Give Me Wings! (see
facing page) and on June 14, I’ll be running for China’s orphaned
children with the Olympic Torch in Wanzhou, Chongqing with a troop
of HTS preschoolers from the Chongqing institution cheering me on.
Stay tuned - there’s lots more to come!
When I read the stories and look at the pictures in this special 10th
Anniversary Progress Report, I remember what sad places most orphanages used to be in China. To know that is changing – that we are
making the change happen – is simply exhilarating. As I board my
flight home and think about all that’s happened in these ten years, I’m
sure of one thing: No doubt about it, Half the Sky has Wings!
Half the Sky
Volume IX, Issue 1 Spring, 2008
740 Gilman Street
Berkeley, CA 94710 USA
(1-510) 525-3377
Fax: (1-510)525-3611
4-2-142 Jianguomenwai Diplomatic Cmpd.
Chaoyang District, Beijing
PR CHINA 100600
(86-10) 8532-3043
Fax: (86-10) 8532-1920
Room 2703
27/F Shun Feng International Centre
182 Queen’s Road East, Wanchai,
Hong Kong
(852) 2520-5266
Fax: (852) 2520-5168
www.halfthesky.org
E-mail: [email protected]
2
The mission of Half the Sky Foundation is to enrich the lives and enhance the prospects for orphaned children in China.
We establish and operate infant nurture and preschool programs, provide personalized learning for older children and
establish loving permanent family care and guidance for children with disabilities. It is our goal to ensure that every
orphaned child has a caring adult in her life and a chance at a bright future.
Half the Sky was incorporated in California in 1998. The foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation under Section 501(c)3 of the US Internal Revenue
Code. Half the Sky Foundation (Asia) Ltd. received charitable registration status in 2006. HTS Foundation of Canada. an independent affiliate organization,
received charitable registration status in 2004. Donations to all three organizations are tax-deductible.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Lou DeMattei . Dana Johnson, MD, PhD . Carolyn Pope Edwards, EdD
Carlos Cordeiro . Emily Kwong . Peter Lighte . Katherine Shen .
Nancy Spelman, PhD . Vivian Wong Zaloom .
Jenny Bowen, Executive Director
Edited by Patricia King, Communications Director
Give Me Wings!..and I Will Fly
An Invitation For Our Younger Supporters:
This June, Half the Sky would like to invite you to join a fun and
important online community by kids for kids — Give Me Wings!
Give Me Wings
Arts Contest!!
The theme of our new website community is: Give Me Wings!..and I Will
Fly. The inspirations for the Give Me Wings community are:
Kids like you all over the world who have helped Give Wings to kids in
China by foregoing birthday presents, running lemonade stands, and
reaching into your piggy banks. And kids like you who’ve come up with
all kinds of creative and fun ways to help others.
and
Kids living in orphanages in China, or kids who need help somewhere in
the world, who started to fly once they were given wings.
Please become part or our online community of kids all over the world,
who know that they don’t have to meet each other in person to help each
other fly!
Please talk to your parents about our new website (or parents talk to
your children!) and email us at [email protected] with your name
(first name only...we want to protect your privacy if we should decide to
post what you send), a favorite photo of you with family or friends, and
a short note about where you live and how you like to have fun? And tell
us about any efforts you have made to Give Wings to kids in China or
anywhere in the world.
We hope to hear from you soon! And watch for the announcement
of the launch of the Give Me Wings! website in June. Soon you’ll be
meeting kids like you all over the world!
Please enter the 20008 Give Me Wings Multimedia
Arts Contest!
Let your imagination run wild and use whatever medium
you like—artwork, music, videos, essays, etc. All kids
18 and under are eligible.
Just email a copy of your entry (up to 10 mb) to wings@
halfthesky.org. If you’re sending a video or a very large
file, please mail DVD/CD to: Half the Sky Foundation,
740 Gilman Street, Berkeley, CA 94710 USA or Half
the Sky Foundation (Asia) Limited, Room 2703, 27/F,
Shun Feng International Centre, 182 Queen’s Road
East, Wanchai, Hong Kong.
The deadline for entries is July 1 and please keep your
original artwork, in case you win. We’ll be displaying
some of the entries in Beijing during the Olympics!
Give Me Wings! artwork by Hu Yongyi © 2008
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Progress Report — Baby Sisters
three or four centers; now I oversee 38 centers. The way I think of
my new and old job is that as a field supervisor I was a piece of the
puzzle; now I have to make sure that the pieces of the puzzle work
nicely together.
One of Half the Sky’s challenges is making sure those pieces work as
nicely at our new centers as they do at our long established centers. We
are always excited when funding permits us to bring our programs to
more waiting children. But there are, of course, bumps on the road.
By Jeronia Muntaner
Director, Infant Nurture Program / Half the Sky
It is a great honor for me to write this column and introduce myself
as the new director of Half the Sky’s Infant Nurture Program. First I
would like to explain how I came to Half the Sky.
When my husband and I adopted my youngest daughter YuanYuan at
10 months old, I thought I knew what to expect. I had studied early
childhood education and was working as the lead teacher in a preschool
in Beijing. International adoption in China has an excellent reputation
around the world and I knew my daughter would be fine, but I also
knew that children who are abandoned and live in an institution without
a family often face attachment and emotional issues.
I was surprised that my daughter didn’t have any of those issues and I
soon learned why. YuanYuan had been a Baby Sister in Half the Sky’s
pilot Infant Nurture Program at the Hefei Children’s Welfare Institution launched in 2000. The focus of the Infant Nurture Program then
and now is the promotion of deep emotional bonds between nannies
and the children, the bonds of love that are crucial for healthy development. YuanYuan had developed those bonds with her Half the Sky
nanny--she knew how to love and be loved, and she transferred that
love to us in a few weeks.
My daughter brings joy
to my life every day, and
though I will never be able to
pay back what Half the Sky
did for YuanYuan, I want to
make my small contribution
by doing this work.
Because I worked as a Field
Supervisor in the Infant
Nurture Program for three
years before I moved on to
my current job, I cannot say
that my new responsibilities
have brought lots of surprises, but they have brought
many new challenges. As a
field supervisor, I oversaw
All babies adore their
Half the Sky Nannies
4
In Maoming, for example, one of our new nannies considered resigning because she was having such a difficult time documenting her work
with the children. Though she was not a comfortable writer, she is so
kind and patient with the children that no one wanted to lose her. In
a great show of teamwork, all of the Maoming nannies agreed that if
she wanted to stay they would help her improve her written reports.
Six months later when the field supervisor for Maoming visited, she
was thrilled to report that the nanny’s documentation had improved
tremendously; her observations about the children are now detailed
and objective and the language is smooth.
It is that kind of teamwork that we work hard to promote when we
train our nannies. It is that kind of teamwork that I work to promote
among our field supervisors. And it is that kind of teamwork that we
promote among the children once their bonds with their nannies are
established.
Children like FuZheng, who was an isolated girl who never looked at
or showed interest in others when she arrived in Huangshi. After three
months, FuZheng became attached to her nanny. She grew plumper,
her skin looked healthier, and for the first time she also started enjoying
her peers, playing hide and seek, building blocks, and joining other
outdoor activities with them.
On our field supervisor’s latest trip to Huangshi, she was thrilled to
learn that FuZheng has been adopted by a local family. I am sure
FuZheng’s family is overjoyed--just as my family was six years
ago--that their daughter learned how to receive and how to give love
before she found her forever home.
Our Newest Baby Sisters — now life looks brighter....
Maoming Baby Sister QiMin
Qingyuan Baby Sister QiPing
QiMin is ten months old and can sit down and crawl on her
own. She can sit very steadily.
