Saturday, November 29, 2008
A Visit to Henan Province
Hi Everybody,
It has been a long time since I have posted, and there is so much on which to update you but I am here with all three kids, so I will start from the most recent events and see if I can post again later. The photos here are from a Rural town in Henan Province, a two hour drive from the city of Zhengzhou. This province has been hard hit by the AIDs epidemic which has primarily been spread through blood transfusions in the 80s and 90s I believe. I am not yet well educated on this issue, but will learn more soon. Many children in this community have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Half the Sky has two programs designed to help some of these children. One is a generous college and high school scholarship program funded by a generous family with ties to China, and the other is a foster village in which foster families have been created to care for the children who have lost their biological parents. Both of these programs are under my "auspices" (only Oma will understand that joke), but the foster village is in dire need of some upgrades --so that is what we will be up to. The conditions in this area are stark, and life seems very hard. The children are doing pretty well, but need lots of support.
In addition to meeting with the families, teachers and children, we were wined and dined (again, again, again, and again) by government officials. We ate every meal together with one or another government representative from the local, city and state levels. For the first two days I was traveling with HTS Second in Command, ZZ Zhang, so she translated for me. The last day I was on my own with only Chinese-speaking staff, so that was a challenge. I plan to only speak English today to give my brain a rest.
I traveled with our new Associate Director, who we just hired. Her name is Wang Li and she lives here in Shanghai. We will work together very very closely. She has great experience working with her own nonprofit in which she has helped people with disabilities in shanghai and also help minority populations in XinJiang province, a remote area.
Jeff just got home from the Shanghai marathon, in which he and his Cargill colleagues participated in the 5 K portion. He finished without much trouble and said it was great to get to downtown early in the morning and watch the sun come up over the city.
We are hanging around the house today. The kids are still liking school and doing very well. I will upload some photos of them soon. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We didn't celebrate this year due to my travel, but our looking forward to our Christmas holiday in Maylasia. The kids have started their Christmas wishlists.
It has been a long time since I have posted, and there is so much on which to update you but I am here with all three kids, so I will start from the most recent events and see if I can post again later. The photos here are from a Rural town in Henan Province, a two hour drive from the city of Zhengzhou. This province has been hard hit by the AIDs epidemic which has primarily been spread through blood transfusions in the 80s and 90s I believe. I am not yet well educated on this issue, but will learn more soon. Many children in this community have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Half the Sky has two programs designed to help some of these children. One is a generous college and high school scholarship program funded by a generous family with ties to China, and the other is a foster village in which foster families have been created to care for the children who have lost their biological parents. Both of these programs are under my "auspices" (only Oma will understand that joke), but the foster village is in dire need of some upgrades --so that is what we will be up to. The conditions in this area are stark, and life seems very hard. The children are doing pretty well, but need lots of support.
In addition to meeting with the families, teachers and children, we were wined and dined (again, again, again, and again) by government officials. We ate every meal together with one or another government representative from the local, city and state levels. For the first two days I was traveling with HTS Second in Command, ZZ Zhang, so she translated for me. The last day I was on my own with only Chinese-speaking staff, so that was a challenge. I plan to only speak English today to give my brain a rest.
I traveled with our new Associate Director, who we just hired. Her name is Wang Li and she lives here in Shanghai. We will work together very very closely. She has great experience working with her own nonprofit in which she has helped people with disabilities in shanghai and also help minority populations in XinJiang province, a remote area.
Jeff just got home from the Shanghai marathon, in which he and his Cargill colleagues participated in the 5 K portion. He finished without much trouble and said it was great to get to downtown early in the morning and watch the sun come up over the city.
We are hanging around the house today. The kids are still liking school and doing very well. I will upload some photos of them soon. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We didn't celebrate this year due to my travel, but our looking forward to our Christmas holiday in Maylasia. The kids have started their Christmas wishlists.
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