Short Term Volunteer Project with International China Concern

April 3 – 17^th

Short term team with International China Concern

Heng Yang Welfare Centre

None of us really knew what to expect from our short term team project at the orphanage in Heng Yang. We just knew that we would be working together with a team of 26 people from many different nations all having traveled here to this very un-touristy spot of China to work with about 100 physically and or mentally disabled children and some adults. We knew that it was to be our job to play with them and love them; these residents whose lives had been utterly starved of not only play and love, but also some of their more basic needs such as food and adequate physical care, until a year ago when ICC took over the management of their home. Our first tour of the Centre was sobering. The conditions seem appalling by western standard, especially the boys’ quarters. Peeling paint on bare concrete walls and floors. Very cramped quarters. A smelly trench in the ground for a toilet. Very cramped quarters with way too many children in small rooms. No toys. Old, derelict wheelchairs. Yet, we found out, this was a HUGE improvement to what the conditions were like a year ago when ICC was invited by the Heng Yang government to take over management of the place. The girls had been moved out of the quarters now only occupied by the boys and were in newly renovated flats up the hill. The behaviour of the girls and the boys reportedly improved dramatically once this separation occurred. All the children now receive adequate, even abundant, food and eat in mannerly fashion seated around tables rather than eating out of buckets or off the dirt floor in a free-for-all race of whoever can get to the food the fastest . People on our team who had seen the centre a year ago said that they couldn’t believe the difference. Six full time staff members of ICC, a much increased number of carers, teams of volunteers, and donations of financial resources by people from all over the world have given the children hope and opportunities that would have been impossible 2 years ago. God’s plans for these children are being realized and we were so privileged to witness that and to be part of that for a short two weeks. Out of respect for the wishes of the Welfare Centre we unfortunately can not share pictures of these delightful children with you, but would like to introduce a few of those that captured our hearts.

Steffi’s report

Working in the Heng Yang Welfare Center was a real blessing to my heart. The babies I worked with were little bundles of joy just waiting to be cuddled and loved. Getting a giggle out of a baby who usually never smiled or making eye contact with some of the babies was a challenge but was not impossible. “For nothing is impossible with God.” I worked in a room with 7 babies. The room was about 8 feet by 10 feet and the cribs were all squished together. I worked in there with one other lady and we were definitely on good terms with the carers, all six of them. I loved all of the babies in the room, but two are described down below;

Y.Y. is an 11 month old dwarf and is one of the cutest babies in the world. (I have quite a few favourite babies.) She has a tiny, tiny body the size a 2 month old baby and she has a head a big as a 10 month old baby. Floppy arms and legs made her difficult to carry. The challenge of keeping her happy was not really a problem. She never complained and never smiled and was always so serious. I worked with her for 9 days straight cuddling and playing with her. On the last day she gave me the most fabulous moment out of all the 9 days I worked with her. A tremendously loud laugh was what burst out of her 30 minutes before I left. I am glad that I got a happy face from her to remember her by.

Y. M. is one year old. She probably has autism and never makes eye contact. Walking in her walker was no problem for her but without that support she could not stand. After 2 days of holding onto her while walking about, she got the hang of it and gained a little balance. By the fourth day she could stand on her own and did a little bit of tipsy walking by herself. A couple days after that she found out that is was fun to kick a little ball around while walking. Getting a smile out of her was a little hard, but once in a while she would smile briefly when I picked her up. I will remember her for her squirminess.

Karsten’s report

I really loved working with the younger boys. All of them are special in God’s eye and all of them are different. I will mention two of my favorite boys that I worked with.

To begin with there is a guy in a wheelchair and we all call him Jackie Chan. I have no idea why but everybody calls him that because we don’t know his real name. He is very quiet and it is sometimes hard to find out what he wants to play with. He points to very small little things that are on the floor that nobody else would care about. He wants me to pick them up for him so that he can put them in his pocket. Sometimes I will give him the wrong thing and he will throw it somewhere else and persists until I give him the right thing. I also really enjoyed taking him on walks in his wheelchair and we can actually communicate quite well despite our language barriers. He will point his finger in the direction he wants to go or also will wheel his chair in the direction he wants to go. I have found out that he likes the chickens that are up the hill where we go for our daily walk. I just loved pushing the kids in their wheelchairs or in there strollers. I will never forget that.

I also really like this other no named kid but I call him Numbers Boy because he loves writing numbers down on paper. He will write numbers from one to ten or sometimes he will write just the number two on one whole piece of paper or just the number 3 on one whole piece of paper. Every time he has done one number he will show me and he will be very happy. He also is the enemy because he will go and terrorizes the older boys’ room and also bothers Dad and his team. But I will never forget his smile and his laugh.

Barb’s experience

It’s my opinion that I had the best group to work with; the ‘older girls’, meaning those between the ages of 10 and 35. Our group was housed in two flats next to the flat of ‘young girls’, ages 6 to 10, and so our groups flowed and intermingled with each other throughout the day. The weather was nice enough to set up craft tables outside and we spent the entire day outside cutting, pasting, gluing, playing with pegboards, blowing bubbles, making fancy hairdos (the more hair accessories, the better!), putting on nail polish, singing songs, or playing games. As girls do all over the globe, these girls had an endless appetite and energy for such activities. The more activities, the better!

