Orphans into Families: Tibet & West China

As the Care for Children team trains on family placement across China, they have the incredible privilege of meeting with the families who have taken children into their homes, and the children whose lives have been transformed by being accepted into a family.

One such young man was Xiao. Xiao was placed into a family in China from one of the orphanages Care for Children trained when he was 5. He is now 17 and has been living with the same foster family for 12 years. 

When Xiao was first placed into this family, he had a bad temper, was very insecure and very controlling. He was violent to himself and towards his foster parents.  

His foster mother was amazingly committed and experienced. She would spend as much one-on-one time with Xiao as possible, giving him lots of attention and love to make him feel special and secure. 

Over time Xiao began to make progress. The acceptance and love his new family gave began to turn his life around. He started to trust and feel like he belonged.

Last year, with the encouragement and support of his foster family, Xiao successfully passed the entrance exam to a tecnnichal school to study, his self esteem positively enhanced by the love of a family. This was a huge acheivement.

This is Care for Children's vision, that a million children like Xiao can flourish in life as they know the love of a family.

Thank you for your ongoing support that enables Care for Children to train those working with vulnerable children in China  to provide the best thing for these children's futures - a good family. 

Recently our Training Team visited one of Care for Children's oldest and most established foster care projects in China. As it was my first visit, I was eagerly anticipating what I would find. We spent one day checking in with some of the project's foster families. 

One of the families we visited had fostered two children, a girl and a boy. I really enjoyed talking to the teenage girl, Dan Dan. She was quite shy but gradually opened up to us as we asked her about what she was doing. Her hands were busy stitching and we found out that Dan Dan had a keen eye for cross-stitch and design. She clearly had a skill and her foster mom recognized this and how much joy it brought her. 

Her foster mom was really proud of her. She explained she had encouraged Dan Dan's talent by investing in some cross-stitch design kits with various patterns. This had really fuelled her interest. She really enjoyed sitting with her foster mom and talking about her designs, and her foster mom painstakinly unpicked any wrong stitches or mistakes. Her patience and love for her foster daughter was so evident, and she proudly displayed Dan Dan's work around the room for everyone to see. Maybe one day her unique talent and potential will take her further than she could imagine, who knows?

The foster family had become a place where Dan Dan could meaningfully contirbute to her home, put her own special mark on it and be reminded every day that she belongs. 

That's what I love about foster families: the attention to detail and the sensitivity to care that can be offered. That's why I love visiting the families we work with and seeing the small things that make a huge difference to a child's life. And that's why your support, no matter how large or small makes a real difference.

Your support creates changes that last a lifetime. Thank you.

Links:

• http://www.careforchildren.com