Home of Chivalrous People is a non-profit organization which aims to help disabled teenagers with Chinese culture, martial arts and chivalric spirit. The main purpose of the organization is to teach traditional martial arts to needy people—underprivileged teenagers and help them to be healthy and employed. Bright sunshine came out after rain in spring. Tai Ji Academy became crowded. Long-expecting traditional calligraphy and martial arts salon were held. The classroom had no empty seat. Chen Jianhai—the lecturer, started to give speech. The wall was decorating with his brush handwriting which seemed vivid and lively in an age of computer. He analyzed comparison between calligraphy and martial arts briefly, but vividly. He explained characteristics of calligraphy and martial arts in details. For instance, calligraphy aims to combine with concise dots and lines. The way you write a dot or a line will transform to personality. Dot, horizontal or vertical stroke correspond to different movement in martial arts. He demonstrated in the class on how they are interacted with each other. Students’ eyes were opened. It’s difficult for them to understand if they did not see by themselves. Martial arts demonstrated by Chen covered several schools which he had experienced profoundly. A snap fist expressed its firm which corresponds to strokes of handwriting. Each movement has its corresponding strokes. Calligraphy is the illustration of Chinese words. For thousands of years, it has close relationship with martial arts. With expectation, teacher Chen wrote 4 Chinese words for the salon. After the lecture, teacher Chen displayed more his calligraphy. Happy time was flying. Wearing black hat and organizing paintings, he said goodbye and disappeared in the twilight. The academy returned to silent, leaving sounds of paper stirred by spring wind and light scent of ink. Original article written by Zhouyin Wan, translated by Maggie Li, and edited by Yanyan Zhang Behcet’s Patient Association was established in May 2005 and provides care and help services for behcet patients, aiming to promote understanding and respect to people with behcet among the public, eliminating discrimination and protecting their equal rights on medical care, education and employment.
West Lake of Hangzhou is welcome tourists from all around the world. Among the crowd, there were some people wearing red t-shirt and holding red-and-white flag in the hand. They are a group of special tourists—Behcet’s Patient Association. On such a lovely day, they are Behcet’s patients coming from Zhejiang, Shanghai and Guangdong. They gathered here to advocate more people to understand and care people with Behcet. May 1st is international labor’s day. It is also the day when Behcet's Patient Association was first found. The activity was different from previous ones. With more tourists during the holiday, the patients walked 7 kilometers and distributed pamphlets to tourists along the way. They also gave brief introduction about the Behcet. Something special about the activity is the Behcet’s patients need courage to communicate with strangers. Though passing out flyers on the street is a challenging way to spread awareness about Behcet, they are passionate about this cause and their mission. Original article written by Yong Chen, translated by Maggie Li, and edited by Yanyan Zhang We are spreading the mission of Little Red Scarf to Yunnan province. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to support more individuals suffering from congenital heart disease. Look forward to working together with our new partner, ChinaCal! (via China Cal newsletter) The China California Heart Watch and the Ping and Amy Chao Family Foundation of Silicon Valley, CA will collaborate in a pilot project to support surgical care for Yunnan children with congenital heart disease. All children receiving support from this collaboration will undergo corrective surgery at KMU First Affiliate Hospital in Kunming, Yunnan Province, This pilot project will enhance additional support that the China California Heart Watch and one of its partner organizations, the Children's Heart Link of Minneapolis, MN, are providing to KMU to improve the quality of its care for children in Yunnan Province. Little Red Scarf operates in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. LRS provides financial support and patient advocacy to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care to help the children sustain a healthy new life.