QiPing is more than ten months. Two baby teeth have
erupted from her lower jaw.
In the activity room, she likes to crawl on the cushion and
move forward on her stomach to fetch toys. Sometimes, she
will put her legs back and imitate a frog’s movements. She
likes me to hold her hands and clap hands with her.
In the activity room, she likes to look for her favorite
toys. Sometimes she will crawl in front of the mirror and
clap at her image in the mirror while babbling to herself.
She can stand up by holding the railing of crib and move
forward along the railing.
MinMin likes to show her affection to me. Every time she
sees me she will open her mouth wide and smile at me. If I
sing when I play with her she gets very excited and smiles
a big smile.
When I hold her in my arms, she likes to touch my face.
When I lower my head and put my face in her face, she
becomes very happy and gives me a big smile.
Maonan Baby Sister YuRan
Huangshi Baby Sister FuYin
Every day I helped YuRan walk. When she was in a good
mood, she would cooperate with me very well. I held her
hands and assisted her in walking. When she was in a bad
mood, she would throw my hands away and sit crying loudly.
At that time, I would hold her in my arms and take her to
the rocking horse. She is not interested in any other toys
except the rocking horse. With my help and because she was
so interested, she learned to shake the rocking horse.
FuYin was one and a half years old when she joined the
program. She couldn’t walk steadily. She was quiet and not
interested in anything. Now whenever FuYin hears we will
go outdoors, she stands in the first place of the line. When
we stand under a tree, she points at it and I tell her it’s a
tree. She follows me to say the word “tree.” In the garden,
she can point at the flowers and say “flower.”
5
Progress Report — Blue Sky
this work possible), we will train staff in
300 Institutions across China in the next five
years!
Of course it would be physically impossible
for our program directors to provide all the
training, so we knew when we decided to take
on the Blue Sky challenge that it would be
necessary to hire and train more field supervisors to conduct nanny, teachers and foster
parents’ trainings all over the country.
By JANICE COTTON
Director of Programs / Half the Sky
Greetings! In October 2007, I made a transition in my work life – instead of heading one
HTS program, the Infant Nurture program, I
have the great privilege of working cooperatively with and overseeing the directors of all
four of Half the Sky’s programs.
As many of you know, the move from one
job to the next is exhilarating, challenging,
teaches new lessons on a daily basis, provides
the wonderful opportunity to learn more about
your working organization, and also provides
the opportunity to rethink what you thought
you already knew.
My transition to Director of Programs has
been that and more because it coincides with
the incredible opportunity Half the Sky has
been given to impact the care of every child
living in a Chinese institution by offering
training at Blue Sky model centers all over
China.
If all goes well with our fundraising efforts
(thank you to all of our supporters who make
And we also knew that it was imperative to
create a written curriculum to guide our field
supervisors and to maintain the integrity of
the programs we have so carefully developed
over the last ten years.
Putting together the curriculum has been a
most challenging and a rewarding experience.
We already knew that we convey a great deal
of important information in our training sessions, but Wow! Putting all this down in writing has been an amazing process. We have
spent many hours in front of our computers
writing what we orally share, plus more! We
edit, write more, edit again!
Our team has experienced exhilaration, feelings of incompetence as we learn technical
writing skills, lots of extra working hours,
and the great delight in seeing our spoken
words transformed into a beautiful written
format that will change the lives of thousands
of children.
With the help of technical writers extraordinaire based in Australia, Rod and Jessica
Ward, we have learned how to use special
templates that beautifully display our training materials.
When the project is completed our materials will include a trainee workbook, activity
sheets, homework assignments, guides for the
classroom, and visual aids like PowerPoint
slides, wall charts, and videotapes.
Working through the curriculum for our
programs has also helped us articulate the
guiding principles of all four of our programs,
including the most basic ones:
A consistent, loving, nanny, teacher,
mentor or parent works with each child
from day to day.
Adults focus on the development of the
whole child to so that each child develops the social/emotional, cognitive and
language development skills needed to
become responsible members of society.
In the end, working through these guiding
principles made me realize that though there
are new challenges for the Blue Sky Model
Centers, the essence of our work remains the
same as it has been for the last decade.
As you’ll read in the following story about
XiaoLei, a boy who shrank in terror from our
staff and the other children on his first day at
our new Little Sisters Preschool in Wuhan,
our work focuses on helping each individual
child learn to embrace the world all the while
supported by loving arms.
XiaoLei finds his smile
On the next page, you’ll read excerpts from
Little Sisters preschool teacher Lan Wu’s
journals that chronicle XiaoLei’s heartwarming transformation from a scared, isolated
child afraid to make eye contact with adults or
children into a loving, smiling, joyful boy.
It took only a week before XiaoLei felt secure enough to show a “little smile” that,
as you see in the photos, has grown bigger
and bigger as the bonds of love have grown
stronger.
6
child, LinYi, played the finger game with one of the teachers, XiaoLei
started to imitate them and he did it several times!
October 14, 2007
The children played in the crawling tunnel. XiaoLei joined with his
friends, crawling in and out, giggling and laughing. Then he took a
marker from the marker basket on the toy shelf and started to draw.
He then went back to the tunnel with his drawing book and marker
and drew on the top of the tunnel.
September 3, 2007
I met XiaoLei for the first time.
He was scared when he saw me.
When I extended my hand to him
and smiled, he quickly put his hand
behind his back. When I took him
outdoors, he stood without emotion watching the other children
play. When I tried to talk to him or
play with him, he didn’t move at
all and he never made eye contact
with me.
October 15, 2007
During a drawing activity, the teacher handed
an oval shape to XiaoLei. He took the shape
and put it onto the paper and began to trace it. I
held my hand to his and helped him to trace the
shape. When he saw the traced oval shape, he
smiled. A child named ZhuShui saw XiaoLei’s
work and followed what he had done. XiaoLei
saw that ZhuShui had followed him and smiled
and laughed with pleasure.
October 16, 2007
The children were doing morning exercises in
September 10, 2007
Today I took XiaoLei to the activity room. He looked around, but did
not seem able to decide where he wanted to play. I said to him: XiaoLei,
look at the slide. Let’s play on the slide, ok?” He didn’t respond, but
his eyes were looking in the direction of the slide. I held him in my
arms and put him on the slide and he slid down and he even showed
a little smile.
September 28, 2007
The children played with various toys they chose during their free
choice time. XiaoLei held a toy car and watched other children
playing. A child name
Ji from another class
came toward him. XiaoLei stood up and gave
his toy car to Ji and
they played with the car
together.
October 8, 2007
XiaoLei played with a
puzzle and had difficulty putting it together.
I said to him: “Look
XiaoLei, these are apples. If you put apples
together, you will put
the pieces together.” He
followed my directions
and became happy that
he was able to put them
together. When another
the hallway. XiaoLei was standing in the middle of the
children imitating other children’s body movements.
One of the teachers came to XiaoLei and suggested:
“XiaoLei, let’s dance together shall we?” XiaoLei
held the teacher’s hands and started to dance to the
beat of the music. He looked back to his friends and
gave them big smiles.
April 14, 2008
The children played with ash branches and made a
circle with them with help from the teachers. XiaoLei
helped the teachers by collecting the branches. He
viewed the ash circles hanging in the classroom with
a smile on his face. He then put one of the circles on
his head and was so happy that he laughed, his mouth
wide open with joy.
7
Progress Report — Little Sisters
Wen Zhao and friends
we provided was only double-sided tape. We put tape on the
children’s hands and faces and very quickly the children lost
interest. We teachers learned that our material was probably
too boring and we should try to prepare materials with the
children’s point of view in mind.
