Foster mom of unwanted seeks legitimacy
Source: Xinhua |
January 17, 2013, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FOR at least three months, Ban Aihua has tried to legalize her privately run foster home, a humble shelter for 68 children.
However, her plea to register the home as a non-governmental charity agency has fallen on deaf ears. She is still waiting for official authorization to run a welfare home for orphans and other abandoned children in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The news of a deadly fire that killed seven people at an unlicensed orphanage in central China's Henan Province on January 4 was particularly disturbing, Ban said.
"I'm in the same boat as the foster mother in Henan and may face similar risks," she said.
In the wake of the Henan fire, authorities questioned Yuan Lihai, the foster mother who has reared more than 100 orphans over the past 27 years - mostly ill or handicapped children who no one else wanted to adopt.
Ban said she was particularly sad to hear that Yuan, who struggled to earn a living for the children by selling snacks, begging and applying for government subsidies, may face prosecution despite decades of efforts to make up for government inaction and provide for the children.
"Yuan is not alone," said Ban, 54, who lives with 68 children between the ages of 5 and 17 in a village in the city of Hechi.
In her younger days, Ban taught at a village school for four years. She later migrated to east China's Jiangxi Province, where she took temporary jobs, got married and settled down.
When she returned to her home village for her father's funeral in 2001, however, she found that many children were not attending school. She decided to stay and open her own private school, which would later become the welfare home that now houses her and her charges.
As public schools were located far from the outlying village, Ban set up the private school in her own home, providing food and lodging for free and charging no tuition. That year, 56 children attended her school, including orphans and also unattended children from broken marriages and migrants' families.
In its heyday, the school had 83 children and two teachers. Ban and the older kids planted crops, raised chickens and pigs and sold farm produce to sustain themselves.
Her illegal school was closed last summer, with all of her students transferred to the nearest public school. But she remains their sole caregiver.
Their food alone costs 260,000 yuan (US$41,793) a year, and the money largely comes from her own income and donations.
Two years ago, a businessman from northwest China's Shaanxi Province donated over 200,000 yuan, allowing Ban to have a new, two-story home built for the children.
Like a regular family, the children learned to do their share of housework. Preschoolers helped mop and older children collected firewood or fed the pigs.
Jiang Shan, 17, volunteered to cook when Ban was busy. "I want to be a chef when I grow up," he said. Ban offered to care for Jiang and his younger brother in 2007, when his father died and his mother was having a hard time providing for her five children.
"I hope the civil affairs authority will declare the welfare home legal," said Ban. "Otherwise, our situation will continue to be really embarrassing."
The Ministry of Civil Affairs says China has about 615,000 orphans. Only 109,000 of these orphans live in government-funded agencies.
However, her plea to register the home as a non-governmental charity agency has fallen on deaf ears. She is still waiting for official authorization to run a welfare home for orphans and other abandoned children in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The news of a deadly fire that killed seven people at an unlicensed orphanage in central China's Henan Province on January 4 was particularly disturbing, Ban said.
"I'm in the same boat as the foster mother in Henan and may face similar risks," she said.
In the wake of the Henan fire, authorities questioned Yuan Lihai, the foster mother who has reared more than 100 orphans over the past 27 years - mostly ill or handicapped children who no one else wanted to adopt.
Ban said she was particularly sad to hear that Yuan, who struggled to earn a living for the children by selling snacks, begging and applying for government subsidies, may face prosecution despite decades of efforts to make up for government inaction and provide for the children.
"Yuan is not alone," said Ban, 54, who lives with 68 children between the ages of 5 and 17 in a village in the city of Hechi.
In her younger days, Ban taught at a village school for four years. She later migrated to east China's Jiangxi Province, where she took temporary jobs, got married and settled down.
When she returned to her home village for her father's funeral in 2001, however, she found that many children were not attending school. She decided to stay and open her own private school, which would later become the welfare home that now houses her and her charges.
As public schools were located far from the outlying village, Ban set up the private school in her own home, providing food and lodging for free and charging no tuition. That year, 56 children attended her school, including orphans and also unattended children from broken marriages and migrants' families.
In its heyday, the school had 83 children and two teachers. Ban and the older kids planted crops, raised chickens and pigs and sold farm produce to sustain themselves.
Her illegal school was closed last summer, with all of her students transferred to the nearest public school. But she remains their sole caregiver.
Their food alone costs 260,000 yuan (US$41,793) a year, and the money largely comes from her own income and donations.
Two years ago, a businessman from northwest China's Shaanxi Province donated over 200,000 yuan, allowing Ban to have a new, two-story home built for the children.
Like a regular family, the children learned to do their share of housework. Preschoolers helped mop and older children collected firewood or fed the pigs.
Jiang Shan, 17, volunteered to cook when Ban was busy. "I want to be a chef when I grow up," he said. Ban offered to care for Jiang and his younger brother in 2007, when his father died and his mother was having a hard time providing for her five children.
"I hope the civil affairs authority will declare the welfare home legal," said Ban. "Otherwise, our situation will continue to be really embarrassing."
The Ministry of Civil Affairs says China has about 615,000 orphans. Only 109,000 of these orphans live in government-funded agencies.
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