It was 6 years ago when Ping and Amy Chao first met Dongdong—a 11-year-old young boy with congenital heart disease. Seeing the family's dire living circumstances, Ping and Amy knew they had to help Dongdong and his parents pay for surgery. But never could they have imagined that it would be the beginning of their non-profit, Little Red Scarf and that Dongdong would be the first of more than a thousand individuals to get treatment. Ping and Amy was visiting Lanzhou when they became aware that over 6000 children in Gansu were waiting for treatment for congenital heart disease. The government did provide services and insurance, but sadly not in time for some people. It was race against the clock for many of those waiting. Congenital heart disease is considered a "silent treatment"- one could never truly predict when the heart may fail as the physical symptoms can be undetected. The Ping and Amy Chao Family Foundation decided to launch an intervention plan. The executive director, Nancy Nguyen, traveled to Gansu in 2009 to setup an office and manage a small dedicated team in Lanzhou. Little Red Scarf was created. The patients consisted at first only of rural poverty-stricken children below age 18 but eventually spread to care of young mothers. The staff of Little Red Scarf considered these individuals as most vulnerable population and Mr. and Mrs. Chao in combination with the rural insurance provided by the Chinese government was able to spread more resources to these groups. The name Little Red Scarf came to represent hope for these children to recover and return to school since many children in China wore little red scarves with their school uniform. In working with other partners and combining existing resources in the region, Little Red Scarf was able to provide over 1000 children with surgery and patient care. As more and more people became involved with this project, the mission of the organization expanded to patient care and family support, and Little Red Scarf Care was created to provide post-operative services for families in need. Staff would also help patients communicate with doctors when they had language barriers. The staff would visit the patient the first day she/he was admitted by hospital. They built positive relationship with the patients’ families and kept records for each patient, consisting of the family's story, photos, and follow-up reports the staff would conduct every 3 months after the operation. LRS staff follows up on the sponsored child until he or she reaches 18. Other services include bringing nutrition and school supplies after the operation, and making sure the child is healthy and family is doing well. After 6 years in Gansu province, the staff is very grateful for those who supported us from all levels of the society, including friends from Silicon Valley, Lanzhou Army General Hospital and the First Hospital of Lanzhou University. We look forward to years of service and hope to bring care to as more people in need. Original article written by Amy Chao & Yujie Yun, translated by Maggie Li, and edited by Yanyan Zhang Little Red Scarf brought nutrition and school supplies after the operation, which also brought love and blessings to 1000 underprivileged families. Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry:People with leprosy are sent to isolated villages where they are abandoned and forgotten by society. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry has a special place in its heart for these people and organizes groups of volunteers to travel to villages plagued with leprosy in order to provide medical, living, and psychological assistance. The Shalom Leprosy Compassion Ministry is located in Kunming, Yunnan. In the beginning of April, Liang Ping received a phone call from Sister Wang in Yimeng. She said that Wang Zhu’an got serious ulcer at one of his feet. He was sent to the hospital and the doctor suggested amputation. He was reluctant to amputate, for he is over 60 and life would be even more difficult without a foot. She hoped Shalom could help him and adopt proper treatment so that he could keep the foot. He is in rural medical insurance, but he had to pay 20% of the medical fees and 100RMB per day for nursing worker. He could not afford it and hurried to get out of hospital. Sister Wang took care of him in the village. Knowing this, Liang Ping contacted volunteers and consulted relevant doctors. She decided to use medicine sent by American volunteers to stop ulcer spread. Liang Ping borrowed money from her friends before the funds of foundation was in place. She went to Yimen on March 29 and treated Wang Zhu’an. After dressing, Wang Zhu’an felt much better. On April 5, Liang Ping and the volunteers visited Yimeng lepersoy village again and did treatment for Wang Zhu’an. Sister Wang is very kind and she takes care of Zhang Zhu’an for free.
On April 21, Shalom organized the volunteers to visit Yimen for the 3rd time. Wang Zhu’an’s foot was getting better. The volunteers brought more medicines to him. With treatment, the ulcer at Wang Zhu’an’s foot was recovering. Liang Ping is dressing for Zhang Zhu’an. After dressing, Liang Ping told Wang Zhu’an the usage of the medicines.The volunteers donated 600RMB for Wang Zhu’an to add nutrition. Wang Zhu’an thanked Shalom and volunteers. He also thanked Sister Wang for her kind help. The volunteers donated 600RMB to Sister Wang for her nursing allowance. Sister Wang was very happy and her work had been rewarded. When we knew Wu Zhaowen, the village chief had been taking care of the elderly lepers, the volunteers donated 350RMB to him. Shalom and its volunteers hope the lepers can take care of each other with this way. The village is in the mountains with less people. They had to take care of themselves for daily life. Original article written by Ping Liang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle. Jingbo is an unlucky boy. He was born with serious cleft lip and palate. It was difficult for him to suck. His mother took good care of him. When he was 9 months, he was diagnosed congenital heart disease for the cleft lip and palate operation. The whole family was broken down. Though Jingbo got cleft lip and palate, he is lovely and likes smiling. With the support of Little Red Scarf, he accepted operation for the heart disease in October, 2011. His heart beat was slow after the operation. The doctor asked him to do regular check and install cardiac pacemaker if necessary. The news made the family drop into darkness. The relatives asked her mother to give up treatment and bear another baby, but his mother decided not to give up and took good care of Jingbo. In June, 2013, Jingbo was covered by a project for children with cleft lip and palate and accepted the operation. 2 years after the operation, Little Red Scarf has been concerning about Jingbo and tried hard to raise money for installing cardiac pacemaker. We often contact with the family and were pleased to know his latest developments. In April, when Jingbo did second operation for cleft lip and palate, the doctor found his heart beat was recovering during the examination. Everyone was happy to hear the good news and hope it was his last operation. We visited him after the operation. He was 3 and grew tall, but he was afraid of strangers and hide in her mother’s arms. Yunyun asked about the situations of Jingbo. His mother told he could run or play as a normal child. Operations made his lips much better and could eat normally, but he could not speak clearly. He needs more time to recover from the operations. We brought him a box of milk and hope he would be better soon.
Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle.
We first met Longlong at the end of 2012 when he was 5 month old and diagnosed with congenital heart disease. He had been crying nonstop since he was born, and his young parents were exhausted. It's a year and half later and he is now two. We saw a familiar figure when we arrived at the village—his grandfather was holding him and welcomed us into their home. We were happy to hear that Longlong recovered well and hasn't even had a cold since his operation. He stopped crying at night, so now his grandfather is able to take care of him. Many people from their rural village take jobs in neighboring cities to improve their living conditions. Now that Longlong is with his grandfather, his father is able to focus on earning more money for their family. His mother found a job in the city last month. Speaking to his grandfather about Longlong's health brings up terrible memories for the family. At a period of time, they felt like they were living in the hospital. Thanks to the help of Little Red Scarf, Longlong can now eat and sleep well. Original article written by Ying Guan, translated by Maggie Li, and edited by Yanyan Zhang Partner Highlight: Community Mental Health Organization in China Celebrates Easter with Youth7/13/2014
The Jingjieniao Home is in Xi’an, Shan’xi province. It provides services for the mentally handicapped from poverty-stricken families. The organization is dedicated to improving their spirit and living standards and advocating for every disabled individual to have adequate access to social resources. Volunteers and teachers from Jingjieniao organized activities to celebrate Easter with mentally ill students. Our activity today was to find colored eggs. Since Easter is not as celebrated in China, our students were unfamiliar with the holiday. The staff had fun explaining the traditions of Easter, and hiding the colored eggs in the corners of the classroom. The students set out to find their lucky eggs. They took the search very seriously and were quite competitive too. Eventually, every student was able to find an egg. But the game wasn't over yet! There was a surprise you must find by breaking the egg. Once smashed, our students were delighted to find candies and toys. We all loved the game and the surprise at the end left everyone smiling. After the activity, we closed the day by making our own color eggs. The children would use cooked eggs to show off their artistic ability and had fun being creative.
Daba Mountain Ecology and Poverty Research Council was established in February of 2004 at Bazhong City of Sichuan province. The organization aims to protect ecosystem, reduce poverty and improve community capacity. On January 27, 2014, the Daba Mountain Ecology and Poverty Research Council put together a cooking workshop for two rural communities. 25 participants were trained in cooking techniques, equipment management, and safety and sanitation in the kitchen. Hundreds of recipes from the community were collected (including ingredients and dish name). After surveying the ingredients, the participants made over 30 courses of fine dishes. The activity was interesting, interactive, and practical and promoted food safety, cooking skills and community building. Original article written by Aiju Chang, translated by Maggie Li, and edited by Yanyan Zhang
Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle. One month after Hongyan was discharged from hospital, we accompanied her mother to reimburse from New Rural Cooperation Medical System. According to Hongyan’s cousin, the office of NCMS is in the county hospital. Hongyan’s mother organized and printed the paper work for reimbursement. Hongyan’s mother is an illiterate, so her cousin accompanied her to the county. Her cousin reads relevant regulations of reimbursement to Hongyan’s mother. According to the staff, the reimbursement now should be completed at township clinic level. The township clinic is 40 kilometers away from the county. The bus only comes twice a day. If we miss the second bus, we have to take a private small bus, which takes 50 minutes and 60RMB. We were anxious and made sure to get there early. Once they get there however, we realized the paperwork was not complete. Hongyan is a minor and has no ID, so they need to take a resident certification from the local police office and take a photo. The only store that took photos was closed, so we had to go back to the county. The next day, all papers were ready and submitted to the staff. When we asked about the reimbursement, the staff told us there were new policies and they were not sure, but the family would receive the money in early June. With this field visit, our staff was able to better understand the process of the NCMS. We imagine it could be bureaucratic and inconvenient for low-income or rural families, but we will continue to keep track of the case and make sure Hongyan's family gets the money. As TFISH staff, we work hard to understand and address the needs of people on an individual level. It was good for us to get to better understand the system to better serve our patients in the future. Original article written by Ying Guan, translated by Maggie Li, and edited by Yanyan Zhang |
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