By Wen Zhao
Director, Preschool Program / Half the Sky
Zigzag Progress
All of our new teachers keep journals, which is one way we track the
progress of the children and one way we track the effectiveness of our
training. I am thrilled when our teachers refer to what they learned
during their training even on their most exhausting first days.
For example, on the first day our preschool opened in Wuhan one
teacher wrote: “I am so tired and it is so chaotic, but we were all
prepared for this during the training. We know it is like this at the
beginning. The important thing is to trust that the children will become
better and we as a team will get better.”
I know from long experience providing care for children living in
institutions that our Little Sisters and Brothers and their teachers do
get better. But I also know that their progress is not linear. As one
of our new teachers wrote: “Progress is in a zigzag pattern. It is not
straight.”
It is so gratifying to read that our teachers understand the zigzag nature
of their work and embrace it by constantly adjusting to the needs of
the children. For example, Qingyuan teacher YiNi Luo wrote about an
activity involving sticky tape that was for her an eye-opening lesson
about how to reach the children:
The main activity in our class today was to give the children
the experience of feeling something sticky. At first, the material
So we added feathers and we let the children stick feathers on
their hands, but that also lasted only for awhile. The children
started walking all around -- they don’t like to stay in one
place while sticking the tape. We decided to stick the tape
on the children’s tummies, legs, backsides, and the children
were happily running around showing the teachers and their
classmates what they had on their bodies.
This is something that I would have never thought of before,
that children could so happily play with tape this way. I know
I have to keep trying different things and think of myself as
one of the children and learn to feel how they feel.
As you can see from the apparently simple tape-sticking activity,
there is nothing easy about working with children! But YiNi Luo
also explains how rewarding the work can be:
When I feel frustrated I come to the living area and look at the
children’s innocent, smiley faces and I forget my frustrations.
When I am happy I bring them candies. From the first time I
met the children they have called me JieJie (big sister), which
makes me feel very close to them. When I see them with their
mouths full of candies circling me and calling me JieJie, I
feel so very happy.
We are now seeing more smiles on the children’s faces and less
crying. The children’s language ability has improved and they
8
have learned to share and interact with their classmates -- we see
confidence and happiness on their faces. I love how the children
use my knees as pillows and how they lie down when I hold them
just like children lie down in their mother’s arms. They enjoy
hugging so much. I hope they can stay this happy and I hope I
can bring them beautiful memories of their childhoods.
I have studied early childhood development for many years, so I know
about pedagogical theories and how they can help train teachers and
provide a framework in the
classroom. But I also know that
for good teachers their work is
an affair of the heart inspired
by their love for the children,
the love that motivates YiNi
Luo to want to give the children
“beautiful memories” of their
childhoods.
For teachers motivated by love
for the children, the difficulty of
the work pales in comparison to
the privilege they feel to be able
to work with the children, a
privilege many of our teachers,
including Maoming Little Sisters Teacher ChunHong Zhong,
express in their journals:
Though we are tired both
physically and mentally, we
are really happy. We do face
many challenges, including learning to implement new ways of
teaching, documenting at least a dozen observations of the children every week, and reviewing and readjusting ourselves...But
for me, this work is a gift. The work here provides me a platform
to develop my talents and make my life more fulfilling. It is the
best gift I have ever received.
Like ChunHong Zhong, I believe that working with children living in
institutions is a special gift for which I am very grateful. And I believe
that the gift is a bittersweet one for teachers who bond so deeply with
the children in their care. I’d like to end my column with a journal
entry from Qingyuan teacher MeiJing Wang because she captures the
bittersweet nature of bonding and then saying good-bye in her journal
entry about ZuYi, a child she loves and misses and a child she prepared
so well to live happily in a loving family:
ZuYi was adopted last week.
She left before we could say
goodbye to her. We miss her a
lot. ZuYi loved to smile. When
I called her name she would
smile, open up her arms, and
run quickly to embrace me
and kiss me. ZuYi liked to call
me mama. She liked it when I
held her hand to take a walk.
Her tiny hand would hold my
hand tightly and she would
tell me lots of things while we
walked.
Today ZuYi visited us with her
dad and mom. When ZuYi saw
me she walked right over and
held out her arms, wanting me
to hold her. At that moment I
felt so touched. ZuYi used her
little hand to hold my hand. I
felt the warmth coming from
her. When I saw ZuYi’s smile and how her mother loves her so
much, I felt very happy for her.
ZuYi, I hope you will grow up a happy and healthy child. As
teachers, this is all we wish for.
Where is Half the Sky Right Now?
Anhui Province
Chuzhou
Hefei
Chongqing Municipality
Chongqing
Guangdong Province
Guangzhou
Maoming / Maonan
Qingyuan
Shaoguan
Shenzhen
Guangxi Province
Beihai
Guilin
Nanning
Wuzhou
Hainan Province
Haikou
Sanya
Henan Province
Luoyang
Xinyang
Hubei Province
Huangshi
Wuhan
Hunan Province
Chenzhou
Shaoyang
Xiangtan
Yiyang (2 centers)
Yueyang
Jiangsu Province
Changzhou
Gaoyou
Lianyungang
Nanjing
Jiangxi Province
Fuzhou
Jiujiang
Nanchang
Shanghai Municipality
Shanghai
Sichuan Province
Chengdu
Yibin
Tianjin Municipality
Tianjin
9
Progress Report — Family Villages
The Half the Sky Family Village of Nanjing, Jiangsu
Thanks to generous donors, Half the Sky has been able to open eleven Family Villages. These unique homes are so successful that we hope to open six
more Villages in 2008 alone! Designed to serve children whose special needs preclude them from ever being adopted, our Family Villages offer the love of a
permanent family for children who would otherwise experience only institutional care throughout their childhoods. If you are interested in helping establish
these wondrous new families by becoming a Family Village sponsor, please contact [email protected].
Half the Sky’s fourth Family Village in Nanjing opened on what HTS Local Family Village Supervisor DanPing Ling called an “ordinary winter day” in
2006 with Mt. Zhongshan looming above. But there was nothing ordinary about the six new families created on that day.
From the beginning, the growing bonds of love between the parents and the 24 children who had finally found permanent homes were obvious. But because
the children had known only life in an orphanage and their parents had experience only in raising their biological children from birth, there was a learning
curve for the parents, the children, and DanPing as she makes clear in this report:
At the beginning, we met with some unexpected problems. Our foster
mothers were all very enthusiastic and started to teach the children to
read, count numbers, draw pictures etc, but after some time realized
the children weren’t making much progress.
I led discussions with the mothers, and we finally figured out the
reason: we realized that many of the children had not yet mastered
even basic skills.
Some children ate directly from their hands instead of using spoons
or chopsticks. The children didn’t know the names of common food,
and had no idea how to eat fruit with cores.
In addition, most of the children didn’t know how to brush their
teeth or wash themselves. They didn’t know how to use a tissue to
blow their noses and 96% were not potty trained. Most couldn’t get
themselves dressed because they had difficulty telling the front of
10
a shirt or pants from the back. They couldn’t button themselves up
properly, handle a zipper, lace their shoes, and didn’t know that they
should wear socks
Because the children did not have these basic skills, we realized that
it was unreasonable for us to expect they could meet the goals that
we had set at the beginning. So we decided to approach these issues
step by step and the first step was to help the children improve their
ability to take care of themselves, always taking into account the age
and the special medical condition of each child.
Working very hard, we saw great progress after six months. And now
a year later, 75% of the children are potty-trained and no longer need
to wear diapers. All of the children have learned how to brush their
teeth, wash their face, button their clothes, make their beds, etc.
The parents are so proud of the progress their children are making!
Family Village Album - Nanjing
Ordinary life for extraordinary families....
