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December, 2003 | |
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Dear Jiangxi Families and Supporters, It's been a while since I've sent out an update but it's been an exciting year of growth for our Jiangxi Province Amity projects. There are more details below but first I wanted to encourage any of you wanting to make a year end charitable donation to consider our Amity orphanage projects. I believe the IRS bases the year on when you write/send your check (not when I receive it) so there’s still time! Donations should be made out to Altrusa Foundation (tax deductible since we are a 501(c)(3) organization) and mailed to: Altrusa Foundation Although the holiday season is pretty much over please be aware that we do have gift cards available. A donation to help support one of our projects would make a wonderful gift for a variety of occasions. Be sure to visit our website at www.altrusa.ws frequently to learn about new needs and for updates on what has been accomplished. Orphanages that have benefited from our assistance this year include:
Fuzhou (Linchuan) Now on to the update! This is a bit long so for those of you that would like to scroll down quickly to the area you're most interested in here's the list of topics in order presented:
Endowment Fund: Altrusa now has an China Oprhanage Endowment Fund established and donations of any amount to this are very much appreciated. I would love to see this fund grow. As our programs expand I often worry what will happen if donations fall off and we are no longer able to send the same level of support. How reassuring it would be to know that we have a steady income each year from our Endowment Fund that can be used to continue these programs. Please consider donating to this fund so that your donation can continue to help the children for years to come. You can also have your own named Endowment Fund in your name or your family's name or the name of a loved one. For this an initial donation of $3000 is needed and then the Fund most grow to $10,000 within five years through accumulated earnings and additional contributions. But our China Orphanage Endowment Fund is already established and can accept donations of any size. Individual Orphanage Funds: It was suggested that a group of families might be interested in establishing an endowment fund specifically for their child's orphanage. This would be a separate named fund so would require the initial $3000 to start but this could come from several different donations. If you would be interested in organizing donations to such a fund for your child's orphanage please let me know. Hugging Grannies: Our Hugging Granny program is steadily growing and we are in need of additional sponsors. This year we've increased from 45 to 52 Grannies and are looking for four more which would bring the total to 56 and a new Hugging Granny program was just recently started at Shanggao. Our Grannies are filling ever expanding roles. We still have many grannies that work with the infants and toddlers - giving extra love and attention and educating orphanage staff about child development. They are now also trying to teach standard precautions to decrease the spread of hepatitis and other infections. We have some Grannies working with the handicapped children such as those with cerebral palsy. These Grannies will do physical therapy and other exercises with them, sometimes using rehab equipment that we've purchased. The handicapped children that we have in foster care will come to the orphanage a few days a week to work with the Grannies and the Grannies also teach the foster families to do the exercises. Other grannies will help older children with their schoolwork, increasing the chances that they can be successful in school and not give up and drop out. Some of the grannies with a special education background teach those children that aren't able to attend school and we're even hoping to find a granny that can teach sign language to a young deaf orphan. We held our second annual Granny conference in Nanchang during April. A report of the conference with photos is available at www.altrusa.ws (just click on Granny conference). Topics taught included child development (including psychological needs and language development), rehabilitation for physical handicaps, and prevention of infectious diseases. There were hands on demonstrations and practice of the rehab exercises and time for the Grannies to share experiences and provide encouragement to each other. Letters of appreciation from six of our Granny sponsors were read to the Grannies who were very touched by them. Please consider a donation to help our Hugging Granny program, we really want to be able to continue the support for all of these grannies. No donation is too small. But if you'd like to sponsor a specific granny the cost is $544 per year. We do have several sponsors that sponsor a specific granny for half a year which is $272. Equipment: Another area of ongoing need is for equipment such as clothes washers and dryers and heaters/air conditioners. These are hard to raise funds for since you don't get a photo of "your" child like you do with foster care or school sponsorships but still very important. When you see orphanage workers spending their time to wash clothes and diapers by hand and hang them all out to dry you realize how critical it is to get them this equipment. The industrial sized washers and dryers that are requested are expensive and are still a current need. The health and comfort of the children is significantly improved with heaters and air conditioners, we've provided seven this year but more will be needed. We've also provided two incubators this year as well as rehab equipment, infant beds, clothing and wheelchairs, School Tuitions: Our school sponsorship program continues to grow. This year we'll have about 180 students compared to about 160 last year and the Shanggao, Ji’an and Ruijin orphanages joined our school sponsorship program this fall. We also have many more students this year in higher levels of education such as university, professional schools and vocational schools. This is very exciting and points to the success of our program. As more students get the primary education and encouragement they need (and fewer drop out) we get more students advancing. These orphans will be able to earn a living and live independently as adults! But these higher levels of education are much more expensive than kindergarten through middle school and a single sponsor is often not able to provide all the support needed. So we'd love to have donations designated for higher education which we can use to supplement a sponsor's donation. We really need to keep these kids in school until they are able to graduate! If you sponsored a schoolchild last year you should have received the year end