Xiao Ai, 35 years old, is a beneficiary of Little Red Scarf’s “Mother Care” Project. She underwent surgery for congenital heart disease in December of 2015. Family BackgroundThe 35-year-old Xiao Ai is a mother of three. There are five people in her family. Her eldest son is 11 and in sixth grade. Her daughter is three years old, and her youngest son just reached two-months-old. Her husband is 42 years old. Their house has three rooms, split into two bedrooms and one kitchen. They have an acre of land. They earn 15,000 yuan from farming and working at miscellaneous jobs. The family is currently on the national welfare program, getting 1,600 yuan a year from the government. Adding together money earned from farming, working, and welfare, the family can make 16,000 yuan a year. Baby's Medical ExpensesWhen Xiao Ai was giving birth to her child in September of 2015, it cost over ten thousand yuan. The baby was not doing well at birth and was diagnosed with a serious lung infection and intrauterine hypoxia. The baby was immediately transferred to another hospital and spent 20 days in the incubator in the city hospital, costing over ten thousand yuan. The medical costs of the two hospitalizations were paid for using all of Xiao Ai’s husband’s savings and by borrowing from relatives. When Xiao Ai’s baby was not yet two months old, he was diagnosed with congenital heart disease when visiting the county hospital because his heart was beating too fast. The family was out of money, so they had to borrow. Relatives scrapped together 18,000 yuan for Xiao Ai, and Little Red Scarf paid for the rest of the costs so the baby could undergo surgery.
Funnel ChestXiaojie is a child with a condition known as congenital funnel chest. A funnel chest is caused by a bending of the sternum, costal cartilage, and ribs towards the spine that creates a funnel-shaped sink. This condition is a type of congenital chest wall deformity. If the deformity is severe, the sternum and vertebrae will become almost touching, or the sternum will sink into a groove next to the vertebrae and cause the heart to become pressured to move to the left, affecting the patient’s heart cardiopulmonary functions. Unsuccessful SurgeriesXiaojie has a severe case of funnel chest and underwent two orthopedic surgeries when he was 5 years old. Unfortunately, neither surgery was successful. During the second surgery, when the metal plate had to be removed, the large area of the child’s wound was infected, so cleaning the wound every day was like going through torture. Anesthesia could not be applied, so the parents asked relatives of other children in the same ward to keep the child down, so the doctor can use medical cotton to go deep into the wound and clean it. The piercing cries of the child and the sobbing of the parents made everyone in the room feel pained.
Grounded on core values of respect, love, and service to the elderly, the Xin Yue Senior Citizen Service Center of Chongqing, China, promotes social work services for senior citizens and builds harmonious living environment for them. It’s International Women’s Day, to send greetings for the senior citizens in nursing home, social workers purchased carnation for women senior citizens. Social workers were divided into several groups and visited grannies. They sent greetings, “granny, happy Women’s Day! Wish you health and pretty forever!” Some of grannies were happy and said, “thank you”. Some lowered their head and appreciated the flowers with smiles. Some of grannies were not able to express due to health problems. They just looked at the social workers and the flowers. Some of them were unconscious and social workers put the flowers beside their beds. The fragrance would go around the room and to the heart of the senior citizens.
It was more than flower. It was the greetings that went around. It was happiness and respect. In greeting words and happiness, the activity was closed successfully. Original article written by Fan Yang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang O’Keefe Family Center Tutoring Program successfully completed the 2014-2015 school year with tutoring on two evenings and Bible Club on one evening per week, as usual. This year, several students who have been with the program for the entirety of their elementary school years have graduated to middle school. At the same time, several first grade students began coming to receive tutoring. O’Keefe also recruited several new tutors for the 2015-2016 school year in efforts to keep the student:tutor ratio low and ensure that each student who comes receives adequate individual attention.
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Compassion Nayong Public Welfare is based on Nayong, a poverty-stricken area in Guizhou Province. Taking the network as the platform, it carries out various public welfare activities to aid education.
10 students received allowances and 600RMB would be given to each of them. On September 8th, when we received money, I connected chairman and accountant and withdrew the money. In the morning of 12th, we visited Shang Guanyang, who is about 15 kilometers away. Shang Guanyang, her little sister and grandmother are at home. I told our purpose and encouraged her to study hard. At 10 o’clock in the morning, we visited Chen Jinhua. Her home is about 18 kilometers away. 3 children of the family are at school and her father just passed away. Her mother went to Guangdong to work. Chen is in a vocational school. Her younger sister is in Grade 8 who boards at school. Her younger brother is in Grade 7 and lives with other children of the relative. Her uncle takes care of 3 children. I explained our purpose to the family and encourage them to be strong. Chen’s younger sister received the money and gave it to her uncle to keep. A new and improved architectural model creates houses that are more durable and also stay cooler.
When we first started partnering with Sahaya Vietnam in 2013, we sponsored standard houses like the one on the left, which cost $1000 to build. Of course this was a major improvement for the impoverished families who used to live in makeshift shelters. In 2015 Sahaya developed a new model for building even better houses. They will be made of brick, which is sturdy enough to last at least 40 years. The brick will keep the family cooler during the summer. This new model costs $2200. Grounded on core values of respect, love, and service to the elderly, the Xin Yue Senior Citizen Service Center of Chongqing, China, promotes social work services for senior citizens and builds harmonious living environment for them.
In the morning of February 25, Senior Center carried out 25th session of birthday party for 39 senior citizens. To organize a warm and happy party, social workers connected volunteers in a senior club. They sent greetings by doing wonderful performances. Singings and dances brought happiness and joyful. After the art performances, participants began to sing birthday song for the senior citizens. With the leading of social workers, the senior citizens blew candles and made wishes. They shared birthday cakes. Granny Gou’s son sent fungus soup and expressed his greetings to the other senior citizens. He was chatting happily with her mother. After the activity, the social workers visited all senior citizens and sent birthday gifts and warm greetings. Original article written by Fan Yang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang |
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