Fuling Social Welfare Center

Brittany's Hope has pledged to fully match a grant of $50,000 to assist with the construction of a first of its kind rehabilitation and medical clinic, which will service all children with special medical needs in the municipality of Chonqing, China. We will be working in partnership with several other NGOs and affiliates, most specifically La Vida International of King of Prussia, PA.

Currently approximately 400 children with special needs are housed at fourteen other city and county level social welfare institutes. Due to lack of resources, service delivery to these children is extremely poor. The planned level of care and service delivery of the new institution will allow all children with special medical needs in Chongqing to receive more innovative and technically competent care which should maximize their health and developmental opportunities. Additionally, we believe that improved healthcare and treatment of the children's special needs will increase the likelihood of placement with a permanent family. We are also hopeful that visibility and success of such a new model of care will offer similar opportunities to children with special medical needs who reside in other areas of China.

Chongqing Municipality is a port city with the largest municipal area and population in China (31,800 square miles). It has a population of nearly 31 million people. Currently there are 14 social welfare institutions located in Chonqing province. All of these provide adoption services to its children and the vast majority of those adoptions are of healthy children. Nearly all of the children with special needs in Chongqing remain residents of social welfare institutions without opportunity for rehabilitation, special care, or the chance to be adopted into a family of their own. A new social welfare institution is planned in the city of Fuling. The City of Fuling has donated the land for the facility. The new social welfare institute will include, a rehabilitation and health care center for the children, a preschool, and sleeping and play rooms for up to 800 children of all ages and abilities. Half of this 16 and 1/2-acre plot of land is to be devoted to parks and play places for the children. Donations have allowed construction to begin however there is still a need for more funds to build this much-needed facility. The cost to build the portion of the facility, which will be devoted to children with special needs (rehabilitation center/medical clinic), is $400,000. The 450,000 square foot building will contain living quarters for children with special needs, a rehabilitation center for treatment and therapy and a medical clinic for daily and higher level medical needs. Our affiliate agency, La Vida International will provide $50,000 toward the construction of the building, which will serve children with special needs. With a matching grant from Brittany's Hope, over 25 percent of the cost of the rehabilitation center will be secured which should allow construction to begin. Once construction has begun, additional fundraising efforts will be initiated.

Upon completion of the new Fuling Social Welfare Institution, all children with special needs residing in orphanages in Chongqing municipality will be moved to live in the new Fuling Social Welfare Institute. Relative to overall care of children, the care of both healthy and children with special needs in the current First Fuling Social Welfare Institute (SWI) is excellent. The director, Yang Peishu, is educated, experienced, innovative and well respected in China. She has been voted "One of the ten most outstanding woman in China" due to her innovative care of children and advocacy for women's rights. She provides outstanding leadership to her staff, and has taken the care of children at the current facility to new heights. It is for this reason that she has been selected to spearhead this innovative, first of its kind project in China.

Based upon our experience working in China, Brittany's Hope supports the construction of this new facility because we believe that the children who move here from other provincial institutions will receive two primary benefits: 1.) Greatly improved health and daily care, and 2.) Increased opportunities for the children to be adoption by permanent families.