Whether they’re helping mom shop or cook
or arrange flowers - whether they’re learning how
to put on their socks or fold their clothes or tidy
up or make their beds - the sheer “ordinariness”
of these children’s lives is what is extraordinary.
These children, all of whom have medical, physical, emotional or developmental challenges that
keeps them from traditional adoption, will grow
up knowing that somebody loves them. For a
young child who’s had nothing but bad luck, life
is suddenly sweet!
11
Nanjing’s YuFeng - at home in Family Village
When YuFeng joined her family she was
malnourished and had serious psychological issues. She was timid and lonely. She
couldn’t speak and was not potty trained. She
walked slowly and was unable to go up and
down stairs.
To better take care of YuFeng and her siblings, her father Wang Yahe quit his old job so
he and his wife Xu Shuangqiu could devote
more time and all his love to their children.
To improve YuFeng’s physical condition, the parents prepared dishes both rich
in flavor and nutrition, and always made sure she received the physical training
prescribed for her.
With the great power of parental love and the help of the teachers at Half the Sky’s
Little Sisters preschool, Yufeng finally opened up to the outside world.
YuFeng’s teachers noted in her spring 2007 progress report: “Since YuFeng started living with her foster
family, she has become very happy.”
The teachers also noted that YuFeng, like children everywhere, had quickly learned the universal
meaning of the word “mama”: “Gradually, YuFeng learned to say ‘mama.’ She says the word when she
needs help.”
Now YuFeng has totally changed. YuFeng is able to go to the bathroom by herself. When she sees guests
she will run happily to the stairs to greet them, holding on to the handrail and laughing. When she sees
her mom, she runs into her arms and greets her with a big smile.
And when she hears music, YuFeng runs to her dad and grabs his hands for another rite of a happy
family, a joyous, father-daughter dance.
12
Nanjing’s YuFeng - at Little Sisters Preschool
While her parents nurtured YuFeng at home in the Nanjing Family Village, her
Little Sisters preschool teachers were also working hard to support her as you’ll
read in their reports below.
Winter 2006
When YuFeng joined our Little Sisters program, she was very lonely and
did not speak. She needed help from others to walk. When I handed her
snacks, she did not eat. She never stood up from the chair. She seldom
talked to other people.
I paid great attention to her. When I walked into the classroom, I would
call her gently, “YuFeng!” When the monitor called her name, I would raise
her hand and say with her “here.” During free time, I pulled her up from
the chair and accompanied her to play. I encouraged the other children to
communicate with her.
YuFeng changed greatly with our efforts. When the monitor calls her
name, she can raise her hand. She can finish her snacks. She can imitate
the others in the activities. She can walk stably and confidently now. She
often smiles happily.
Spring 2007
YuFeng has made a lot of progress. First, her language ability has improved. In the past, YuFeng could only say “en, ah.” When the teacher
called the roll, she said “en” to show her presence.
Since she started living with her foster family, she has become very happy.
Every day when she arrives at school, she holds my hands and babbles
to me. I communicate with her and help her say what she wants to say. I
also asked her to watch the movements of my lips and repeat my words.
Gradually, YuFeng learned to say “mama.” She says the word when she
needs help.
pulled my hand and talked to me. I asked her to imitate my words. Gradually she learned to say “mom,” “dad” and “want.”
During activities, she can sit on her chair. After playing with toys, she can
put the toys back to their original places. She is potty-trained. She can put
on her clothes by herself.
Winter 2007
Summer 2007
YuFeng has been in the program for nearly 9 months. She has improved a
lot. She has become very close to the teachers. She has rich expressions.
I can understand her ideas. She can control her emotions. She never bites
the others anymore. In activities, she can participate actively. She can
cooperate with others.
YuFeng has also progressed in speaking. After she started living in her
foster family, she became very happy. When she came to the class, she
During these three months, YuFeng and I have established a deep emotional attachment. When she has any problem, she looks at me and asks
me for help. Though she can’t always express herself in words, she can
make use of body language.
During activities, she sometimes looks confident. She often watches other
children drawing or writing and has the intention to attend group activities.
Even if she doesn’t completely understand how she can get involved, she
at least is willing to do it, which makes me feel quite gratified.
13
Volunteer Efforts Everywhere
A Green Way to
Give
Instead of using
traditional holiday
cards last December, David Shotlander, owner of a
Canadian translation
company, decided
to go “electronic.”
He then took the
money that would
have been spent on
printing and mailing
the paper cards and
donated it to HTS.
A Calendar for HTS
For the fourth year, Shanghai’s Bund Fund
created a calendar to raise money for HTS’s
programs. Avid photographers Georgie David and Andrea Soares again donated their
gorgeous photographs, CREO – China Real
Estate Opportunities Limited – sponsored
the project, and the calendar sold out again!
HTS Rings NASDAQ’s Opening Bell
A group of HTS supporters were on hand
when HTS’ director emeritus, Linda Filardi
and her daughter Lily rang NASDAQ’s Opening Bell on Feb. 25th. Bethany Sherman,
senior VP corporate communications at
NASDAQ, helped arrange the ceremony and
brought her two daughters, Olivia and Lucy.
A big thanks to Linda and Bethany and ev-
eryone else who attended or watched the bellringing ceremony webcast, which brought
welcome attention to HTS’ work in China.
Portland FCC CNY Celebration
Ryan Dyson created two Little Mouse Emergency Fund posters and collected donations at
Portland FCC’s Chinese New Year celebration
at the Oregon Convention Center.
More Chinese New Year Fundraisers
Cuilian Wang organized a children’s music
performance/fundraiser with her friends and
families. Special thanks to Shanghai Xi Jiao
Hotel for providing the venue for the event;
The Winegar family organized a Chinese
New Year party/dragon parade in Puerto
Rico and collected donations for the Little
Mouse Emergency Fund.
Gifts for Good
Fernanda Fisher and her daughter Roberta
participated in Gifts for Good--an alternative
gift fair at her daughter’s school in Washington, D.C. to raise funds for HTS.
To kick off Half the Sky’s 10th anniversary celebration, the Board of HTS and acclaimed author
Amy Tan, are hosting a Gala dinner in Hong Kong on May 30th, 2008
Many Thanks to Our
Platinum Sponsors:
For more information, please contact Julia Wong ([email protected])
14
Other Ways to Give
Nicole Ripken ran the Philadelphia Distance
Run to raise fund for HTS; U.S. Asian Affairs
Group 66 & 67 marked the 5th anniversary
of their children’s adoptions with a celebration and a donation to HTS in honor of their
“beautiful children”; Denise Burke made a
presentation at her daughter’s preschool, the
Children’s Enrichment Center in Texas. The
preschool and Oak Hills Presbyterian Church,
CEC’s host church, decided to give a portion of
their fundraisers’ charitable proceeds to HTS.
HTS Kite Festival
HTS will hold its first annual Give Me Wings
Kite Festival and family picnic in the Bay
Area this fall. Join us Sept. 21 & 22 for fun,
food and flying. Stay tuned for more information at our website, www.halfthesky.org, and
start thinking about how you can run a Give
Me Wings Kite Festival in your home town
next year!
Dreadlocks off for HTS!
Steve Harris of the UK raised funds for HTS
by having a hair cut for the first time in 8
years! Steve and his wife Karen are halfway through a 12-month honeymoon and are
working as volunteers in a school in
Hainan province.
‘I’d been saying
since Guatemala
that I should cut
my dreadlocks
off for charity. I
wanted to make
sure it was in a
country where we
really felt a connection.’
Letters from the Sky...
