Tot heads home after years in limbo
Print Edition
THE little girl who spent the first two and a half years of her life living as an orphan at the Children’s Hospital of Shanghai was yesterday reunited with her grandfather.
Little Alimu, who along with her twin sister was abandoned by her mother soon after birth, bade farewell to the people who had cared for her for so long, and headed “home” to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Hospital staff held a simple ceremony to officially hand over their young charge — now known as Shaliha Yakufu — to her maternal grandfather, Yakufu Aji.
“My gratitude to the hospital and kindhearted people who have helped Shaliha, goes beyond words,” Aji said.
“I promise to bring her up well and provide her with a good education.”
He said he will bring his granddaughter back to Shanghai in a couple of years so that her former carers can see how she is doing.
Aji and Shaliha flew out of the city yesterday afternoon aboard a China Eastern flight to Urumqi — courtesy of free tickets provided the airline. Once in Xinjiang, they will travel by train and bus to their hometown in Wushi County, Aksu Prefecture, where they are scheduled to arrive later today.
Officials in Wushi said they will visit Shaliha regularly and send updates to her friends and surrogate family in Shanghai.
Aji spent a week earlier this month traveling from Wushi to Shanghai with his son and son-in-law, after being told a maternity test carried out in July had confirmed his daughter as Shaliha’s mother. He brought with him a letter of authorization from his daughter, who was said to be too weak to make the journey.
Prior to heading back to Xinjiang, Aji on Friday attended a funeral at a cemetery in Shanghai for Shaliha’s sister Ashima. The infant died from an infection soon after arriving at the children’s hospital in Putuo District where the twins were taken after being born prematurely on January 14, 2012.
Medics at the hospital also gave Aji lots of useful tips on how to care for Shaliha, and taught him a few words of Mandarin to help him communicate with the youngster, who is unfamiliar with the Uygur language.
Though the doctors and nurses had been preparing for several weeks for Shaliha’s departure, it was still a tearful occasion as she toddled out of the ward that had been her home for 30 months.
“She’s been like a daughter for such a long time,” said head nurse Du Yingmin.
“We’re happy to see her reunited with her family, but also sad to have to say goodbye,” she said.
Deng Ying, a Shanghai lawyer who spent almost two years trying to adopt Alimu, told Aji to apply for a residence permit for the child as soon as possible, so that she can finally receive the essential vaccinations she has been deprived of all her life.
Under archaic regulations, as Shaliha did not have a Shanghai residence permit she was ineligible for the potentially life-saving inoculations and hence had been unable to leave the hospital’s sterile environment. As a result of her incarceration, Shaliha is also a little behind other children of her age in terms of language ability and social skills.
Shaliha is the sixth child to have left the children’s hospital after an extended stay. Four were reunited with their families, while a fifth was found a place at a children’s home. The hospital is currently caring for two homeless babies, both of whom are just several months old.
“Because these children have living parents or other relatives who have simply shirked their responsibilities, they are not recognized as being abandoned or orphaned,” Deng said.
“It’s a dilemma, but more needs to be done to prevent it happening in the future,” she said.
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