China Humanitarian Aid

Wasatch International Adoptions China Orphan Project

April, 2005.

Staff member, Kathy Junk was able to travel to Beijing China as a representative of Wasatch International Adoptions to work on a special orphanage project. While in China Kathy was able to enlist the help of her daughter Jessica and a group of young girls who were teaching English at a private school in Kunming, China. Since February of 2006, this young group of 14 girls, who have paid their own way to China have been volunteering their time to teach English to young children through the International Language Program out of Provo, Utah and will continue to do so until the middle of June. http://www.ilp.org

They were willing to take their vacation time to fly up to Beijing where Kathy, her good friend RuthAnn Stagg (who paid her own way to China as well for the experience of helping in an orphanage), and three other mothers, a sister and a grandmother to the girls met to “go to work”.

Kathy and RuthAnn initially traveled to Kunming to observe the ILP girls in their volunteer work with the children. At that time the girls helped put together a gift bag for more than 85 children that reside at the orphanage. RuthAnn donated more than 85 beanie babies that she had been saving for over ten years. When she heard about our project, she quickly suggested that these would make a treasured gift for the needy children and filled an entire suitcase with them and other donations of candy for the children.

Debby Allred, a mother of one of the ILP girls who was meeting us in Beijing, received an urgent call from Kathy in Kunming that it turned out there were many boys at the orphanage and we had only brought infant girl clothing. The night before Debby’s flight left, she rushed out collecting another suitcase full of boy clothing and purchased poster paints, brushes and markers, also a last minute request from the orphanage. The infant girl clothing did not go to waste and you will read about where that donation went later in this article.

The orphanage or foster home for children hoping for a chance at international adoption is called the Langfang Children’s Village. The funding for this orphanage is through The Philip Hayden Foundation which was established for the purpose of helping China’s orphaned and special needs children.

“PHF was named after Philip Hayden, an American teacher who went to China in 1991 and began volunteering his spare time and efforts to help China's orphans. Philip Hayden's love for China's orphans had a big impact on his teammates in China, Tim and Pam Baker, who joined him in volunteering in orphanages. The Bakers soon took in their first orphaned baby, Esther, who they later adopted. Phil had a special love for Esther and was Tim’s assistant and partner in reaching out to the people of China.
Phil died unexpectedly at the young age of 28 as a result of a rare heart defect. Phil’s death and the adoption of Esther had a profound impact on the Bakers. They couldn’t help thinking about the orphans who slept to the right and left of Esther. They were still in the orphanage. The Bakers could not adopt them all, but they nonetheless wanted to help them as Phil had. This led them to establish the foundation in his memory in 1995. “ http://www.philiphayden.org

Kathy and the volunteers took the 1 ½ hour drive to the Lang Fang outside of Beijing. When we first arrived we were greeted by Jeff Owens, the hospitality director. Another large group of students learning Chinese arrived at the same time and so initially it was a bit chaotic but we were able to go inside one of the children’s homes and spend time with some of the children. We enjoyed singing songs, including teaching them the favorite of the ILP girls, “I’m a Nut” and “Eensy Weensy Spider” and they in turn sang some favorite songs about Jesus. Most of the children were excited to join in but one little girl sat with her hands behind her back which we later found were deformed and she did not want to be involved in the “finger play” because she was embarrassed of her hands. We were able to see where the children slept and one beautiful older boy showed us his bed where above it were two pictures of his “new parents” that were in the process of adopting him. “Mama and Papa” he would say proudly in English as he pointed to their photos. There were a few tears in the room at that moment for sure!

We were fortunate to meet Tim Baker, the founder of the Philip Hayden Foundation and he spent a lot of time with us at lunch and then showing us around the new project which is a beautiful new building that will be able to house volunteers, a new office and many, many more children with medical needs. Wasatch donated $900 towards items to help the orphanage as well as for the landscaping of that new building.

The day was moving along and we were anxiously awaiting to be “put to work”. Sure enough they had a large, dirty project for us. Outside on of the children’s homes, was an old play yard with strollers, swings, bikes, trikes, and monkey bars etc. that had become caked in dirt from the recent sand storms that had come from the Sahara and are common in April as well as mostly being unused during the winter. We only had one hose and a leaky bucket with a few rags but boy did everyone work. We scrubbed the porch, scrubbed all the toys and strollers, picked up garbage, threw away old unused items and generally made the yard look good and the toys clean and usable. We were all filthy put took time to pose for a list farewell in the backyard with our Wasatch International Adoption China Project Poster.

It was the end of a very long and tiring day, but not a single girl, mother or grandmother complained of a wasted vacation day and all of us heartily agreed how good it felt to be able to do something for such a special place.

Earlier, we mentioned the suitcase full of infant girl clothes donated by friends and family of Wasatch International Adoptions. We wanted them to go to good use and thanks to Amber Christensen, one of the ILP girls, we found a much needed location. Through some detective work on her part, she heard of a single lady named Amanda de Lange who had just been given approval through the Chinese government to open a foster home for children also with medical needs like those at Langfang Children’s Village. This woman lived in X’ian and was caring for 12 babies from two months to 14 months—most all of them girls!! Amber volunteered to take the clothes up to Amanda and will be dropping them in Xian on way home from China in just a few weeks. To read more about Amanda deLange and her foster home as well as how you can help, please go to her blog page at http://starfish.blogsource.com/

Kathy is just so amazed at the love and selflessness of so many people that helped with this project including 14 young girls who were already giving of their time daily to teach Chinese children English so they will have a chance at a better job in their own country. Kathy Junk is so grateful for Wasatch International Adoptions and their assistance in making this wonderful volunteer opportunity an amazing experience of her lifetime!