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who donated to the Little Mouse Emergency Fund during what was such a bleak winter in the
orphanages of southern and central China until you helped the children stay warm. The snow has melted and the sun is shining, but there is still much to
be done to bring the warmth of love to these children, every day. The love
of a caring adult is as important for orphaned children as was the warmth of
blankets and coal during the storms. Chenzhou SWI Director Shi said it best,
below: “Love can melt the ice.” We have seen love melt the hearts of so many
children – children who have blossomed under the loving care of our trained
nannies, teachers, mentors, and foster parents. Old friends of Half the Sky and
new ones, thank-you one and all – your response to this emergency was truly
stunning. With such generosity of spirit we hope you will all pull with us over
the long haul too, so that we can continue to bring the everyday warmth of love
to every child living in a Chinese institution.
The storms are over, but many children are still waiting to receive love in their lives … with your help, we will reach them all.
...Though he faced a
long journey and cold
weather, Richard Bowen
purchased disaster-relief
goods in Guangdong
and headed to Chenzhou, which is 400 km
away, in a Jeep. He arrived at our institution at 9 pm on Feb. 5, 2008.
Because there was no electricity, he and the
institution’s staff unloaded the goods by the
faint light of candles. His arrival really meant
a lot to us and the disaster-relief goods met our
urgent needs... Yes, when faced with a natural
disaster, there is no nationality difference in
terms of love. True love can melt ice and snow
and all difficulties can be overcome.
~Director Shi, Xiangqun, Chenzhou SWI
This is the first time in my life I have witnessed
anything that resembled the Chinese proverb,
“Sending Coals in Snow” so intimately...
Half the Sky’s dedication to the children will
be known to the heavens and rattle the earth.
This moment in time will forever be carved
into my memory and I am for sure going to tell
the stories to my children and their children.
Please thank Mr. Bowen on my behalf and
give him my utmost sincere wish that health
and safety may be with such a generous soul
at all times.
~Zhou Dan, HTS Infant Nurture Field Supervisor,
Hi Jenny,
…I am sitting in Shanghai and listening to the
fireworks that mark the beginning of Chinese
New Year...I have sent your emails to some
friends back home in the states and have been
floored by the response.
My mother, my sister, my mothers friends
have all quietly responded to my emails with
simple notes that they understood the message and have quietly and without melodrama
contributed money, and asked how they can
do more.
Thank you so much for letting me start the Rat
year on such a positive and optimistic note.
Best from fireworks-clouded Shanghai.
~PT
I am reminded of a line translated from Suma
Qian’s The Biography of Bo Yi and Shu Qi,
“Only in the cold of the year can you know
that pine and cypress are the last to turn
brown.” Not only do I think this is a fitting
passage about the response of the donors, but
about Half the Sky itself. You appear to be the
lonely tree in the middle of the deepest darkest winter that stands steadfastly refusing to
lose its leaves.
Our thoughts are with all the children, and all
the HTS people supporting them.
~Ashley Howard,Washington, DC
I know much of the crisis has passed, but I’m
sure there is always need for more money. I do
hope you receive the letter and donation-- my
daughter especially wanted to send some of
her lucky Chinese New Year money to keep
the babies and little children warm in China.
~Patricia & Amy Ruorong Hoyle, Australia
We would like to make sure that all the
workers at the Chenzhou SWI who are using
personal funds to help keep the orphanage
going get reimbursed.
We would like to pledge that we will make up
the difference if the emergency fund does not
have enough to reimburse these workers.
Could you please let us know after everything
has settled down if there is a discrepancy and
we will give you the rest of the funds?
We want to make sure that the heroic efforts
of those workers are rewarded.
~Laura Callahan, New Jersey
When I told our 14-year-old and 11-year-old
daughters about the blizzards and natural disaster-related problems in China I also shared
with them about what HTS is doing...
We read your emails together, and prayed for
help and hope for the orphans and everyone
else involved.
And then both girls disappeared, reappearing
later with their entire savings to donate to the
Little Mouse Emergency fund.
I asked both girls if they were OK with giving
up all their money, and they both replied “the
orphans in China need it more than I do.”
We feel privileged to be able to be a small part
of the support effort.
~Bonnie Straka, Virginia

15
Looking Back — Looking Forward
Inspiration from the early years of Half the Sky
When Half the Sky turned five in 2003, we celebrated by hosting a national conference on nurture and education in China’s welfare institutions. That conference helped
spread the word that nurture is as important as food and shelter for a child’s healthy development. The best evidence we had to support that message (with all due respect
to the academics present!) were the first graduates of our Little Sisters Preschool in Hefei, five “delightful” girls who performed a story with music, pictures and dance. The
narrator (photo below) was 8-year-old YuanYuan, a “timid, insensitive and closed child” when she entered our Preschool, who charmed everyone by performing with “precocious confidence and poise.”
In this our 10th Anniversary year we are proud that thousands of children like YuanYuan have blossomed in our programs. We are also proud that our message about the
importance of nurture has been heard so clearly by the Chinese government. So clearly that Half the Sky has been invited to introduce its programs at new Blue Sky Model
Centers in every province and municipality in China in the next five years!
Needless to say, the fiscal and logistical challenges of bringing our programs to so many more children so quickly are daunting. But whenever we wonder how we can possibly
meet the Blue Sky challenge, we look back and remember all the children who have blossomed in our programs for inspiration. And we look forward to the children who are
still waiting for the nurturing that should be their birthright. And it is then that we resolve that failure is not an option.
.
Now – Mae / Then – YuanYuan (center), 2003
ply an exceptional child and an outstanding
student.
mother, Diane Wright sent these updates from
Pennsylvania, USA:
2008 – We brought Mae home on Easter
when she was just turning 10. We have lots
of animals--goats, a donkey and chickens to
name a few -- and at first she was very frightened of them. Now she just loves them. She
has her own horse (Tammy), two guinea pigs,
and a rabbit (Mr. Beefy). She’s won two 4-H
championships for showing rabbits. Mae is
14 and still an outstanding student. She also
plays the flute very well. She is cautious and
sometimes quiet, but she can be really funny.
She loves hanging out with her friends and
loves being on the swim team. It is amazing
to think that she spent her first 10 years in an
orphanage!
2004 – I attribute a lot of Jenna’s eagerness to
learn to HTS. Within two months home, she
had learned the alphabet, counted to 12, knew
her colors and shapes and enough English
words that we had no problems communicating. She went into kindergarten right on target
for her age, and is now in first grade, doing
great. She is strong in math and has become
quite a good reader. Thank you, Hefei and
thank you, Half the Sky!
By the time we got Jenna she was Miss Personality and she still is — she is happy and
outgoing. She makes us laugh, talks her head
off, is interested in everything and always
has something to tell you. She is like a lot
of the children adopted from China--they
have that spunk in them. They survive and
they thrive.
Hefei Little Sister YuanYuan (Mae)
YuanYuan’s teachers and foster parents provided
an update in 2004 just before Mae was adopted.
Her mom Barbara Bytwerk provided the 2008
update from Michigan, USA:
2004 – YuanYuan grew up in the HTS preschool. She was transformed from a timid,
insensitive and closed child into an active,
outgoing, lovely girl with great curiosity.
Among her peers, YuanYuan stands out for
her patience, her concentration, and her meticulous nature. She is an avid learner, always
asking questions and then trying to tackle the
answers herself. She is a leader who inspires
the other children. And she never fails to offer
her opinions to friends and visitors alike. Now
YuanYuan has graduated from our preschool
and gone on to primary school. In this first
year, her instructors tell us that she is sim-
16
2008 – Jenna is 11, is in fifth grade and is
still very strong in math—(she recently placed
third in a “Math 24” 5th grade contest). She is
in Girl Scouts takes piano, sings in a chorus,
and loves school.
