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Enriching the Lives of Orphaned Children
LWB's Nutrition and Orphanage Assistance Programs
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| Volume 7, Issue 10 | October 2011 |
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October's newsletter features LWB's Nutrition and Orphanage Assistance Programs. LWB's Nutrition program provides high quality formula and nutritional assistance to children residing in orphanages throughout China, giving the gifts of health, contentment, and a full tummy. LWB's Orphanage Assistance program provides essential supplies and services to children residing in orphanages throughout China, giving the gifts of safety, comfort and enrichment of life.
Click the link below to download the complete newsletter in convenient .pdf format. You'll find the stories in this email plus these features and stories:
- Can You Come and Play? (featuring LWB's Playroom Projects)
- Peltier Family Giving (a feature article by LWB's Tara Peltier)
- Pingliang Training (LWB provides physical therapy training for Pingliang's orphanage)
- Kudos (stories from our special donors, including North Harbor Community Church)
- Welcome Home! (newly adopted LWB children)
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Shoe Travels
Recently an LWB volunteer was traveling to China and had some shoes for the children that she didn't have room to take. She let us know and we found a courier to get the shoes to Guangzhou. Alexa, our China Orphanage Assistance Program Director, received the shoes and sent them to the Yugan, Jiangxi, orphanage, along with some diapers made possible by a donor's gift.
We truly appreciate the cooperation of our volunteers, our China staff, and our supporters to help meet the needs of children through LWB's Orphanage Assistance program.
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Can You Come
and Play?
LWB's Nutrition and Orphanage Assistance Programs provide a wide range of items and services for children in orphanages throughout China. We have projects to provide funds for extra aunties and medical staff at orphanages. We have projects providing formula on a quarterly basis to assist with the nutritional needs of children in several orphanages. Additionally we have special projects which allow individuals to make tangible gifts to specific orphanages. Often adoptive parents will want to "give back" something to their child's orphanage in appreciation for their child's care and to help the children remaining. We are glad that these projects help children waiting for families, as well as those children who may never receive the opportunity of being adopted.
We have our China staff contact the orphanages to see what they most need for the children in their care. Often it is clothing or diapers. Other gifts include formula, shoes, coats, cleft and regular bottles, blankets, towels, etc. Over the past year we have had several special projects providing toys and playrooms for children in orphanages. Bright, colorful mats, balls, and toys are purchased to give the children the opportunity of play. Play mats provide safe play areas so the children don't have to play on the hard floor. Physical therapy toys and items have been provided for children with special PT needs.
A recent playroom project was completed for the Suixi, Guangdong, orphanage. Mats, benches, kitchen play sets, Cozy Coupe cars, PT balls, construction blocks, tables and chairs, puzzles, food play sets, rocking horses, xylophones, tricycles, wooden cars, and more were purchased so that the children at this orphanage can play like children everywhere.
Thank you to all of the supporters of our nutrition and orphanage assistance program for making these projects possible and for making the lives of children in the orphanages brighter!
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LWB on YouTube
 | | Feeding of Babies with Clefts |
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Gifts of Warmth and Comfort
by Amy Eldridge, Executive Director
Recently I opened a report from the Shantou orphanage, where two of my children lived in China, and saw a photo of a little baby boy wearing an Oklahoma State t-shirt. I remembered giving that shirt to my son TJ when he was waiting to join our family, and it was bittersweet to see another little boy wearing it over five years later. It was a reminder to me of how long orphanages use the equipment and clothing for the babies in their care. This month's newsletter focuses on LWB's Orphanage Assistance program, which provides essential supplies to children who often live with so little. I think many people feel like when they donate $10 to buy a coat that they are giving a gift to one child in need. The reality is that, just like the shirt I gave to the orphanage so long ago, one coat will most likely be worn by child after child, bringing much needed warmth for many years.
We are so grateful to all of the donors who help support our orphanage assistance program. So far this year we have helped 69 orphanages with equipment requests, such as new wheelchairs, blankets, play equipment, children's shoes, and baby bottles. One of the items frequently needed by orphanages is new cribs. Because LWB often helps in very rural locations, we visit many orphanages whose cribs have been mended with pieces of wood or rope or which are so old that the issue of lead paint is very real. We have had so many requests for new cribs recently, from orphanages who have received very little outside help in the past, that our crib fund balance is now at zero, while the requests keep coming. I would ask as you get into your own comfy bed tonight to consider making a gift to allow an orphaned child the security that comes from having a safe place to sleep. With a $100 gift you can know you provided an orphanage with a new crib that will hold many precious babies in the years to come. And if you can only give a smaller amount, we have seen over and over the power of many smaller donations to accomplish big things.
Donate to Cribs for Kids Fund
For many of the supplies we provide to orphanages throughout China, the main purpose is to provide warmth and comfort to children physically.
