We are faced with a crisis! Our Foster Care Centers in Changchun and Siping had been supported by China adoption fees. However, many of you may know that last spring we went to bat for an African-American parent that had received pre-approval by the CCAA to adopt a special needs child and then was denied the child when the CCAA saw her photo and realized she was African-American. We fought with her against the CCAA for her right to adopt the child and we won. She now has her daughter. We did the right thing by standing up for her human rights but the price we paid was the loss of our adoption program in China.
The result is that we no longer have a source of funding for the Centers. Our hope was that enough people would feel moved to help these children so that we would be able to support the Centers through donations and other fund raisers but this has simply not been the case. We had hoped that the hundreds of families that we had helped adopt special needs children over the last 10 years would have felt the desire to help some of those special needs children that remain in China...but this has not happened. We have not even come close to the number of supporters we need to maintain these Centers.
These Centers are not simply another place for these children to live; much like an orphanage. The children come to us because they are medically fragile and their orphanages cannot care for them with their special needs.
They would have died in the orphanages had these Centers not been open. Our best recent example of this is Zhang Qi. I know we have talked a lot about him in our newsletters but I want you to understand that he would have died in the orphanage if not for the care he received at the Siping Center.
Take a look at the video we have of him by clicking on Zhang Qi Video. It is just one minute long, it won't take much of your time,but it illustrates what your donations will do for a child.
The nannies who work in these Centers put in long days and nights caring for these children. They do the hard work of feeding, changing diapers, comforting them and making their lives more bearable. We only have to do what should be the easy part, provide them the resources to do this.
We are sorry to say that we have come to the point where we will have to close the Changchun Center if we do not have adequate support by March 1. We simply cannot continue to borrow money to support these Centers if we do not receive your help. We are heartbroken at the thought of closing the Center in Changchun. Knowing the fate of the children who will have nowhere to go for the care they so desperately need is more than we can bear. But we cannot continue without the funding, and the funding is up to you.
It is simple to make a donation. Just go to the
"Children in China" page of our web site
Bringing Hope To Children , click on the name of the child you wish to sponsor to see more about the child and then click on the "Donate" button.
Cheryl and I have worked with refugee resettlement, adoptions, raised money for families to adopt and for children to have surgeries. It has been very fulfilling and brought great joy to our lives. We hope you can join us and experience the joy we have had helping these children.
Dick and Cheryl Graham
IAAP
423-886-6986
