Two young documentary film makers started with a simple plan to make a movie about an elderly couple who are caring for 40 mostly disable children on their farm in Shanxi Province. But director Su Jiaming and his assistant Cheng Haifeng were so touched by the kindness of the couple that they started a foundation to raise more than 260,000 yuan (US$40,650) for the impoverished family.

The 17-minute documentary, named "Fading Flowers," tells the story of the couple Chen Tianwen and his wife Guo Gairan, who are both 60 years old. Since 1989, they have adopted homeless kids, most of whom were abandoned by their parents because of their disabilities.

The film of Su and Cheng was among more than 9,000 submissions for the 2011 Mobile Shanghai International Film Festival. "Fading Flowers" was awarded Best Documentary and Grand Shot.

Tusi Hark, president of the film festival's jury and a celebrated Hong Kong film director, said the documentary "is very moving and lets people know that there is a lot they can do to help others."

The pair won more than US$3,500 at the festival. Su quickly promised to donate the money to Flower Foundation, which he had set up to help Guo, Chen and their children.

Su, 22, recently graduated from Zhejiang University of Technology after majoring in broadcast journalism.

He went to Shanxi five times, staying nearly half a year in total. He shot about 3,000 minutes of raw film.

Su says he learned of the warm-hearted couple on the Internet at the end of 2009. His original idea was to figure out what motivated the couple to adopt so many children.

However, once Su got to know them, he felt he had to try and help them.

The film opens with a shot of Ou Ou, a five-year-old girl with an abdominal tumor. The tumor presses on her nerves and she is unable to stand up.

Her many brothers and sisters are aged from three months to 22 years. Most are paralyzed, deformed or have a mental disability.

The family lives on a farm in Loubanzhai Village, Yuanping City of Shanxi.

Yuanping is famous for its coal mines.

One of Chen's eyes is blind, and the other with 2,500-degree short-sightedness.

Guo was diagnosed with heart disease in 2002.

Guo and Chen adopted their first child in 1989, when the local Civil Affairs Bureau asked if they would like to adopt an abandoned boy with an intellectual impairment.

The couple, who already had three children, agreed.

In the following years, the bureau kept sending babies to the couple.

They never said no. They also picked up abandoned babies on the streets.

Some parents left their baby at the gate of their house.

Guo says the reason they adopt the children is simple.

"At first, we adopted some for sympathy, but now it is all about love," Guo says. "They are our lives."

The couple gives new meaning to the word "busy" as they have to cook, clean and care for the children while also tending the farm everyday. At night, the whole gang sleeps on kang, a large heatable brick bed common in northern China.

Their farm covers nearly 3,345 square meters, which was big enough for them to be considered rather wealthy in the village. However, since they began adopting children, the family has gradually fallen into debt.

As Chen and Guo only do farm work to provide food, the family's main income comes from subsidies from the local government.

For more than 20 years, the sum used to be around 200 yuan per kid every month.

This year the subsidy was increased to 700 yuan per child each month.

High living cost

But because rearing a child with a disability is costly, the subsidy barely covers basic expenses.

Sadly, during the past 22 years, 23 of their children have died because of diseases.

Su says he first met the couple and spent 15 days with them during the Spring Festival in 2010.

"It was a great time to observe how the family lives," Su says.

Su and Cheng say they decided on eight simple rules in order to fit in with the family. They included "no new clothes" and "eat and live like they do."

"We didn't want them to think we were strange or distant," Su says.

Their approach helped them win respect from the family.

"Since they never complained or looked down upon us for our poor accommodation, I knew they were here to help us," Chen says.

As for the future, Chen says their biological children will help as they get older.

"When we are too old to carry on the work, my own children and elder capable kids can take care of the younger ones," Chen adds.

The story between Su and the family did not end when they finished shooting the movie. In April, the couple called Su, telling him there was a long crack on a wall in their house, meaning they would have to move because it was no longer habitable.

There was a large house for sale in the village, but the couple could not afford the 220,000 yuan (US$34,500) price.

After the call, Su immediately decided to try to get the money for them.

"It was not an impulse," he says. While shooting the documentary, I learned that it was my responsibility to help them."

Su says he started soliciting donations on the Internet.

On May 10, he set up a microblog (weibo, Chinese equivalent of Twitter) account named "Flower Foundation" on sina.com. He told people about the family as well as every deal of donation.

On the first day, he received 1,000 yuan in donations. In three months, 220,000 yuan had been collected. The family will move into their new apartment by the end of this month.

"I didn't expect the money could be raised so quickly," Su says. We named the new apartment Flower House because the children are like flowers."

As word has spread about the family, more people and institutes have offered help.

Another foundation paid for Ou Ou's tumor to be removed at a hospital in Shanghai.

Two hospitals in Shanghai promised to send doctors to Shanxi to examine all the kids. And some students at Zhejiang University of Technology will volunteer to tutor the children during summer vacation.

Thus far, the Flower Foundation has raised 266,000 yuan for the family.

Money not used to buy the apartment will be used to decorate their home and for the family's medical expenses.

In the future, Su plans to formalize the small foundation and raise more money so it can help other abandoned children.