Now – Jenna (above)
Then – HanRui (left), 2000
Hefei Little Sister HanRui (Jenna)
Jenna entered our first, pilot Little Sister Preschool
in Hefei in August, 2000 and was adopted a little
more than a year later at almost 5 years-old. Her
Now – Joy Qin (above))
Then – XiangQin (next page w/HTS Nanny), 2002
In Yiyang one of the dads went out in the
early mornings to run. It seemed to me in the
early light he was seeking the spirit of his
daughter’s home. I found myself holding,
chatting and encouraging the babies when
ever I got the chance while working. I just
felt we couldn’t do enough.
Hefei Baby Sister Xiang Qin (Joy Qin)
Joy Qin’s Mom Wendy Cideciyan sent us these
updates from Zurich, Switzerland:
2004 – In March of 2002 we received our
second daughter from the Hefei Children’s
Welfare Institute. She was 11 months old.
We brought 3 1/2 year old Rose Lan along
on the trip because we were returning to her
former home as well. The referral paperwork
we’d received said our baby, whom we named
Joy Qin, was lively, talkative and happy, but
the baby we received was quiet, frightened,
and sullen...
Two days later, we were allowed to visit
the orphanage. There, I was introduced to
a woman they said was Joy’s Half the Sky
Nanny. Joy, upon seeing her, went to pieces.
For the first time, we saw her laugh and smile,
and bounce up and down wildly. The nanny,
with a big smile, kept pointing at me and saying, “Mama, Mama.” She chatted with Joy,
hugged her and finally said, “Bye-bye” and
she handed her to me. From that moment on
Joy was a baby transformed.
2008 – Joy is 7 and has grown up to become
an amazing little person. She is so many
things all at once. She is charmingly sweet,
intelligent, pretty, physically strong, mentally
tough, verbal and very stubborn. When I talk
with Joy, I often feel as if I am arguing my
case with a clever lawyer. She simply does not
accept “No” for an answer. Joy goes to Swiss
public school where she is in the first grade.
She loves to read and draw pictures. She also
takes classes in English and Chinese.
We went to China for five weeks in 2005. Our
daughters spent three weeks in a Chinese kindergarten in Chengdu. The teachers were very
loving. Our daughters heard mostly Chinese
for three weeks. We experienced the exuberant
joy of Children’s Day in China.
We then went on to have the special experience of being part of the Yiyang HTS build
crew. I have dream-like memories of Yiyang.
Joy proved herself to be a good painter and
had a great time hanging out with the nannies
and the other children in our group. We loved
going out in the hot steamy nights with the
kids to play in the fountains of the park. There
was loud music playing and a light show. It
was very touching to watch these former orphans – now kids with their families – wildly
splashy around with the local kids. China can
be a magical place for children.
Moonlight (my name for the 3-year-old albino
child), walking like an old woman, is the
boldest. She brings the ball and drops it at our
feet. We pick it up and start teaching her to
play. Soon Moonlight is awkwardly catching
the ball when it’s fed into her hands from an
inch away. She tilts her head, her pinkish eyes
sliding around in their sockets as she tries to
focus. She giggles when she holds the ball,
proudly displaying it to our applause. Her
smile is huge, greater than the distance to the
other side of the world. I think of her with a
family of her own. Why couldn’t she be happy,
successful? She is so beautiful.
Eventually, beautiful “Moonlight” joined her forever
family and became Amelia. Her parents, Jay and
Sharon Lillie sent these updates from Kentucky
USA:
2004 – Amelia is doing very well! She has a
healthy appetite, great confidence when meeting strangers, a definite sense of mischief and
a good grasp of the English language. Thanks
to all who worked on her behalf!
Now – Amelia / Then – YuanMao (“Moonlight”), 2001
2008 – We adopted Amelia when she was
four and she is now eight. Amelia likes drawing dogs and horses and flowers and likes
doing cartwheels and handstands. Amelia
still has fond memories of her Half the Sky
preschool teacher, XiuRong Du (now a HTS
Field Supervisor-Trainer), who used to let
her play with her cell phone. Amelia still has
a Blues Clues dog that XiuRong gave her
with Chinese writing on it and wants to go
to China visit XiuRong. Amelia has lots of
friends and she still loves to eat. She is a joy
to cook for. She will try all kind of foods,
including vegetables.
Chuzhou Little Sister YuanMao (Amelia)
Half the Sky opened its third center in Chuzhou,
Anhui in the summer of 2001 with the help of a
volunteer workcrew that included Lynn Woods.
She fell in love with a beautiful 3-year-old girl with
a huge smile she nicknamed “Moonlight” and wrote
about her in our newsletter:
2001 – In the late afternoon, four of us sit on
children’s chairs gathered in a half circle at
the entrance to the toddlers’ room. The two
caregivers smilingly oversee as the children
venture toward us with three small rubber
balls. They are wearing loose split shorts,
bare bottoms mooning us as they waddle and
shuffle.
Now – Lucy (above right with sister, Grace)
Then – XinKe (on page 19), 2001
Continued on Page 19
17
Progress Report — Big Sisters & Brothers
In Wuhan — A Room of Their Own
One feature of all the Blue Sky Model Centers
we establish will be a brightly painted Activity
Room that our Big Sisters can call their own. As
you can see in this first Half the Sky Blue Sky
Model Center in Wuhan, the Activity Room has
become a popular hangout for our Big Sisters
and Brothers. The room is stocked with magazines, books, and a computer for surfing the net
or learning to type.
Our Big Sisters and Brothers will now also
have the support of a mentor in addition to the
tutors and teachers who help them make up for
lost time. As every parent knows, peers become
all important to children as they get older. Our
mentors will help the children navigate emotional ups and downs and provide additional
support just like Wuhan Big Sister Qin’s mentor
(see story below), who helped her enjoy her
piano lessons without putting too much pressure
on herself to play perfectly.
Both Qin and Lianyungang Big Sister JingJing (story next page) love the image of wings helping them fly, the theme of our new Give Me
Wings website for kids. We hope Qin and JingJing’s stories will inspire you to help our Big Sisters soar. Please consider a sponsorship that
will help provide tutors, mentors, and a room of their own for our Big Sisters, the tools that help them fly. For more information please check
our website, www.halfthesky.org or call 1/510/525-3377.
Qin — Music Has Given Her Wings
cused on the mechanics of moving her fingers
across the keyboard that she played without
emotion. To compensate, Qin felt she had
to completely memorize all the pieces she
played. Because Qin put so much pressure
on herself, learning was laborious.
Qin’s piano teacher Xiao Ni kept helping her
patiently and her Big Sisters mentor Hu Ping
often talked with her, calming her down, encouraging her, and giving her suggestions.
Gradually, Qin was able to relax and enjoy
the music, which meant she became more
motivated to study.
At the time she was a student at the Hubei
Shiyan Preschool Institute and she hoped
learning piano would help her get a teaching
job when she graduated.
Six months after Qin entered the Big Sisters
Program there were dramatic changes. Qin
had clear learning goals and she worked
hard to achieve them. Whenever she had
time, she practiced and she also downloaded
musical masterpieces and listened to them
again and again and then thought carefully
about them.
At first Qin did not seem to have any rhythm,
her fingers seemed stiff, and she was so fo-
This spring Qin started an internship in the
kindergarten at Wuhan University. Though
When Qin entered our program last fall, she
was thrilled to have the opportunity to study
piano for the first time.
18
the work was very tiring, she insisted on
practicing the songs assigned by her piano
teacher no matter how late she came back to
the institute.
