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From Beijing to Baoji

Apr 18-2013   



 

 Just before Chinese Spring Festival, members of BiMBA Charity Club 09 brought 15,000 RMB as well as five huge boxes of goods donation including clothes, toys, even a laptop to XinXing ASK in Baoji, Shanxi province, the first Chinese NGO for supporting street children. The following story is about this activity:

Dear Friends!

        As the winter break is finally over, it is time to update you on our charity activities. Due to your participation in our last charity event, we were able to bring 15,000 RMB as well as five huge boxes of goods donation to XinXing Baoji just before Spring Festival.

        Lucky enough to get two sleeper train tickets to Baoji during the pre-Chinese New Year hassle, Elena and me traveled to Baoji 16 hours over night, packed with big bags full of toys, books and sweets. The donation boxes were on the way by post and destined to arrive one week later, but still on time for the Chinese New Year.

        Du Chengfei, the director of XinXing picked us up at the train station and only short time later, the organization welcomed us for the first time. It was great to finally be there!

        As the time schedule was very tight - we had to be back in Beijing in the evening of the next day - our program was very packed. Du introduced us fi rst to some of his team members, explained briefl y the surrounding buildings and showed us the function rooms. All the time children of diff erent age were passing by, welcoming us, busying away to assignments in the kitchen or lectures in the class room. We joined the class shortly after to fi nally meet all children of XinXing, who were waiting for us eagerly. 12 in total were living there before Spring Festival, most of them already for a couple of years, some of the faces felt familiar through the film we showed at the Party.

       
XinXing’s Mission

       XinXing children centre is not an orphanage but an organization that sees its goal as helping to reintegrate the street children back into society wherever possible. The centre provides home for the street kids as long as they need to stay. In most cases, the good efforts of XinXing staff result in the kids being able to return to their homes and communities. Yet there are some cases where there is no appropriate home to take the child back to. In such cases the children stay in the centre while the staff helps them grow and get educated and vocational training so they can support themselves when they grow up. At peak times, at XinXing can give home to up to 40 children, especially during the summer and autumn months. Before the New Year, the organization usually tries to accomplish their target to find the children’s parents where possible, re-integrate the children to their families through consultation and provide psychological support, so that they can re-start their life in better conditions for the New Year to come. Before we came one of the boys had just been taken back to his hometown in Xinjiang province by one of the XinXing staff . One of the staff members accompanied the boy and his main goal (in addition to chaperoning an underage child on the way), was to check to make sure that the family and the living conditions are appropriate for the child to return home.

        XinXing is the only children charity so far that goes beyond basic care and focuses on psychological rehabilitation and counseling, delivered by professionals trained to use innovative methods to heal the traumas and re-integrate the children into community. At the same time, XinXing staff is working hard to investigate every child’s situation and, if possible, arrange for him/her to be re-united with the family. Very often it helps families just to know that there is someone they can contact in case of difficulties, to know that they are not alone.

 

Aoyun (奥云), 10 years

        Aoyun is around 10 years old and a very affectionate little boy. This name was given to him by the centre. He was picked up and brought to XinXing in the summer of 2008. Sadly, he has not been able to say his real name nor tell his story. When we came into the classroom, he proudly wanted to show his work, his drawings and his books. He did not want us to leave his place. At best, we had to stay with him and play with him at his desk for all times. We brought books, pens and some play-dough to the classroom so there was quickly a lot of activity and excitement among the children, welcoming us to their group. It was lovely to see how all the children, of different age and from diff erent regions in China and some of them handicapped, are one big family, working and playing together, supporting and encouraging each other. It was also shocking to see that almost all of the children looked very small for their age. Due to poor diet and malnutrition prior to their time at XinXing, their bodies could not develop as well as that of children from a healthy family. There was a 14 year old boy from Chongqing, who looked as if he was only 10 years old.


