Sponsor's update from Qiqihar, China

Child sponsorship update from the SOS Children's Village Qiqihar, China from Winter 2008.

At present, our village has 145 children, in which 102 are living in 15 family houses, 43 in the youth facility. Among them 4 kids are in the nursery school, 59 attend primary school, 35 attend middle school, 10 attend high school, 25 attend second vocational school and 12 attend undergraduate courses.

2008 is the year that the work of our village enters upon a new phase, the work what we have done this year is as follow:

1 Children’s Village
10 new children from age 4 to 12 have been adopted to the village this year, some of them didn’t like to live in the new environment at the beginning when they were adopted, but after living with their mothers, brothers and sisters for several months, now from their smiling faces, we know that they are enjoying in the life of the village.

Two youths who grown-up from our village got married, a boy named Li Zhijia, 27 years old, a worker, he works in a heavy industry company and his wife is a staff, she works in a mobile company, they rent a flat in the community. A girl Zheng Hebao, 25, she is a teacher, she works in a kindergarten and her husband works in a computer company, they live together with her parents in law. Some children, SOS mothers and staff members in the village joined in their marriage ceremony, they share the happiness with the youths. A girl Qi Ming who got married last year is two month pregnant, she is very happy, when she comes back our village on holidays, her SOS mother tries to cooks some delicious foods for her, and her younger sisters and brothers would like to give her good care, they are looking forward to see the baby.

The foundation of love of Heilongjiang Province organised large singing meetings “Love in spring” and donation activities for the charities among the 13 cities in Heilongjiang Province, the activity was organised in our city on April 27, more than 50 children, mothers and staff of our village took part in it, they performed a sign language song “Be grateful to return his kindness” which was being prepared elaborately, all the audience were deeply moved by the performance. Participated in such activity of giving one’s love to the people who needs help, our SOS children not only understand the idea of “Helping person in danger or difficult” and feel the enjoyment of helping others.

Children's event at Qiqihar, China

During the time of winter vocation, we organised some activities for our children, such as spring festival get-together, children performed the plays directed by the children and their mothers themselves; manners knowledge contest, in order to train our children to be the person of good manners. And paper cut show, children cut flowers and animals with different colored paper and they were so happy to see their own works. Lantern Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar year; it is one of the biggest holidays in China. Several days before Lantern Festival helped by their mothers some children made their lanterns; on the eve of Lantern Festival we brought our children to the park to have a look at the lanterns that day. There were more than 200 beautiful lanterns in the shape of different animals, vegetables, fruits and many other things, the lanterns were very beautiful. We also saw some wonderful folk performances, Dragon Dance and Yangko, children were so excited, and they even joined in the dancing team with the music. It was cold, but it was fun.

On June 1st, all the children had holidays, some local sponsors, friends and the leaders from the local government came to see our children and joined in the children’s activity, First we observe three minutes silence for the people killed in a powerful earthquake, our children all donated their pocket money for the people in the earthquake area to help them building their home again, the total is RMB1294Yuan. A child on behalf of children wrote a letter to the children in the earthquake area, it said: "I feel so sorry for your loss, don't let the earthquake ruin your life and take your sunshine away! I hope you overcome the pain in a short time and get back to school with all your classmates. Hope you always feel be loved and protected, you must believe that there is a lot of nice people in our society and they're all willing to help if you met any difficulties. I believe you are strong in mind; life is hard, try to turn this memory into consistent power. No matter what happens, as long as we are together, we will never give up! There is always hope and love!" all the children signed their names on the paper. Then our children joined in some games together with the adults presented. They spent a joyful and meaningful day.

In the end of August, some children who got good results and have good manners were selected to join in the summer camp; they were taken to the park in Qiqihar. They saw the animals first, played toy cars and then played games together in the park. They eat the food they brought from their home together for lunch, the happy laughing sound of children can be heard all the time, in the evening they were too tired to walk back.

Growing up at Qiqihar, China

There is an another good news, a youth named Yu Lizhong who was departed from our village last year is working in an animal cartoon designing company. He dose his work very well, three animal cartoon films he made are on the air. He often comes back home to see his SOS mother, his brothers and sisters are proud of him.

The educator and SOS mothers in the village are asked to go to the schools of our children to understand the situation of each child at their schools in order to help them to train good habit of learning and the village often held meetings to talk about the suitable methods for some special children. The village also invited some specialists to give lectures to our children in holidays or in the evening, such us the Layer to have Legal education, the painter to have drawing class and English teacher to have English class for supplementary schooling.

In order to give a perfect environment for our children, many works have been done, such as the equipment have been repaired regularly. the doors of garage and the windows and doors of kindergarten have been changed and also we have bought 12 wardrobes for our youth; 60 desks and chairs for the youth facility and kindergarten.

2 Youth Facility
There are 20 youths departed from the village this year, helped by the village they all find their jobs.

Now the village facility is home for 48 youths, during the time of vacations, our youth who were studying out all came back at our village; We help the youths who had working ability to find part-time jobs to practice themselves, typist, construction worker, salesman, lifeguard, and waiter these are some of the more common jobs that youth try to find. And the village also organised some games suitable for them, such as basketball and football matches and so on; we tried our best to make youth’s life rich and varied. Some small youths were sent back hometown to understand the life in the countryside and feel the love of their relatives. In this way to guided them to become independent and self-sufficient. We invited psychological doctors to give psychological healthy education. There are 6 youths joined in the army this year.

They often send a letter to their mothers.

3 SOS Nursery School
There are more than 85 kids in the SOS Nursery School now. Some teachers were sent to be trained in the society to improve their ability of education and administration. So the environment of the SOS Nursery School has been improved greatly this year. Parents are satisfied with the nursery school.