Are the board members compensated for their services?
No board members are compensated in any form for their time and energies. All work is done on a volunteer basis, motivated by their love and concern for the welfare of the children.
Does anyone receive a salary or compensation for their work at the Foundation?
Only the staff and employees who work and live at our orphanage and school receive a salary. All other positions within the Foundation are filled on a volunteer basis.
Where do the orphans and students at the vocational school come from?
Orphans come from over 300 different orphanages located throughout China, each run by local provincial governments. Our students come from various rural regions of China where impoverished conditions preclude them from attending schools and pursuing any type of education.
What are the ages of the children?
Age range of children at our orphanage is from 2 to 14 years old, while the students at our school are from 15 to 25 years of age.
How many staff do you have working at the orphanage and school?
We have 5 people working at our orphanage, which has a capacity of 40 children at any given time. We have 8 individuals working at our school that has 79 students currently enrolled.
What makes your orphanage unique and different from other institutions?
Small size allows us to provide the children with a true home in which they are surrounded by other children who are brothers and sisters. To further add to the true feeling of family, three staff members who directly care for the children, all are widows who live on the premises. They have no families of their own to which they need to engage in a daily commute. We have established a true family – one which is the first that any of these children have ever known.
How many children are adopted out each year?
Each year we have on average 8 to 10 children adopted in to loving families, mainly from the United States.
How many children have been adopted from the orphanage since its beginnings?
We have adopted out nearly 100 children since our beginnings in 1996.
Where do you receive your funding?
As a privately run orphanage, all our funding is from private individuals. Prior to formerly establishing our Foundation in 2008, all funding was achieved through the personal sacrifice of the original three founding board members who donated nearly half their income to support the orphanage and school.
Does the Chinese government provide funding of any kind?
As a private orphanage and school, the government provides no funding whatsoever. They are having enough trouble supporting the work of governmental institutions that are overflowing.
Do you receive any fees or payments when children are adopted out of the orphanage?
Our orphanage is rewarded by having raised the children in a loving and healthy environment, and being able to see them flourish and grow in to happy children. The governmental orphanage from which our children came receives the mandatory donation that adopting families are required to make when completing the adoption. The originating orphanages have never provided us with any compensation, beyond expression of thanks for having raised their orphans on their behalf.
Why do you want to purchase and build an orphanage and vocational school, why not just rent?
The main reason is in order to provide the children and students with a sense of stability and security. Renting property leaves us at the mercy of landlords who have very casual attitudes toward contracts. The secondary reason fro wanting to purchase is for future expansion purposes. Upon purchase of land and construction of buildings, we will be able to utilize the property as collateral for loans acquired for subsequent orphanages and schools we plan to establish in 10 centrally located cities throughout China.