An Jiaxi (14 years old)


        An Jia Xi is now 14 and is training to become a cook in the Center. A couple of years ago, he ran away from his family in Southern China, thousands of kilometers away. There he lived with his father and grandparents. When his grandfather was still alive, he was protected from the beating from his father. After the grandpa had died, there were no hurdles stopping the father’s brutality. In this misery, An Jiaxi preferred to rather leave and live on the street. Before he was finally taken in by the center months later, he had had the most horrible experiences on the streets imaginable. Even though he had met good people at times, who supported him with food and shelter, he had also met people longing for his life, ready to sell his fresh little organs for a profit. An Jiaxi is now in the center and is acquiring new skills that can save him from having to live on the street ever again and enable to live independently. It took long time for him to trust someone again, to stay at one place and overall and to share his story.


The Children of Baoji


        All of these children have very sad stories to tell. Most of them are brought to the center by the police, picked up from the streets or referred to by attentive Baoji residents. All of the children arrive there malnourished, fearful and untrusting. You might remember a scene from the video when a boy, whom we actually got to meet first arrives to the centre. Upon admission, XinXing’s team provides the child with necessary medical and physical care– food, clothes and cozy bed - as well as psychological support. Despite the very basic facilities at the shelter, XinXing staff managed to create a warm and family-like environment, which we could immediately feel as visitors. Most of the children come from disastrously poor circumstances. Many lost a parent – many migrant workers die due to dangerous working conditions – and the remaining parent has to cope with the situation alone. Many families struggle with the enormous pressure of coping with extreme poverty while supporting an extended family, normally including elderly and other children. Some people can see no way out other than stealing or prostituting themselves, or even selling their children. Some parents end up in prison. There are many other similarly sad scenarios where a child as young as 6 years old is left behind on the street, all alone.


        After only half an hour with the kids, we left the shelter to take part in the new project of XinXing, the “Outreach program” that we also supported with our first donation done before Christmas. Since then, XinXing had used the money to purchase clothes and school supplies for children, who live in shockingly poor conditions in the mountainous regions around Baoji. More than 280 disadvantaged children had been identified with the help of the local school teachers. XinXing staff had already visited most of the kids once during school term, but they are also keen to visit their homes to investigate their living conditions.


        That day, we had an enormous honor to deliver some presents to children’s homes, mainly clothes and books, all carefully selected according to each size and age, all financed by us, BIMBA students! We had a chance to visit eight families at the villages located within an easy reach from Baoji city. These families living in more accessible parts of the province are much better off than other people living further away in the mountains. It is difficult for us, urban residents, to fullyappreciate the enormous benefit to the villagers delivered by new roads infrastructure. A road means an access to jobs, access to food, and access to schools. Yet, when we reached there, it was an unforgettable sight of simple life and bare survival. We drove there by the only car owned by XinXing, a donation from one of the former member of “Doctors without Borders” who had left China just last year. This well-used but sturdy jeep is the only vehicle able to cope with the bumpy roads and dry dust we had to cross in our 2,5 hours ride to the children.

 

In the Mountains around Baoji


        The landscape seemed surreal, as if someone put a dirty yellow-colored lens in front of our eyes. The ground consisted of dry earth, dried rivers and cold stone, poorly developed with simple townships and scattered villages. Most of settlements are rarely supplied with electricity, let alone fresh water. It was pretty cold, but the settlements had no heating, even though temperatures regularly drop well below zero in the long winter months.Until the visit we also did not know that huge parts of the drinking water in the region were polluted for a long time and that it was only discovered once it had caused many newborns to be brought to life with not only physical handicaps. Therefore a lot of old people in the villages, also in the family we visited, are suffering from ‘microsomia’: a disease in which the bones are strongly deformed or the whole bodies stayed at miniature size. To make things worse, Baoji is also one of the regions hit quite severely during the earthquake of May 2008. The effort and regional support the government is providing now is visible in huge infrastructure construction of massive roads along the way. Still, it will take ages for the modern development to arrive in Baoji.


