Here is a brief update on Alliance For Children Foundation's ongoing work. We invite and appreciate your support to sustain these important programs.
CHINA
The Foundation continues to support our Sunbeam Villages in Laibin and Yulin China. These villages provide children with family-like nurturing care as opposed to institutional life. Over the past 10 years, Alliance for Children Foundation’s Sunbeam Village model has provided care for over 300 children and found adoptive families for 200 orphans. Lin Ke'en and Lin Caillian are young girls who live in the Ciccolo Sunbeam Village. The Foundation was able to provide both girls with needed operations to improve their quality of life. Lin Ke’en had an open heart surgery, and Lin Cailian had an intricate surgery to remove a tumor from her lower back. Both girls are doing very well thanks to the care they are receiving in their Sunbeam Village families. Also, three other children received surgeries to repair a cleft palate. Our goal this year is to purchase rehabilitation equipment. The cost of the equipment is $10,000. Within the next few years, our goal is to complete a rehabilitation center. The cost of the center is $30,000. The cost to maintain each Sunbeam Village is $35,000 per year. The cost of providing a special needs child with an adult to care and nurture them is $500 per year or $42 per month.
In Bobai, AFCF established a foster care program for orphaned children. Bobai is a very poor city in China, so poverty stricken they are unable to maintain an orphanage. Funds are needed to provide the foster care, food, clothing and medical care for the 28 children in our foster care program. It costs approximately $28,000 per year or $1,000 per child per year to maintain this foster care program. Every dollar goes a long way to make a difference in the life of a child.
U.S.A.
The Foundation is seeking support for our Family Fund which will subsidize adoption fees for families who might not otherwise be able to afford to adopt and are selecting to adopt children both international and domestic, who are harder to place due to their age or special needs.
The Alliance for Children adoption agency has added a domestic program in response to repeated requests from families who need help in making an adoption plan. Most of these individuals are living below the poverty level and struggling to meet basic needs. The Agency seeks to stabilize the clients, making certain they are safe, have food, shelter, medical care and counseling services. We feel this is an important service because a stable family is the key to a child’s well-being and good health.
RUSSIA
Foundation staff visited Russia this past July 2011 for the opening of our second playground built with a grant from Procter & Gamble. The playground is at the St. Petersburg orphanage and intended primarily for younger children with special needs. We believe that playgrounds fuel imaginations, develop strong gross motor skills and foster socializing. By the end of this year, a third playground will be completed with a donation from an Alliance for Children adoptive parent. The fourth playground will be completed in 2012 with the donation of a Boston marathon runner and Alliance for Children adoptive parent. The Foundation would like to build more playgrounds in Russia. The cost of the equipment and installation of a playground is $25,000. An orphanage in Moscow requested support to install 1-2 therapeutic, indoor pools to assist with physical therapy for special needs children. The cost of each pool is $10,000.
COLOMBIA
The Foundation continues to contribute to the Preschool Program and Nutrition Program at CRAN’s children’s home. Malnutrition is a major health problem for poor children in Colombia. It costs approximately $1,000 to provide nutrition and education for one child for one year living at CRAN.
VIETNAM
The An Hoa Social Caring Center in central Vietnam runs a comprehensive day program for 20 children with special needs. The program makes a tangible difference in the everyday lives of children ages 6 years old to 16 years old who struggle with autism, mental retardation, Down’s syndrome and a host of physical disabilities and medical problems. With a modest budget of $18,000, the program fills an urgent need. Children who would otherwise have inadequate nutrition and no educational opportunities now have loving and compassionate teachers at the An Hoa Center. The children learn valuable life and social skills, while receiving support services.
As a measure of success, four children who made significant strides at the An Hoa Center from 2007 to 2011 recently transferred to mainstream educational programs in Hue. You can read about individual children’s stories and donate online at www.afcfoundation.org/hue. This year, we hope to raise $36,000 in order to support this important program for two full years. If we are able to exceed this goal, we want to respond to the Center’s request for additional educational training on autism and other learning disabilities. Also, we want to improve the Center’s facilities such as installing a flush toilet and plumbing. Your contribution of any amount goes a long way toward sustaining this effective program. Be assured that every dollar makes a difference.
HAITI
Even before the devastating earthquake Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 80% of the population living under the poverty line and 54% in abject poverty. Alliance is partnering with a well-established Haiti Relief Organization to care for the children living in orphanages in Haiti. This year AFCF was able to provide the orphanage in Haiti with new cribs, new bedding, new beds and other needed furnishings.
TAIWAN
The Foundation works with an orphanage in Kaohsiung, in the south of Taiwan. This orphanage houses 20 children ranging in age from 1 month to 5 years. The building is new, clean and well run. It is very hot in southern Taiwan and the children cannot play outside due to the heat. Thanks to generous AFCF donors, the orphanage is now air-conditioned. The orphanage is now requesting help to build a roof over the playground to provide shade so the children can play and not become overheated or get sunburned. The orphanage also welcomes support to provide basic needs for the children such as food and clothes. The cost of the playground roof is approximately $15,000.
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