report on your student by now. If not please contact Peggy at peggy@gurrad.com. She can also let you know if there are any children still in need of a sponsor. If you're interested in sponsoring a child at a specific orphanage you may want to let her know and she can make note of this and let you know when a child from that orphanage needs a sponsor. Most of the new children and changes in sponsors will be assigned in the fall but we do sometimes get some new ones for the second semester. Foster Care: Our foster care sponsorship program is also expanding, this year we've increased from 226 to 282 children in foster care! New orphanages added to the program include Ruijin, Yichun and Shanggao. With this number of children we need new sponsors frequently, so if there is no child in need when you inquire there will surely be one in need within a month or two. The cost for most of the children is $396 per year so if you're interested in sponsoring a child we'd love to have you send in your donation now. Then we'll assign the next child in need to you and let you know about the child. At many of the orphanages we've tried to focus on children with special needs and/or those that are older. These children are less likely to be adopted so a long term family is even more important for them. We do have several children at the Nanchang orphanage with more severe special needs (and the cost of living is higher in the large city) so the cost for these children is $588 per year due to the higher stipends paid to foster families. This is difficult for many potential sponsors to afford so if you would be able to sponsor a child at this higher cost please contact Becky Miklos at dalchinama@hotmail.com Sponsors receive a photo and brief update twice a year. Medical Needs: Amity has indicated that they will be sending me a list of new medical requests soon. So please check the website in the next couple weeks for a listing of these or consider a donation to "any medical need". Individual surgeries most often cost $259 to $800 so if you’d like to send a donation now in this range I can match it with an upcoming surgery once we have the list. Of course smaller donations to medical needs to be used “wherever most needed” are also much appreciated as are donations to our heart surgery fund. This year we provided heart surgery for three orphans and there are more children in need of this. Other surgeries provided this year include cleft lip and palate repairs, several orthopedic surgeries, hernia repairs and excision of hemangiomas. Other medical needs addressed include medical exams and also medications and hospitalizations for ongoing chronic conditions. Amity sends medical reports and "after" photos of these children once a year which we're anticipating will be in February or March. On their most recent visit to several Jiangxi orphanages Amity invited a physician, Dr. Chen, to accompany them. Dr. Chen examined many children who had had surgeries done and designed braces and casts for those with orthopedic needs. He advised orphanage staff and foster families on the proper care of the medical conditions and on proper exercises. He also examined children that the orphanages were requesting medical assistance for and gave recommendations on needed care. A more detailed report with requests for additional funds for the children will be coming soon. Visits by Amity: Amity staff make periodic visits to the orphanages to evaluate our programs and to make sure funds are being spent as intended. Their most recent report is from their visit in September and is at the website (see Field Visit Report). They visited again the second week in December and a report from this visit has just been received but is not yet up at the website. When they visit they meet with the grannies and give them further advice and instructions. They talk with the schoolchildren and encourage them in their studies. They visit the foster families, especially any families that are new since their last visit, and make sure they are up to Amity's expectations. In a few cases they have to make a recommendation that the child be moved to a new family. But if the family is a good one and the child is doing well there it's Amity's policy that the child remain in the same family unless they are adopted or the foster family is no longer able to continue fostering. Children with unmet medical needs are examined and treatment plans are discussed. Those children with recent surgeries or other treatment are also examined. Amity staff checks to make sure that equipment that was to be purchased with donations is present and being used appropriately. Matching Gifts and United Way: Many companies offer a matching gift program so please check to see if your employer does. We've had many donations doubled, and a few tripled, through these programs and the benefit to the children is huge. Altrusa is a 501(c)(3) organization so we do qualify for most of these programs. And donors have also been able to direct their United Way donations to us so this is worth checking into as well. Brochures? We are considering printing a brochure describing our programs so let me know if you would find this helpful. It would be something you could share with family and friends and perhaps to adoption groups, travel groups and other organizations. We send 100% of your donation on to Amity (or to a few other organizations when specifically requested by the donor), Altrusa does not keep any of it for administrative costs. But we do have a few donations that donors have indicated could be used for promotional materials and would be happy to receive more if you felt this would be a worthwhile endeavor. Volunteers: We are also exploring expanded volunteer opportunities. One would be researching grant opportunities and writing letters and applications for these. Another might be organizing and making available materials or "kits" for fundraising efforts by individuals or local groups such as coin boxes, garages sales, presentations to local groups, angel trees and other such projects. And if you have other ideas for how we might be able to use volunteers to expand our support or would like to volunteer for any of these efforts please let me know. With so many children and orphanages benefiting from our assistance I hope you’ve learned about a project that touches your heart – we would love to have your support in helping these children that are still waiting for a home of their own. Information about making a donation is included at the beginning of this newsletter. And if you have other ideas and suggestions we’d love to hear from you. Thank you to each of you that have already given your support, it has been very much appreciated. I hope you are as thrilled with what we’ve done so far as I am! With much appreciation, Peggy Gurrad
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