        On this tour, we accompanied Helen (Feng Jinjin), a counselor from the Center and Jeff, who is the leader of the “Outreach program” and is most acquainted with the children. Both are amazingly caring and professional young people who devoted their lives to the children of Baoji. We could witness their commitment through their painstaking preparation for the visits, their kind yet professional approach to children and their families and the thoughtfulness of their support and advice. Currently, XinXing tries to visit each child at least once a month for check up and delivery of supplies in need. However, the limited resources available to XinXng restrict the scope of their humanitarian activities. For all the children scattered all around in the mountainous region that need XinXing’s help, there is only one old jeep.


        The first home we visited accommodated an elderly grandfather and a disabled father. The two men take care of an 8 year old girl, who was skipping the rope in their courtyard when we arrived. It turned out that the girl is actually not a blood relative. While working on a construction of the road, the younger of the two the men found a newborn baby girl lying on the roadside. He took the baby home, and the two men have been raising her ever since, like their own. We arrived at their yard together with a big bunch of other villagers, who were very curious and also have never seen foreign faces in their village. While Jeff talked to the men, trying to investigate the little girl’s story, we handed over our little presents. The jacket we had brought fitted her perfectly, and she looked so pretty with her new colorful hairclips! She also got a new jumper and a colorful book with fairy tales. It was so easy to brighten her day! She was very shy, but eventually she told us how she enjoys her game of skipping the rope while on holidays.


        Later, we had a look inside their main room that constituted the whole house. We saw the kang bed, covered with only a very light blanket, where the girl normally sleeps sharing with her father. Seeing this in below-zero temperatures made us both shiver with cold. A tiny table and a chair where the girl does her homework had her few school utensils. The floor was just the uncovered clay ground, the room was ice-cold, the kang messy, and the rest of the home “decoration” (two chairs and a cabinet) - sparse and dusty. Just a bare light bulb was hanging from the ceiling. This home clearly missed he warmth’s and coziness of a female housekeeper.


        Yet it was also very clear that both men did everything they possibly could to raise this little girl in the best way. Their love and care is paying off, as the girl is the best student in her class and attends school regularly. However, the father is the only one to provide for both his elderly father and his adopted daughter, yet it is diffi cult for him to find a job due to his disability. This case is a prime example of a family that desperately needs continuous support of XinXing to enable this little girl to go to school.


         The next family we visited was in the same village consisted of a single father with his ten-year old daughter and a younger son. Their mother had died some time ago. Both children were very quiet and shy. We presented the girl a big warm jacket and some other gifts, and both children received a small ‘hong bao’ for Spring Festival from us.


         The father seemed a bit helpless. Most of the time he is working outside of the village to provide for his family while his brother’s family is looking after his children. The house was in a similar state as the one before: freezing cold, dusty, and simple. For us, it was hard to imagine surviving even for one cold night there.It made us both realize just how privileged we have been so far in our lives. Yet at the same time we felt very privileged to be able to visit and help. These feelings intensified during the visits to the other families. It was overall a very emotional and exceptional experience. All families were very welcoming and grateful for XinXing’s attention and support.


        In XinXing’s experience, most of the children in need are young girls growing up with only a parent or only with  grandparents. The children, quiet, shy and wary of foreigners in the beginning, all had happy sparkles in their eyes when we approached them with our simple but useful gifts. The families were very excited to have their pictures taken. Indeed none of them has ever owned a camera, so the family photos we took for them will be treasured in the household.


        We are extremely grateful to be able to personally visit the community that XinXing supports. We feel that we can make a real difference in the lives of these children. It was a wonderful gift for both of us, and a great motivation to continue to support XinXing’s admirable activities.


        On a practical side, we also now have a much betteridea of the kind of help and support that XinXing needs from us. While the children’s shelter in Baoji town seem to be well - if only very modestly --set up, what the XinXing needs on a daily basis is our support for their “Outreach” activities. To be able to go to school, a child needs a bare minimum of warm clothes, shoes and school stationery, but some families are unable to finance this. Here, XinXing’s involvement can guarantee that a child currently stuck in extreme poverty is given an opportunity to become an educated adult, able to support himself as well as an extended family.

