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Reported
by the Amity Foundation Social Welfare Division Under the support of Altrusa, USA, the Amity Foundation has 48 Hugging Grannies working diligently in 12 orphanages in Jiangxi Province and Fuzhou Orphanage in Fujian Province at present. We saw their unselfish contribution with our own eyes and felt their love and affection for the children both in our visit and in their on-the-job reports. It was because of them that the children improved physically through the daily rehabilitation excises to meet their special needs. And more importantly, it was because of them that the children changed a lot in mind and spirit.
Helping Improve the Children’s Health and Development There are 12 Amity Grannies working in Nanchang Orphanage. Because of the different needs of the children, the Amity Grannies are divided into three groups: the schooling coach group, kindergarten group, and rehabilitation group. Each group has a respective key person with experience in teaching, kindergarten education or medical work to lead the other Grannies to provide practical help to the children with different needs. Class 7 of kindergarten age children is a special one, composed of children with mental retardation or Hepatitis B. The Amity Grannies treat them just as their own children. Besides helping them in daily care needs such as washing faces and clothing, they teach them to dance and draw hand-by-hand. With the consistent efforts of the Amity Grannies, the children have developed remarkably and have even became able to make a performance for the guests coming to visit them on Children’s Day. We saw the same things during our trip there. This is an absolute reflection of the patience and determination of the Amity Grannies. We do see hope for these children who were once considered “hopeless”.
Effective Rehabilitation Rehabilitation is an important part of an Amity Granny’s work. Each Amity Granny has appointed children for daily rehabilitation. They help these children in their development both physically and mentally by hugging them, teasing them, touching them, and inspiring them as much as possible. For those children with cerebral palsy, they train them to do physical exercises and give them massage at certain times every day to release their muscles and joints. CM is a child in Jiujiang Orphanage with severe CP which caused very poor function of all the limbs and few response to any sound. Grandma Huang Yindi has been persistent about doing daily rehab exercises with CM. She began by helping the child lie on a mattress, reach out and fold her limbs to stretch and strengthen the muscles. Later she began training her to stand and crawl. Exercising along with the gentle voice of the Granny singing CM’s favorite songs, the child is improving day after day. She is now not only able to stand holding the bars, but also able to make a few steps with assistance of the Granny. Granny Huang fell into tears with excitement at sight of this. It is the reward for the love of the Amity Grannies, and it is the fruit of their labor.
Improving Skills and Qualifications of the Amity Grannies To ensure that the orphans with special needs can receive more effective rehabilitation and develop in a better way, the Amity Foundation organized a training course for the Amity Grannies on the topics of Rehabilitation for the Children with Special Needs and Infectious Diseases Prevention at Nanchang Orphanage in April of 2003. The training was very helpful and practical for the Amity Grannies. They initiated discussion and practice of the content of this training regarding their daily work, and also brought it back to the orphanage to go on training the other Amity Grannies and the staff there. They transmitted the knowledge into their daily practice, which makes them more professional in taking care of the children. It is not only an improvement of the Grannies’ qualification, but also a good motivation for them, and their work inspires the other caretakers around them. This is very positive for both the children in the orphanages and the orphanages themselves. The work of the Amity Grannies includes more besides what is mentioned above. Their function in helping the children, the orphanage, or even the society is also not limited to what can be seen. The Amity Grannies are delivering their love with their work every day and inspiring every one of us.
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