Hemophilia Home: Kite Flying Fun

Hemophilia Home is a nonprofit established to improve the quality of life for patients with hemophilia by collecting knowledge on hemophilia and assisting poor patients. Hemophilia Home is in Beijing, China.

Han Yu’s “Early Springs” describe the beauty of early spring, and we have indeed, had a wonderful April. There is nothing more blessed than staying away from the hustle and bustle of big city and going back to nature with relaxing mood.  For those with Hemophilia, these moments are important. Many hemophilic children avoid going outside for fear of risks from bleeding. Just one cut and they could end up in bed for several days.   

In 2014, Hemophilia Home once again launched series of activities for hemophilia social integration. Prior to the event, we planned for scenic routes, coordinated volunteers, logistics and checked out the site first.  On April 27, we held our first event in Beijing, called:  “Spring Outing, Hemophilia back to Nature”.  Both adults and children with hemophilia in Beijing, and those who come to Beijing for hemophilia treatment joined together to visit Riverfront park Vista Boulevard in ShiJingShan District.  Activities include fishing, kite flying and picnics, etc.

At 9:00 am on April 27, children and parents can’t wait to show up at our meeting place: Beijing Children's Hospital. With the help of doctors and nurses at Beijing Children's Hospital, children received preventive treatment to ensure their safety.  Volunteers from Hemophilia Home arrived early in the morning, they waved the banner.  Escorted children and their parents to board the bus.  At 9:30, the tour bus departed and headed to Vista Boulevard.  On the way, the bus was filled up with joy and silver bell like laughter.

“Look, what a beautiful lake!”, our children yelled as soon as the lake entered their sight. We started from the east bank of the river and went north for about 10 km and then turned around to its west bank and back south.  By doing this, we enjoyed the whole scenic view of this beautiful Riverfront park. Bus stopped at a small square on the west bank.  Our volunteers already waited there for us with kites, spools and gloves.  Gloves were used to protect children from getting cut by spools. As we hear the voices of children laughing with the kites, our volunteers also rolled out the picnic ready for children and their parents.   In addition to flying kites, we had our fishing rods ready to go fishing! The kids were able to fish even though the fish were tiny. The kids were laughing and smiling the whole time. 

When it was time to eat, children reluctantly put away their kite and fishing rod. Today’s lunch is quite special. Each parent prepared their own dish for a pot luck. The variety of food is so abundant that we couldn't fit the 10-meter long picnic mat. In addition, there were many different kinds of snacks, desserts and drinks. At this moment, no matter where you come from, no matter what is your physical condition, this is our big cozy family with everyone staying close together.

What made all of this a reality is due to the improvement of our national health insurance policy, health care system, doctors and nurses who care for patients, and love, hope from our society to people with hemophilia.

Original article written by Teng Xue, translated by Joe Hsu and edited by Yanyan Zhang