Hefei is the capital city of Anhui province. Hefei Children's Welfare Institute is located in the western part of the city. It has dormitories and classrooms for the younger children, an apartment building for teenagers, and the biggest rehabilitation center for special needs children in Anhui province. A great deal of the children in the Institute are disabled.

Bathroom Renovation

Renovations were carried out for new bathroom and toilet facilities at the He Fei Children's Welfare Institute.

Sunbeam Village family style living

Hefei Welfare Institute has more than 230 mentally healthy 3-14 year old orphans with slim chances of being adopted. This project provides apartments for Chinese foster families to live with groups of 6 orphans as stable families.

On November 8, 2001, 'Sunshine Village' was opened -- ten new foster families with 6 orphans of different ages and 2 foster parents each moved into their new homes. See the photos and read the report below for more info.

Nine Mile Village Foster Care

9-Mile Village is a project that places Hefei orphans into foster care families in several different nearby villages.

The AFC Foundation is providing each child with 40RMB per month to use on food and clothing and also for special outings such as a trip to the zoo for special needs children.

One Plus One

5 personal connections have been made between teenage orphans who are too old to be adopted and Western families that have adopted Chinese children. These connections remain active although we are no longer accepting new 1+1 applications.

The goal is to connect every teenager at the orphanage with a family that will commit to a loving, long-term relationship, and to organize the 1+1 families into groups that advocate for the orphans.

Library Project

This project to build a library at Hefei Welfare Institute was sponsored by Families with Children from China New England, with the AFC Foundation handling the administrative details.

This project was started in 2001 and completed in 2002.

Internet and Computing Education Center

This project was sponsored by Families with Children from China (FCC) New England, with the AFC Foundation handling the administrative details.

The project provided computers, Internet access, and computer training to the children living at the Hefei orphanage.

Scholarships

Higher education scholarships were provided to institutionalized handicapped children. The young man shown here is pursuing a college education with aid from the Alliance.

Heart Surgery

Donated funds were used so that this little 4-year old girl, Yang Yuan Shuang, could undergo heart surgery in the summer of 2002.

Wheelchairs for school age children

Wheelchairs were provided for special needs children so that they could attend school.

Rehabilitation center

A set of Coordination Training Facilities were purchased for use by disabled children in a new rehabilitation center at the Welfare Institute. We hope this project will serve as a model for other orphanages to follow.

Additional goals: the Hefei Rehabilitation Center will also convert a common room into a Sense Integration Training Room (cost $12,000). This too will serve as a model for other orphanages to follow.