 

The Outreach Program


        Mr. Du told us that out of the list of over 200 families in dire need that they identifi ed, they currently only have the resources to support70-80 families. In addition, their current work is limited geographically to three or four prefectures that XinXing that can physically reach by means of their only appropriate vehicle and two full-time people working on “Outreach”. There are hundreds and thousands more children in need who live further up in the mountains, in conditions much worse than the villages we visited. XinXing’s admirable ambition is to extend their reach to these children, and they can achieve this with our fi nancial support.


        Yet, the biggest concern of Mr. Du is building awareness about the work of his centre as well as about the need for more charity work to support disadvantaged people in China. Du believes that in order to deliver real change to people in need, we need to change public opinion and encourage public recognition of the importance of charity work in China. This is the area where we as MBA students are best equipped to use our ideas, networks and passion to help Mr.Du achieve his dream. Mr.Du is a truly inspiring and devoted person who has a long–term future vision of his centre to grow and bring positive change to more categories of people in need. As his next initiative, in the near future he would like to address the situation with juvenile delinquents. Many of these young criminals have very similar life stories with the current residents of XinXing shelter, with one big diff erence. Unfortunately, there was not an organization like XinXing to prevent them from resorting to crime in order to survive.

        Inspired by Du and his team, we very much hope that very soon we can visit XinXing and Baoji again,together with you. We would love to share this very special experience with more people and let you feel the same joy and motivation to help the children in need.

        Just to hear about it is terrifying! It is heart-breaking that a young boy has to experience the cruelties and evil nature of mankind at an age when he is supposed to live joyful carefree life, protected among family and friends.

        Thank you all for making this support happen. Please let us know if you are interested in joining our next visit. Until then, stay tuned for our next charity in Beijing!

- BiMBA Charity Club 2009

From Beijing to Baoji

Apr 18-2013   



 

 Just before Chinese Spring Festival, members of BiMBA Charity Club 09 brought 15,000 RMB as well as five huge boxes of goods donation including clothes, toys, even a laptop to XinXing ASK in Baoji, Shanxi province, the first Chinese NGO for supporting street children. The following story is about this activity:

Dear Friends!

        As the winter break is finally over, it is time to update you on our charity activities. Due to your participation in our last charity event, we were able to bring 15,000 RMB as well as five huge boxes of goods donation to XinXing Baoji just before Spring Festival.

        Lucky enough to get two sleeper train tickets to Baoji during the pre-Chinese New Year hassle, Elena and me traveled to Baoji 16 hours over night, packed with big bags full of toys, books and sweets. The donation boxes were on the way by post and destined to arrive one week later, but still on time for the Chinese New Year.

        Du Chengfei, the director of XinXing picked us up at the train station and only short time later, the organization welcomed us for the first time. It was great to finally be there!

        As the time schedule was very tight - we had to be back in Beijing in the evening of the next day - our program was very packed. Du introduced us fi rst to some of his team members, explained briefl y the surrounding buildings and showed us the function rooms. All the time children of diff erent age were passing by, welcoming us, busying away to assignments in the kitchen or lectures in the class room. We joined the class shortly after to fi nally meet all children of XinXing, who were waiting for us eagerly. 12 in total were living there before Spring Festival, most of them already for a couple of years, some of the faces felt familiar through the film we showed at the Party.

