A 3-month-old baby boy was found abandoned at Wuhan Tianhe Airport on Tuesday and a suspect was later arrested, local police said on Thursday.A sad story, which gives me the opportunity to once again tout Love Without Boundaries' Unity Fund, which is designed to help children in China NOT become orphans at all, by providing medical care to children at risk of being abandoned by desperate parents who do so in order to secure medical care for their children. Please consider donating. Adoption will not solve the world-wide orphan crisis; only preventing kids from becoming orphans in the first place will solve the orphan crisis.
A cleaner who works at the airport heard the baby making sounds and when she went to investigate, found him on a chair in the arrivals lounge.
When no one claimed the baby after two hours, the local civil affairs bureau took over.
Chen Xiaokui, director of the shelter station under the civil affairs authority in Huangpi district, told China Daily that he sent the baby to hospital because he appeared to be ill.
"He was suffering from congenital heart disease and pneumonia," Chen said, adding that they had spent some 1,200 yuan ($190) on his medical treatment.
Chen said that he and his colleagues arrived at Tianhe Airport around 9 pm after hearing the report. They felt anger toward the person who abandoned the baby, he said.
"We find seven or eight abandoned babies each year," Chen said.
* * *
Mei Zhigang, a professor who studies social problems at Central China Normal University, said abandoned babies were a disgrace to society.
"It should not happen in a civilized society," Mei said, adding that there were two main reasons for this phenomenon.
A sick baby is more readily abandoned, she said, and there are parents who cannot afford to treat and raise sick children.
Mei said that parents must live up to their responsibilities and the government should be prepared to help families in difficulty.
"There needs to be more concern at national level and polices to curb such wrong behavior," Mei said.
Adoption Initiative Conference 2022
2 years ago
7 comments:
adoption can solve the orphan problem if the process was better for all involved. hague isn't the answer.
Malinda-
I'm all for Love Without Boundaries. However, I don't think most parents in China keep their SN children, regardless of a desire to help from Love Without Boundaries. They're considered bad luck.
I might be wrong, it seems the majority of children LWB helps, are already in orphanage/foster care. This is probably due to the fact that SN children tend to be abandoned before LWB has an opportunity to help. Unfortunately, this also means they cannot keep families together most of the time.
The Unity Fund is great! Our child's parents made the tough choice to abandon their child at a special needs orphanage to be sure he got critically needed surgery - it breaks my heart that they had to make such a choice and said goodbye to such an incredible soul. We gave to the Unity Fund as part of our annual giving and it was great to see the child we sponsored receive life saving surgery and be able to stay with his birth parents.
I agree...an incredible and worthwhile philanthropic group!
Anonymous #2, do you have statistics on that? How many parents in China do you personally know? How many Chinese people with disabilities or medical conditions do you personally know? This sounds like a sweeping generalization. Most people in China do not abandon their children, NSN or SN. That doesn't mean lack of access to care and lack of disability awareness doesn't exist. It does, but it does to varying extents everywhere, even receiving adoptive countries.
Anon 12:21-
This is Anon 2 again.
I'm not too sure what you are asking about statistical info. But I will try to answer your questions.
I know ZERO parents IN China. However, we live in a large Chinese American community. We have several Chinese American friends, many of whom are first or second generation Americans. Some of them have told me that SN children are considered bad luck in their culture. Of course, not all people in China are like that. That would be absurd to assume a 'sweeping generalization' of any one culture.
For whatever reason, there are an overabundance of SN children in orphanages, and my MAIN point was not to argue semantics, but rather to suggest that LWB cannot help families stay together if they are helping children after they are abandoned, due to their SNs, regardless of WHY they were abandoned. I don't know why some people have to filter through posts here, with a fine toothed comb.
Anon 3- I'm not doubting you. But, I had no idea there are "Special Needs Orphanages" in China. I've been involved in forums and blogs associated with adopting from China for over 6 years now, and this is the first I've heard that there are "SN orphanages" open to IA.
Are you referring to all orphanages in China that have SN facilities, or are there actually specific orphanages that only facilitate SN children, which are also open to IA??
I'm Anon 12:21. To Anon 2, sorry for any perception of a "fine toothed comb." I see your main point and agree, but what you posted about "most parents" hit a nerve for me as a Chinese American with family with SN's and many Chinese friends in different countries and generations in the similar situations with different SNs.
I guess it's what each person's exposed to. Sure it's hard for some families to accept, but I see most, including mine, doing the best we/they can for their relatives. Even in China, so when somebody says "most" parents in China don't keep SN children because it's considered bad luck, or something similar, it's personal. That's very much not my experience, and that's why I asked you for any stats you had to support your statements. I should have just said that, but was posting in emotion in a hurry. Sorry.
Of course I/my family know that overall, China hasn't caught up with some receiving countries in resources for disabilities, and many children in orphanages are SN. And as Chinese Americans and with adopted family members too, we do support programs that address those issues. But we do that outside of China too, because there are needs everywhere as far as orphans and disabilities go.
Post a Comment