Education for Blind Chinese Orphans

Fall Updates!

As Fall is underway we want to send our warm greetings from all of us from Bethel! These last few months have been quite busy with some exciting moments and news to share with you.

As of this week, Bethel's centers are supporting 61 children (25 in Dou Dian, 20 in Zhengzhou, 10 in Jiaozuo, and 6 in Nanjing). This year, we've had five wonderful adoptions, with three adoptions currently pending. 

At our Dou Dian project site, Bethel recently accepted two new children, Ming Zhi and Xin Qin. Ming Zhi is a handsome 5 years old boy. His dietary habit was not great before arriving to Bethel. He cannot walk and talk. We do know that he loves to be hugged, and we will give him the best care possible. Xin Qin is a beautiful seven year old, who loves to smile and is very curious. 

Medically, one of our boys, Qiu Shi, was having extreme difficulties breathing through his nose and needed medical intervention. This past quarter, he went through multiple surgeries and now we are happy to say that he can now breathe through his nose with freedom. 

Bethel Camp

Several weeks ago, Bethel invited 10 visually impaired children from all over the country and 10 children from the United States and China to take part in a summer camp retreat at Bethel.

For this event, Bethel invited a professional teacher for the visually impaired from the United States (The professor, Haley, is visually impaired and travels with Tasha, her seeing eye dog), and an American family with four children.

The theme of the camp was to use both nature and sport as learning tools to positively promote good social and educational skills. During the camp, the children created books by using natural materials, learned traditional Chinese Tai Chi, and went on an educational field trip to Bayer. The camp was culminated by an ultimate challenge of having the children all work together to build a birds nest, to feel the deep connection between humanity and nature thorugh the added benefit of teamwork. 

With overwhelming positive feedback, Bethel will look to expand on the camp's success and bring it back next year. 

Outreach

In the past quarter, Bethel researched and marked out either Nanchang or Baotou SWI (Social Welfare Institute) to set up the next Bethel satellite center. Bethel is in the process of approaching these two SWIs for future satellite projects. 

In mid October, Bethel will have a meeting with the officials of Guangzhou Can Lian which serves individuals with BVI (Blind and Visual Impairments). It is to discuss a project with Bethel's help to establish a BVI Early Intervention program in Guangzhou. It will involve teacher trainings, curriculum production, special teaching equipment purchase and setups. The follow up consultancy from Bethel may also be applied in the discussion. 

Special Visitors

Our Bethel children and staff had the amazing opportunity to welcome the Beijing Sinobo Guoan Football Club (or Soccer, depending on where in the world you might be reading this from :). Everyone from the team was very nice and good to our children, spending quality time with them. We were even lucky enough to get onto National Chinese TV with them. Thanks Beijing Sinobo Guoan Football Club!

Thank You

I'd like to send a special thanks to you for taking the time to read our update. Our school, foster care, camps, outreach trainings, medical surgeries- none of this would be possible without your valuable support. We wish that you could personally visit our projects and see what we do first hand, but if not, we hope that these updates show you how your gracious support goes so far. We currently still have several needs, such as sponsors for our new children. We truly appreciate your support and blessings. 

Sending our blessings,

Zach

Links:

• For more information please visit our website here