       
XinXing’s Mission

       XinXing children centre is not an orphanage but an organization that sees its goal as helping to reintegrate the street children back into society wherever possible. The centre provides home for the street kids as long as they need to stay. In most cases, the good efforts of XinXing staff result in the kids being able to return to their homes and communities. Yet there are some cases where there is no appropriate home to take the child back to. In such cases the children stay in the centre while the staff helps them grow and get educated and vocational training so they can support themselves when they grow up. At peak times, at XinXing can give home to up to 40 children, especially during the summer and autumn months. Before the New Year, the organization usually tries to accomplish their target to find the children’s parents where possible, re-integrate the children to their families through consultation and provide psychological support, so that they can re-start their life in better conditions for the New Year to come. Before we came one of the boys had just been taken back to his hometown in Xinjiang province by one of the XinXing staff . One of the staff members accompanied the boy and his main goal (in addition to chaperoning an underage child on the way), was to check to make sure that the family and the living conditions are appropriate for the child to return home.

        XinXing is the only children charity so far that goes beyond basic care and focuses on psychological rehabilitation and counseling, delivered by professionals trained to use innovative methods to heal the traumas and re-integrate the children into community. At the same time, XinXing staff is working hard to investigate every child’s situation and, if possible, arrange for him/her to be re-united with the family. Very often it helps families just to know that there is someone they can contact in case of difficulties, to know that they are not alone.

 

Aoyun (奥云), 10 years

        Aoyun is around 10 years old and a very affectionate little boy. This name was given to him by the centre. He was picked up and brought to XinXing in the summer of 2008. Sadly, he has not been able to say his real name nor tell his story. When we came into the classroom, he proudly wanted to show his work, his drawings and his books. He did not want us to leave his place. At best, we had to stay with him and play with him at his desk for all times. We brought books, pens and some play-dough to the classroom so there was quickly a lot of activity and excitement among the children, welcoming us to their group. It was lovely to see how all the children, of different age and from diff erent regions in China and some of them handicapped, are one big family, working and playing together, supporting and encouraging each other. It was also shocking to see that almost all of the children looked very small for their age. Due to poor diet and malnutrition prior to their time at XinXing, their bodies could not develop as well as that of children from a healthy family. There was a 14 year old boy from Chongqing, who looked as if he was only 10 years old.


An Jiaxi (14 years old)


        An Jia Xi is now 14 and is training to become a cook in the Center. A couple of years ago, he ran away from his family in Southern China, thousands of kilometers away. There he lived with his father and grandparents. When his grandfather was still alive, he was protected from the beating from his father. After the grandpa had died, there were no hurdles stopping the father’s brutality. In this misery, An Jiaxi preferred to rather leave and live on the street. Before he was finally taken in by the center months later, he had had the most horrible experiences on the streets imaginable. Even though he had met good people at times, who supported him with food and shelter, he had also met people longing for his life, ready to sell his fresh little organs for a profit. An Jiaxi is now in the center and is acquiring new skills that can save him from having to live on the street ever again and enable to live independently. It took long time for him to trust someone again, to stay at one place and overall and to share his story.


The Children of Baoji


        All of these children have very sad stories to tell. Most of them are brought to the center by the police, picked up from the streets or referred to by attentive Baoji residents. All of the children arrive there malnourished, fearful and untrusting. You might remember a scene from the video when a boy, whom we actually got to meet first arrives to the centre. Upon admission, XinXing’s team provides the child with necessary medical and physical care– food, clothes and cozy bed - as well as psychological support. Despite the very basic facilities at the shelter, XinXing staff managed to create a warm and family-like environment, which we could immediately feel as visitors. Most of the children come from disastrously poor circumstances. Many lost a parent – many migrant workers die due to dangerous working conditions – and the remaining parent has to cope with the situation alone. Many families struggle with the enormous pressure of coping with extreme poverty while supporting an extended family, normally including elderly and other children. Some people can see no way out other than stealing or prostituting themselves, or even selling their children. Some parents end up in prison. There are many other similarly sad scenarios where a child as young as 6 years old is left behind on the street, all alone.


        After only half an hour with the kids, we left the shelter to take part in the new project of XinXing, the “Outreach program” that we also supported with our first donation done before Christmas. Since then, XinXing had used the money to purchase clothes and school supplies for children, who live in shockingly poor conditions in the mountainous regions around Baoji. More than 280 disadvantaged children had been identified with the help of the local school teachers. XinXing staff had already visited most of the kids once during school term, but they are also keen to visit their homes to investigate their living conditions.


