CEO, Kim Brown observes the loving and attentive caregivers at Nanchang
by Kim Brown
When I bent over a crib at the Nanchang Orphanage baby unit recently and found a cute, sparkly-eyed baby looking back at me curiously, I couldn’t help smiling. It’s very satisfying to feel good about where a child is and the quality of care they’re getting. The baby unit had eighteen infants that day with eight or so caregivers. Wearing fresh clean smocks, they went about the constant but unhurried business of making sure each baby was: rocked, fed, cleaned up or just talked to. You seldom see any of these caregivers without a baby in her arms.
It’s fun work I’m sure, but there is an earnestness about the baby unit, too. Several of the babies have a cleft lip and palate, and their care requires a combination of skill, vigilance and attention to detail. Watching the caregivers, it’s easy to see the personal investment these women are making into the lives of the children. That personal investment is something that you can’t just pay for. It’s all about finding people who truly love children.
I saw another great example of this personal level of caring at the Nanchang Group Home. There I met *Meng Meng, a handsome, sweet-natured 5-year-old boy with hemophilia. For him, a little bump can cause painful, debilitating internal bleeding and even death.
The group home is like an apartment just for foster families of older children from the orphanage. Set up by the orphanage and Holt, it houses six families. Each foster parent couple cares for about six children, and they live as a family: sharing meals around the table, being encouraged and getting help with their school work, learning to care for themselves and their home.
Meng Meng’s foster parents took him in and accepted the special needs of his condition. But since then they have truly taken on the role of parents, staying up all night with him when he is in pain, teaching him at home when he can’t go to school, and providing the loving, accepting and safe home he needs at this stage of his life.
While he is truly loved by his foster family, I’m hoping we can find a permanent adoptive family for Meng Meng. Access to medical treatment and the loving encouragement of a permanent family will make a huge difference in his life. If we can find a family for him, we may be able to advocate for his adoption. Please see a short video of him and call Holt’s China program if you’re interested.
Holt has been working with the Nanchang Orphanage for over 11 years, and one of our first projects was developing the baby unit. Since then hundreds of abandoned babies have passed through this room, to foster families and then to permanent adoptive families. In the four years since we opened the group home, 60 older children have been adopted as well.
Seeing the quality of care at Nanchang Orphanage, I couldn’t help thinking of my own beginnings. I was fortunate. Food and resources were scarce in postwar South Korea. Orphanages there could afford only a few caregivers for hundreds of children. Many children died, and many suffered due to lack of attention.
Harry Holt changed all of that. He had no formal training in this, but he knew that children need love and attention. His main goal, of course, was to move children into permanent adoptive families, but as he developed child caring programs, he made sure that he had enough caregivers to hold infants when they’re fed and to give the children the care and attention they need.
I wasn’t in a Holt program, but a missionary made sure I got attention and care. I’ve long thought about the plan that God has for my life. Now as CEO of Holt, I believe that the journey God set for me has given me a deeply personal level of commitment to the Holt International mission. Orphaned and abandoned children rarely have a voice to advocate for themselves. But we have received a calling to understand their needs and to give children the best start possible in their lives, despite a very difficult beginning. And our ultimate goal is to see that every child receives the love, security and belonging they need in a permanent family.
*Name changed
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My parents went to China and adopted my little sister from the Nanchang Orphanage almost 15 years ago. My sister arrived at the orphanage just weeks old and was nearly 2 when she came home. I just wanted to say that I appreciate all of the hard work the caregivers did for my sister and that they are continuing to do for so many others. My mom and sister are on their way to China now to visit the orphanage. When they arrive, I hope some of the caregivers remember my sister and find joy in knowing what a wonderful person she has become.
I am forever grateful to these women and to Holt for my sister.