Sponsor's update from Yantai, China

Child sponsorship update from the SOS Children's Village Yantai, China from November 2007

Dear sponsor,

How are you? Christmas is coming. On behalf of all the children and workers in Yantai SOS Children’s Village, I would like to wish you and those around you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. In the past year, with your concern and support, we have made some progresses in the children’s education.

1. We have taken in 5 children this year, including 4 boys and 1 girl. These children live in four families. Their SOS mothers, brothers and sisters are very nice to them. They pay great attention to the new children. The new children go to school everyday and they like their new school very much. Meanwhile, 13 youths have finished education and left our village. All of them have found jobs. 10 of them work in the factories, 2 youths work as cooks and 1 becomes a teacher. The youths are satisfied with their jobs. 6 of our youths have got married this year. Most of them work near to our village. Right now all of them do not have their own apartments. Life is hard for the youths, but they still have good hopes for the future.

2. This summer, 1 girl has passed the examination and become a postgraduate. She is the first postgraduate of our village. Another girl was awarded as “The Best Graduate” by her college and she teaches dance in a middle school now.

Children's activities at Yantai

3. During the summer vacation, a Guitar Playing Band offered a free course to our children. Some children joined the course. The teachers were very nice to our children and the children improved quickly. At present the children can play Guitar very well.

4. In the first half year, a 4 years boy in our village had an operation. As he is very young, his SOS mother took good care of him. She prepared delicious food for the boy and stayed with him almost all the time. All the people in the hospital thought that she was his real mother. The boy recovered very soon and he is in good health now.

5. One of our mother was elected as one of “ The Top 100 Mothers in China” for her great devotion to her SOS children. Recently she was awarded as “The Ten Moral Models” by the Shandong Province Government.

6. A company started to donate flour to our families since February. By now they have donated about 2 tons flour all together. It is a great help to our families.

In 2007 we have done some work and achieved some progresses. We will continue to focus on the children’s education and made bigger progress in the next year. In the end, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Yours Sincerely,
Ren Qingmei
Village Director