        That day, we had an enormous honor to deliver some presents to children’s homes, mainly clothes and books, all carefully selected according to each size and age, all financed by us, BIMBA students! We had a chance to visit eight families at the villages located within an easy reach from Baoji city. These families living in more accessible parts of the province are much better off than other people living further away in the mountains. It is difficult for us, urban residents, to fullyappreciate the enormous benefit to the villagers delivered by new roads infrastructure. A road means an access to jobs, access to food, and access to schools. Yet, when we reached there, it was an unforgettable sight of simple life and bare survival. We drove there by the only car owned by XinXing, a donation from one of the former member of “Doctors without Borders” who had left China just last year. This well-used but sturdy jeep is the only vehicle able to cope with the bumpy roads and dry dust we had to cross in our 2,5 hours ride to the children.

 

In the Mountains around Baoji


        The landscape seemed surreal, as if someone put a dirty yellow-colored lens in front of our eyes. The ground consisted of dry earth, dried rivers and cold stone, poorly developed with simple townships and scattered villages. Most of settlements are rarely supplied with electricity, let alone fresh water. It was pretty cold, but the settlements had no heating, even though temperatures regularly drop well below zero in the long winter months.Until the visit we also did not know that huge parts of the drinking water in the region were polluted for a long time and that it was only discovered once it had caused many newborns to be brought to life with not only physical handicaps. Therefore a lot of old people in the villages, also in the family we visited, are suffering from ‘microsomia’: a disease in which the bones are strongly deformed or the whole bodies stayed at miniature size. To make things worse, Baoji is also one of the regions hit quite severely during the earthquake of May 2008. The effort and regional support the government is providing now is visible in huge infrastructure construction of massive roads along the way. Still, it will take ages for the modern development to arrive in Baoji.


        On this tour, we accompanied Helen (Feng Jinjin), a counselor from the Center and Jeff, who is the leader of the “Outreach program” and is most acquainted with the children. Both are amazingly caring and professional young people who devoted their lives to the children of Baoji. We could witness their commitment through their painstaking preparation for the visits, their kind yet professional approach to children and their families and the thoughtfulness of their support and advice. Currently, XinXing tries to visit each child at least once a month for check up and delivery of supplies in need. However, the limited resources available to XinXng restrict the scope of their humanitarian activities. For all the children scattered all around in the mountainous region that need XinXing’s help, there is only one old jeep.


        The first home we visited accommodated an elderly grandfather and a disabled father. The two men take care of an 8 year old girl, who was skipping the rope in their courtyard when we arrived. It turned out that the girl is actually not a blood relative. While working on a construction of the road, the younger of the two the men found a newborn baby girl lying on the roadside. He took the baby home, and the two men have been raising her ever since, like their own. We arrived at their yard together with a big bunch of other villagers, who were very curious and also have never seen foreign faces in their village. While Jeff talked to the men, trying to investigate the little girl’s story, we handed over our little presents. The jacket we had brought fitted her perfectly, and she looked so pretty with her new colorful hairclips! She also got a new jumper and a colorful book with fairy tales. It was so easy to brighten her day! She was very shy, but eventually she told us how she enjoys her game of skipping the rope while on holidays.


        Later, we had a look inside their main room that constituted the whole house. We saw the kang bed, covered with only a very light blanket, where the girl normally sleeps sharing with her father. Seeing this in below-zero temperatures made us both shiver with cold. A tiny table and a chair where the girl does her homework had her few school utensils. The floor was just the uncovered clay ground, the room was ice-cold, the kang messy, and the rest of the home “decoration” (two chairs and a cabinet) - sparse and dusty. Just a bare light bulb was hanging from the ceiling. This home clearly missed he warmth’s and coziness of a female housekeeper.