I am always hoping and praying, however, that through these essential gifts sent with so much love - we are providing warmth and comfort to their hearts as well.
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Pingliang Training: A Wonderful Success!
One of our China program directors recently received a call from the director of the Pingliang orphanage. LWB had provided physical therapy training for two of their nannies last year. The director reported they are kept busy every day helping children with cerebral palsy in the orphanage, as well as children from local families. What wonderful news!
 The director also said she is encouraged to send more staff for the training and would like to send one doctor and one therapist to receive occupational and exercise training. Right now there are 32 children in the orphanage and six local children who receive therapy daily! The director asked if LWB could sponsor the training fee, which is about $500 per person. If you would be interested in helping with this worthwhile project, we would welcome your support.
Donate to Pingliang Physical Therapy Training
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Allison's Sewing Project
We have met some very loving, giving, and caring individuals in our work with LWB's Orphanage Assistance Program and would like to tell you about one of those people. Her name is Allison, and she is 12 years old. Allison has a big heart and cares about helping orphaned children in this world. She also loves to sew. Allison has combined these passions into a project called "Bethany's Dress," named after the baby sister her family is adopting from China, to help orphaned children.
Allison has her own website, where she shares:
WOW! I love to sew and I am having a great time. I keep
thinking about all the babies we can help! I am currently
selling dresses to raise money for cleft lip/palate bottles.
Do you know that many orphans with cleft lip/palate cannot
eat and live just because they do not have the right bottles?
Some die or cannot be placed for adoption because they are malnourished or too weak. My goal is to earn $138 to buy
75 bottles to donate to China orphanages.
A few months ago Allison's mother contacted LWB about getting cleft bottles for the Maonan, Guangdong, orphanage. They have some friends who had adopted a baby with cleft palate from this orphanage. Since we already had some cleft bottles in China that were available to send to Maonan, we were also able to use Allison's donation to send clothing to the orphanage as well.
Way to go, Allison! We hope you will keep on sewing dresses and helping children!
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North Harbor Community Church Kids
The children who attend the North Harbor Church in Topsham, Maine, spent the summer earning money to help the babies at the Henan Cleft Healing Home.
The children did chores at home to earn money and at the end of the summer they had collectively raised $139. They also listened to a presentation and saw photos of some of the babies at the HCHH taken by a family from the church who had visited the home in May. The children had many questions about the babies and they prayed for the babies to get strong enough for their surgeries.
In honor of the children's hard work over the summer, the adults of North Harbor Church matched their offering. In all, $398 was raised for the Henan Cleft Healing Home.
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Pingliang Training: A Wonderful Success!
One of our China program directors recently received a call from the director of the Pingliang orphanage. LWB had provided physical therapy training for two of their nannies last year. The director reported they are kept busy every day helping children with cerebral palsy in the orphanage, as well as children from local families. What wonderful news!
The director also said she is encouraged to send more staff for the training and would like to send one doctor and one therapist to receive occupational and exercise training. Right now there are 32 children in the orphanage and six local children who receive therapy daily! The director asked if LWB could sponsor the training fee, which is about $500 per person. If you would be interested in helping with this worthwhile project, we would welcome your support.
Donate to Pingliang Physical Therapy Training
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Marathons and More... LWB is excited to have several races lined up in the coming months to benefit the children we serve. Whether walking or running, this is the perfect way to get some exercise and help make a difference in a child's life at the same time. A few of the races are highlighted below. If you live near Cary, North Carolina, consider walking in the 5K Walk for Hope and Healing on October 16th at Koka Booth Ampitheatre. Participants who raise $100 will receive our new TeamLWB t-shirt.
The end of October will find a very dedicated group of runners participating in the Marine Corps Marathon. Their goal was to raise $25,000, and they are ALMOST there. We would love to see you in Washington, D.C., to cheer them on.
 November will find TeamLWB running in the Philadelphia Half Marathon in support of our education program for Huainan foster care children.
Looking forward to next year, in February, TeamLWB participants will be running in the LiveStrong Austin Marathon or Half Marathon to benefit our medical and healing homes programs.
These are just a few of the upcoming events. Please visit our website to see additional events where our supporters are running or walking to raise money and awareness for LWB and the children we help. We hope you will join them or make a donation in support of their efforts.
If you are planning to participate in a race, why not raise some money at the same time? It certainly makes training more meaningful, and it is easy to get a website set up and fundraising support. Contact us for more information.
These group races make such a difference to the programs they benefit, providing much needed funds. We are in need of events to benefit our foster care and orphanage assistance programs.
If you are interested in coordinating an event for one of these programs, please email us for more information.
Thank you, Team LWB!
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Thank you for bringing hope to orphaned children in China!
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