On October 16-20, 2005 we sponsored the fourth annual Amity Hugging Granny Conference.  

Forty-six Amity Grannies from various orphanages in the Jiangxi and other provinces attended  the educational conference in Jiujiang this year.
   
 

34 Hugging Granny volunteers from 12 orphanages attended. There were 5 from Jiujiang, the first 5 from Nanchang, 2 from Shanggao, 1 from Fuzhou, 2 from Yingtan, 2 from Xinyu, 2 from Guixi, 2 from Yichun, 2 from Ruijin, 4 from Ganzhou, 3 from Ji'an, as well as 2 nurses and 2 Grandmas from Shangrao.

Director Wu An An, Xie Ying and Zhou Bo from Amity Foundation headquarters participated, as well as Jiujiang Social Welfare Institute Director Yu, Wu Jie. Presenters this year included Dr.Hong Bihua (chief physician in charge of our Amity JiangXi orphanage efforts) and Ms. Zheng Ming (an Amity Hugging Granny from the orphanage in Nanjing).
   
 

Amity Director Wu An An, who has supported this project for a number of years now, introduced the work and goals of the Amity Foundation.

In addition, she explained the purpose of the Amity Grandmas Project.
   
 

Five Amity Grandmas from Nanchang, who have been working for the Jiangxi Amity Grandma Project since it began, were invited to share their experiences working on the project. With heartfelt emotion, they said that being an Amity Grandma has been one of the most important experiences of their life. 
   
  The Amity Grandma Project has not only given the children a chance to live a better life, but has also enriched the lives of the senior people as well. 

We really appreciate the work of the Nanchang Amity Grandmas. 

   
  It is because of them that many children with disabilities survived and had the chance to go to foster families and eventually become adopted. They are great. They have donated their care and most importantly - their love. Their words also encouraged more discussion among the participants at the conference. 

The conference not only gave the Amity Grandmas a chance to discuss and learn from each other, it also provided them with a platform to further promote the Amity Grandmas Project and to make improvements on it. Each Amity Grandma talked about her personal experiences and what she has gained or learned from working on the project.

Director Yu from Jiujiang SWI, as a representative of the orphanage, discussed how the Amity Grandma Project has played a good role in the orphanage.

In coordinating this year’s conference, we collected a total of 13 articles written by Amity Grandmas which discuss their personal experiences. We chose 4 Grandmas to present their articles and experiences to the rest of the group for discussion.
   
 

We invited Dr. Hong Bihua to make a presentation on the fundamental knowledge necessary for preventing infectious diseases. Zheng Ming also conducted a training on rehabilitation for children with cerebral palsy. 

Based on the success of last year’s conference, we divided this year’s training into two parts. Dr.Hong, an experienced pediatrician, shared her knowledge of normal child development and prevention of diseases with the rest of the group. 
   
  Zhang Ming, with her many years of experience working with children with cerebral palsy and helping them through physical therapy, was invited back this year to give further training. Participants felt both presentations were practical and vivid. Many Amity Grandmas applied for the rehabilitation equipments so as to do the rehabilitation exercises for the children in special needs.
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