Qin realizes how much progress she’s made:
“When I was interviewed by Xiaowen Music
School [a prestigious school with branches all
over China], I passed the interview successfully because I played the piano better than
other candidates, which is why I was able to
get a job there.”
This May, Qin started a three-month internship. When she completes it, she will realize
her dream of becoming a teacher!
Qin, who is 19, loves to sing “Invisible Wings,”
a popular song with the refrain: “I know I’ve
always had a pair of invisible wings that take
me flying and give me hope.” As she prepares
to leave the institution for a career, the Wuhan
staff cited those lyrics to wish her well: “Now
music has given her wings, and we sincerely
wish that she will fly higher and have a better
future.”
Lianyungang Big Sister JingJing
“Wings that make me fly in the blue sky”
I am a girl fond of dreaming. Since I was a child, I have dreamed of being a
teacher, especially an art teacher.
I am an ordinary girl, without a father or a mother or a warm family like average children. There was always a sense of loneliness in me and sometimes even
an inferiority complex.
Every time people chatted about their parents or family, I could see the happiness
in their face. I would go away quietly and hide in the corner that belonged to me.
I was only a spectator and an outsider.
One afternoon last summer, the director told me that the institute had applied
to be part of Half the Sky’s Big Sisters Program. As a result, I had the chance
to take remedial classes and also learn whatever interests me. With the teacher’s
help, I am now learning to sketch. I now know the basics of sketching because of
guidance from the teacher.
It is all because of the chance given by Half the Sky that I can walk out of inferiority, loneliness, helplessness, and can progress.
I can only repay your love for me with my efforts. When I grow up and have a
job, I will extend my love to children in welfare institutions, because I have grown
up in such a place.
In others’ eyes, I am without parents, but they don’t know I am actually the
luckiest girl in the world. I grew up happily in this special family. There are so
many people who love me.
The road ahead is full of flowers. Half the Sky Foundation has offered me wings that make me fly in the blue sky. Looking Back - Looking Forward
Continued from Page 17
Chuzhou Baby Sister XinKe (Lucy)
Lucy’s Mom, Patti Waldmeir filed these updates:
2004 – My daughter, Lucy, had an HTS
nanny-what a lucky girl! When I picked her up
at 14 months she was fat, sassy and a tribute to
her HTS nanny. Lucy is now 3 years old, and
she is my sunshine child, bouncy and happy.
She has a sister, age 4, and they are a dynamic
duo, devoted to one another, even managing
to share occasionally! A red thread definitely
connected these girls--I can’t imagine how
they could have lived without each other.
And of course I don’t know how I could
have lived without them. We have managed
to persuade family to donate to HTS rather
than giving us so many gifts! Now we have
our own ‘little sister’ at Chuzhou, a baby
we are sponsoring through the HTS Infant
Nurture Program. This is but small thanks for
the big gift Lucy
received: a nanny
to love her before
I could get there to
do that myself.
2008 – Lucy Helen
Xinke Waldmeir,
a 2002 graduate
of the HTS infant
nurture program at Chuzhou, is heading back
to China! In June 2008, our family – Lucy, 7,
from Chuzhou, Grace, 8, from Yangzhou, and
single Mom Patti – will move to Shanghai
to live for 3-5 years. Lucy, now a 1st grader
in Maryland, will attend bilingual ChineseEnglish school – and hopefully learn to speak
Mandarin finally! (Despite four years at
Chinese school
in the US, her
Mandarin is
only rudimentary!)
L u c y ’s n e w
Chinese adventure will obviously be hugely
exciting and challenging for the whole family, but returning to visit the orphanage at
Chuzhou could well turn out to be the most
meaningful part of the whole trip. Perhaps,
if we are lucky, we will even meet the HTS
“granny” who took such good care of my darling daughter at Chuzhou. What a joy it will be
to show her how little Lucy has grown!
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kids4kids
Little Mouse
Emergency Fund
Here are some very generous kids who reached out to help children stay
warm and snug during the severe winter weather in southern & central
China:
Vivian & Peter
Li took it upon
themselves to
write to Procter
& Gamble, urging them to
donate diapers.
P&G responded
by sending
30,000 diapers
to help 664
children in 30
orphanages in
southwest China where the cold weather was making it almost
impossible to wash cloth diapers!
Piggy Bank Money & Love
This money is a gift of love for the children from our family. It
consists of: $100 of haircuts, $175 of scrapbooking and photo
supplies, $200 of birthday gifts received but not spent and $50
from three of my six children’s piggy banks.
Amanda, Jordan, Austin, Julia, Alissa and Noah Fischer.
7-year-old Michaela Phelps (adopted from Chenzhou in 2001)
gave up her allowance for two weeks to help the children
there: “The people in Chenzhou are my ancestors and I need
to help them.”
20
Girl Scout Troop 42, which is made of up girls adopted from
China (and two from Vietnam) raised money for the Little
Mouse Emergency Fund because, says troop leader Charlotte Ottinger: “The situation in China pulled at all of our
heartstrings.”
After her mom
read the story,
“Sam and the
Lucky Money,”
to the children at their
Chinese New
Year’s party,
7-year-old Halle
NingXiang from
Long Island,
NY asked if the
children would
like to donate
any money from their red envelopes to the Little Mouse Emergency Fund to help the children in China and collected $13.46.
Math teacher Peggy Kump’s students at PS 120 sponsored
a girl from Guilin by collecting pennies through the Common
Cents Penny Harvest...7-year-old Ella McClain placed
a bucket on the curb of her street with a sign that read “Save
China” and collected $9.97.
Catherine Lu (right in photo)
started a “Reach for the Sky”
club at Mission San Jose High
School in Fremont, CA. Club
members, including Cynthia
Kang (left in photo) hosted a
HTS table during
“Giving Back Days” at the
San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum and helped visitors make paper lanterns.
Happy Birthday to the generous kids who collected HTS Donations instead of gifts! Becky Dubner, 12 (the sixth year in a
row!); Tia Furness, 9; Emily Evans, 10;Tessa Burns, 7; Brianna
Xinying Warren, 8; Paris Wenjuan Wilson, 7; Emma (9) & Julia
(5) Hoffman; Lucy Roesch, 10; Grace Rotolo, 6; Lea Wenting,
8; Nolan Dolaher, 10; Rosie Detweiler, 7; Loral Hess & Jorgie
Hampilos, 4; Eleanor (9).
And more generous kids: Georgia Strigen (5) celebrated Valentine’s Day by sending money for the children impacted by
the cold weather; 5-year-old Alyssa McPhillips withdrew money
from her savings account to contribute to the Little Mouse Fund
for Nanchang, Jiangxi where she is from.
Mazel Tov to Millicent, Amelia & Erica!
Millicent Jade Kasten
The whole experience of
becoming a Bat-Mitzvah
is really exciting and
spiritual to me. It has
also got me to see some
of the things in this
world that I must do to
help others, so I have
become increasingly
interested in the Half
the Sky Foundation. This
foundation helps children in China who are in orphanages, by providing money and volunteers, to help build nurturing and learning
centers within the orphanages, to give children a better education,
and more.
Amelia Lachter
My Bat Mitzvah was
Saturday, November
17. I was adopted
from Ningbo, Zhejiang
Province in 1995 when I
was 6 months old. When
I was six years old, my
mom and three of her
friends (moms of my
friends, also adopted
from China) were on
one of the original builds for Half the Sky at the orphanage in
Hefei.
Since that time, we have supported the efforts of Half the Sky. For
that reason, I have asked that family and friends make donations
to Half the Sky instead of giving me gifts...I have been studying
Chinese for the past five years and I hope to return to China in a few
years, with my mom, to participate in one of Half the Sky’s building
projects.