        Yet it was also very clear that both men did everything they possibly could to raise this little girl in the best way. Their love and care is paying off, as the girl is the best student in her class and attends school regularly. However, the father is the only one to provide for both his elderly father and his adopted daughter, yet it is diffi cult for him to find a job due to his disability. This case is a prime example of a family that desperately needs continuous support of XinXing to enable this little girl to go to school.


         The next family we visited was in the same village consisted of a single father with his ten-year old daughter and a younger son. Their mother had died some time ago. Both children were very quiet and shy. We presented the girl a big warm jacket and some other gifts, and both children received a small ‘hong bao’ for Spring Festival from us.


         The father seemed a bit helpless. Most of the time he is working outside of the village to provide for his family while his brother’s family is looking after his children. The house was in a similar state as the one before: freezing cold, dusty, and simple. For us, it was hard to imagine surviving even for one cold night there.It made us both realize just how privileged we have been so far in our lives. Yet at the same time we felt very privileged to be able to visit and help. These feelings intensified during the visits to the other families. It was overall a very emotional and exceptional experience. All families were very welcoming and grateful for XinXing’s attention and support.


        In XinXing’s experience, most of the children in need are young girls growing up with only a parent or only with  grandparents. The children, quiet, shy and wary of foreigners in the beginning, all had happy sparkles in their eyes when we approached them with our simple but useful gifts. The families were very excited to have their pictures taken. Indeed none of them has ever owned a camera, so the family photos we took for them will be treasured in the household.


        We are extremely grateful to be able to personally visit the community that XinXing supports. We feel that we can make a real difference in the lives of these children. It was a wonderful gift for both of us, and a great motivation to continue to support XinXing’s admirable activities.


        On a practical side, we also now have a much betteridea of the kind of help and support that XinXing needs from us. While the children’s shelter in Baoji town seem to be well - if only very modestly --set up, what the XinXing needs on a daily basis is our support for their “Outreach” activities. To be able to go to school, a child needs a bare minimum of warm clothes, shoes and school stationery, but some families are unable to finance this. Here, XinXing’s involvement can guarantee that a child currently stuck in extreme poverty is given an opportunity to become an educated adult, able to support himself as well as an extended family.

 

The Outreach Program


        Mr. Du told us that out of the list of over 200 families in dire need that they identifi ed, they currently only have the resources to support70-80 families. In addition, their current work is limited geographically to three or four prefectures that XinXing that can physically reach by means of their only appropriate vehicle and two full-time people working on “Outreach”. There are hundreds and thousands more children in need who live further up in the mountains, in conditions much worse than the villages we visited. XinXing’s admirable ambition is to extend their reach to these children, and they can achieve this with our fi nancial support.


        Yet, the biggest concern of Mr. Du is building awareness about the work of his centre as well as about the need for more charity work to support disadvantaged people in China. Du believes that in order to deliver real change to people in need, we need to change public opinion and encourage public recognition of the importance of charity work in China. This is the area where we as MBA students are best equipped to use our ideas, networks and passion to help Mr.Du achieve his dream. Mr.Du is a truly inspiring and devoted person who has a long–term future vision of his centre to grow and bring positive change to more categories of people in need. As his next initiative, in the near future he would like to address the situation with juvenile delinquents. Many of these young criminals have very similar life stories with the current residents of XinXing shelter, with one big diff erence. Unfortunately, there was not an organization like XinXing to prevent them from resorting to crime in order to survive.

        Inspired by Du and his team, we very much hope that very soon we can visit XinXing and Baoji again,together with you. We would love to share this very special experience with more people and let you feel the same joy and motivation to help the children in need.

        Just to hear about it is terrifying! It is heart-breaking that a young boy has to experience the cruelties and evil nature of mankind at an age when he is supposed to live joyful carefree life, protected among family and friends.

        Thank you all for making this support happen. Please let us know if you are interested in joining our next visit. Until then, stay tuned for our next charity in Beijing!

- BiMBA Charity Club 2009