Over the 2 weeks that we were at the Center, I was privileged to get to know some of the girls quite well and humbled to see the way they interacted with one another. Certainly, we did have daily skirmishes and bursts of emotions (?PMS) between them, but I also witnessed caring and acceptance that often brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. One day I was feeding a young girl (she never spoke but had the sweetest smile) who couldn’t feed herself because of a bandaged hand. Next to this girl another young lady with severe CP was feeding herself laboriously and somewhat messily. My little friend noticed that the young lady beside her was trying to spit out a fishbone but the fishbone was stuck on her lip. Without any fuss my little charge reached over with her good hand and calmly picked the bone from her neighbor’s lips, shook it off to the ground and returned her gaze to me for further help in eating herself. For these girls helping each other in the very basics of living life is just a normal part of the day. Another time, I witnessed one of the teen girls with severe mental challenges expertly changing the diaper of a 6 year old girl with Down’s syndrome. She smiled proudly as she saw my ‘thumbs up’ to her but again it really was just a normal part of the day.

One of the best days we spent with the girls was the day we took them on an outing by hired bus to a city park. Their excitement on the day before when we told them was so great I couldn’t tell if some of them were crying or laughing. These girls get probably a maximum of 2 outings a year and what a special event it is for them! They were dressed and ready to go when we picked them up at 9:00 am, their hair adorned with many colorful barrettes and ribbons. With much excitement and effort we boarded the bus and departed. Then about 200 meters down the road, one worker’s cell phone rang; we had forgotten one of the girls! Our bus slowly backed up the narrow dirt road, and there was great cheering when the poor girl boarded. She collapsed on her seat and immediately burst into tears of relief. Post traumatic stress syndrome! All went well after that emotional start and we had a fabulous day with rides and snacks and lots of passerby stopping to stare. A group of westerners together with a group of handicapped kids – what a spectacle for the citizens of Heng Yang to rarely get to see either. We were touched at the many positive remarks we received, however. One lady on crutches even gave us a 100 Yuen donation for the children, saying with tears in her eyes, how wonderful it was to see these children having a good time. The disabled in China have traditionally been hidden away and disposed of. It is our hope that acceptance and caring is happening even here. Certainly, it has increased greatly in me. I feel that it is I who has learnt the best lessons.

David’s Experience

YHL was a tremendous mess when we first met – his face was covered all over with self-inflicted scratches. As was explained to me by Leisel the ICC volunteer working with the older boys, this was one of his ways of getting attention along with other negative activities such as pulling down his pants and urinating on the floor of their complex. It seems any attention whether positive or negative would do for him. Somehow out of the team of 4 (Martyn, Victoria, and Ruth of the Chapple family and myself) assigned to working with the older boys, I ended up spending the most time with YHL. The first couple of days at the orphanage was tremendously difficult for me as I spent most the days chasing after YHL to either shoo him towards the bathroom or to stop him from picking his facial scars. This seemed to please him, as evidenced by the smile on his face, as he got more attention than he was used to.

My fortunes with YHL changed for the better when I spoke with Stuart, a behavioral specialist with disabled children who just happened to be in from the UK to instruct the ICC staff on behavioral management of the children. He explained that I needed to stop reinforcing YHL’s negative behavior by ignoring them even if they were difficult to ignore. Over the next few days, I turned away from YHL whenever he started to pick the scabs on his face or when he started to pull down his pants. He quickly learned that these behaviors did not get him any more attention and these two negative behaviors slowly waned. Instead, I focused on his positive traits and commended him on them. He slowly learned that this provided him with more attention and his behavior changed for the better. His facial scabs slowly healed over the next 2 weeks and his behavior with me and with others improved to the point that he voluntarily helped another boy to look for lost chess pieces that were scattered all over the tall grass by another boy. What a blessing for me to have witness this miraculous change in just 2 weeks time. The lesson for me is that I need to reinforce the positive behaviors of others more and to sometimes ignore negative behavior if I am to positively influence others.

Another lesson for me is that I cannot judge a book by its cover. Many of the boys are severely physically disabled with CP or other birth defects. I learned that the minds of some of these boys were more than capable; it is only their physical body that is handicapped. For example, CS who has severe CP ambled up to me on the second day that we were there with 2 pencils and paper in hand. The paper had 4 lines on it segmenting the page into 9 boxes. He with great difficulty drew a circle in the middle box and then handed me one of his 2 pencils. At first, I did not comprehend what he was trying to convey but I soon learned that he wanted to play X’s and O’s with me. I also learned that he was a master at it and I better have my wits about me. His strategies were excellent and he won his share of games. Another example is FL who is in his twenties and was born with almost no legs. He spends most of his days squatting or sitting in the outdoor square with others in his age group. The ICC staff is training him to be their maintenance and repair person. FL and I repaired several wheelchairs while we were there. He quickly learned how to patch tire tubes and to change over flat tires on the wheelchairs. I learned that FL is very proud, very independent and very spirited despite his disabilities. He always wanted to do things on his own after he had observed once on how it should be done.

Before arriving in Heng Yang, my expectations were to help and assist others less fortunate than myself. I left having learned much about myself and about the power of the human spirit. I also learned from these kids and young adults on how to love one another despite differences. I observe how they have friends (and yes even enemies) just like we do and how despite their shortcomings, they help each other out the best that they can. Those who can walk push others in wheelchairs; those who can speak, speak for those who cannot; those who are more capable help those who are less capable; those who have more food give to those who have less. Observing these behaviors made me realize how self-centered we can be sometimes. I hope I can learn to be as generous and loving as some of these lovely children and young adults.