My name is Cara. I am 6 and a half. I was born in
China. My Mom and Dad came to bring me to
the USA. I want to give money to help the kids in
China. My Chinese name is RuiPin.
Love, Cara Fried.
More kudos for generous kids!
Ryan Travitz and other National Honor Society Students from
Panther Creek High School in Cary, North Carolina held a
fundraiser with help from the Red Bowl Asian Bistro & Constant Creative... Kristi & Lin Gable, Adrienne
Roddy-Bale, Zoey Kapusinski, Christie Boyd and Fiona
Kuipers organized a booth at the Bellevue Festival of Arts,
made over 250 cards, and spent 11 hours at the booth.
Erica Wei
Laskin
My Bat Mitzvah
was December
1, 2007 at the
Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. With some
Bat Mitzvah gift
money, I would
like to sponsor
a child at the
Hefei Children’s Welfare
Institute for a 2 year period and to sponsor a Big Sisters at the
Hefei Children’s Welfare Institute for a month. On December 16,
1994, I was found at the Hefei train station. I was taken to the
Hefei Children’s Welfare Institute and later adopted on May 28,
1995. My Chinese name is Wei Wanjun.
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Now You Can Help Bring Nurturing Care To Every Orphanage in China!
A HTS Blue Sky Sponsorhip Offers Training that Transforms Caregivers & Children Alike
“I had no idea what happens in the early years
is so important. No one ever taught me this. I
only learned to bathe and feed my baby.”
—A Half the Sky Nanny during
her training in Shenzhen in 2007
Developing emotional bonds with one, special
caregiver is as important to a child’s healthy
development as food and shelter. But the staff
at China’s social welfare institutions receives
traditional training that emphasizes shelter,
safety and order, not children’s equally important need to be cherished and
to explore the world around
them. For the last decade Half
the Sky has been training
caregivers in social welfare
institutions across China
about how important nurture
is for healthy development
and also teaching caregivers
how to provide that nurture
to institutionalized children,
who have lost the love of
family.
These trainings have transformed caregivers and children alike:
“Before, I expected the children to sit still and
listen to me, but most of the time I found it was
very hard for me to keep them focused on what
I wanted them to learn. The children remained
unresponsive and didn’t say much.
“Now that I am using the new teaching approach with my special child, I have seen the
improvement in her language use, as well as
in her emotional development and social skills
within such a short period. Within a few days,
she began to smile at me when I came to see
her. She began to talk with me about the pictures she and her friends had made. She even
invited her friends to play with us.
“It made me realize it was the environment,
including the way the adults behaved, that
had caused the developmental delays in our
children. This came as a real shock to me.”
—A Half the Sky preschool teacher
during her training in 2001
Now for the first time Half the Sky has the
opportunity to bring its training to caregivers at every orphanage in China!
The trainings will take place at Blue Sky
Model Centers to be established in every prov-
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ince and municipality in China. So every time
a new Blue Sky Model Center opens, Half the
Sky faces the challenge and the wonderful
opportunity of transporting caregivers to that
Center for specialized training that emphasizes the importance of nurture for children’s
healthy development. Our challenge is to raise
enough funds to establish our four programs
at every Blue Sky Model Center AND to raise
enough funds to train staff at every orphanage
in the province.
The first trainings will take place in Hubei
Province at the Blue Sky Model Center in
Wuhan this June.
If we meet our fundraising goals, we will
soon have the opportunity to train caregivers
at new Blue Sky Model Centers in Guizhou,
Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, Sha’anxi and Liaoning provinces and in Chongqing! That means
hundreds of caregivers who will soon be able
to learn about how to provide child-centered
care if we can raise the funds to provide that
training.
Please help us reach more
children by becoming a Blue
Sky Training Sponsor.
When we first started our
work, we faced skepticism,
but now institutions are clamoring for our training because
administrators have seen so
many remarkable transformations:
Blue Sky Training Sponsorships
Can you help us bring the essential and lifechanging message about the importance of
nurturing care to caregivers at every orphanage in China by giving the gift of one or
more Blue Sky Training Sponsorships? You
will receive a beautiful certificate in honor
of your gift and the knowledge that you are
helping to bring nurturing care to so many
more children.
Proceeds from each Blue Sky Training Sponsorship will help:
•Cover transportation and living expenses
for one caregiver’s journey to the Blue Sky
Model Center in her province/municipality
•Cover the cost of training one caregiver
over several weeks
•Cover the cost of developing a support
network to help each trainer caregiver make
the transition to child-centered, nurturing
care at the institution where she works
We need your help now!
“Since we started cooperating
with Half the Sky Foundation, great changes
have happened in our children. Little babies
do not only lie on the bed, but have nannies to
cherish them; older children do not play with
no aim, but have teachers to teach them—the
children are not lonely anymore.”
—Director Feng of the Xinyang
Social Welfare Institute in 2007
There are so many lonely children waiting for
the loving touch of a special caregiver. The
children should not have to wait longer.
Please help us bring the love of family to children who have lost theirs by giving the gift of
a Blue Sky Training Sponsorship.
Can you donate an item for
Half the Sky’s online auction?
Quilts, gourmet dinners, a week at a beach
house, artwork, an autographed copy of your
book, a special birthday party (we already have
a science-themed party!), hand-made dolls, etc.
These are items that spark lots of bids during
our annual eBay auction. Can you help us make
this year’s auction the most successful ever by
donating an item? If you can help, please email
us at [email protected].
Donation Form for Mail and Fax
Yes!
$50
$100
$300
I want to celebrate Half the Sky’s 10th Anniversary and
Give More Kids Wings!
$600
$900
I want to be a HTS Child Sponsor. I pledge
Other $____________
$25 per month or
I want to be a HTS Exclusive Child Sponsor. I pledge
$300 per year.
$50 per month or
$600 per year.
I prefer that the Baby Sister/Little Sister I sponsor be from (orphanage) __________________________ ________________
I want to be a Big Sisters Sponsor. I commit to a pledge of
$75 per month or
$900 per year
I want my Big Sisters sponsorship donation to be used for the Big Sisters General Fund
University Fund
I want to be a Blue Sky Training Sponsor. I commit to a pledge of
$420 per year
$35 per month or
I want to be a HTS Guardian to support an endowment fund for ongoing support for all HTS programs. I commit $3,000 with a
monthly pledge of
$83 per month, or
$1,000 per year for 3 years.
I want to be a HTS Angel. My unrestricted gift of $5,000 or more is enclosed.
Please contact me about including HTS in my
estate plan or current financial planning.
I want my donation of any amount to help support (orphanage)____________________________ _____________________
I have special instructions for my donation that I am giving as a gift or giving in honor of a friend/family member. Please Specify:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
To double/triple the amount of my donation, I have enclosed my company’s matching gift application.
Name ____________________________________________
E-Mail Address _____________________________________
Address __________________________________________
Total Amount of Your US$ Donation ____________________
_______________________________________________
Payment Method: Check
City ______________________________________________
Credit Cards Accepted:
State/Prov. ________________________________________
Visa/MC or AMEX # __________________________________
Zip/PC ___________
Country _ __________________
Expiration Date_ ____________________________________
Phone ____________________________________________
Signature __________________________________________
Visa
MC
AMEX
Please Mail or Fax this form to:
Half the Sky Foundation*
740 Gilman Street, Berkeley, CA 94710 USA
FAX: 1-510/525-3611
*For information about Can$ and HK$ sponsorship fees and for addresses where your Canadian or Hong Kong
donations should be sent, please visit www.halfthesky.org.
23
Give me wings!...and I will fly....
Half the Sky Foundation
740 Gilman Street
Berkeley, CA 94710 USA
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
24
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PERMIT NO. 2508
OAKLAND, CA