Special people. New friends

We all hope you've enjoyed following along with us on our trip.  We thank you for helping us achieve this goal and we have big plans going forward.  I wish I could post them now, but we need to finalize details, so keep checking our Face Book page and our website for upcoming events and exciting new Foundation adventures.
     Our blog wouldn't be complete without showing you some of the dedicated people who helped us throughout our trip and who care for the children everyday.

Some of the administrators at Zhengzhou:

Our interpreter John, who is the PR guy from New Day and who accompanied us to Zhengzhou.  Here he is getting his first Starbucks Latte!

Sarah, the director of the New Day preschool program, and one of our interpreters at New Day.  Should have brought her a latte...

 Some of the nannies at Zhengzhou.

 New Day nannies

 Katie's dad (Katie is an intern from Beijing) came and played for the children at New Day.  We all enjoyed it so much!

 This is Katie in the center interpreting for Eileen, with Lily, who is New Day's "speech therapist".  She is amazing and had tons of wonderful questions, which Eileen skillfully answered!

Joy, an OT from Texas, who was volunteering for two weeks.  We named her "Beijing Joy" which is now a new term for anyone who trips frequently.  We really liked her : )

 The interns at New Day with Phil and his youngest child Hannah.  Phil and his wife, Laura, are from the UK and have been working at New Day for about 6 months.  They were an integral part of making the arrangements for us to get to China.

 Our new official Grace Foundation inductees and wearers of the friendship scarves (A special thank you to Erin Fasanella for the idea about the scarves.)  That's Sarah next to Roe, preschool director, Karen, New Day founder and director, who is next to Eileen, and Laura, Phil's wife and administrator at New Day.

Thank you all!!!!!!!! We promise we'll be back.

Our last day is here.  We are all heartbroken and it is painful to be leaving all of these wonderful people and sweet children knowing we have barely made a dent in all we could do if only we had an infinite amount of time.  Roe's feeding lecture prompted a request for help from a man in the audience who trains the nannies in Beijing orphanages.  She offered to help in any way by email and this morning received her first one from the director of a "Baby Home".  It was such a caring plea for help saying so many of their babies can't drink formula from a bottle and the only option is tube feeding.  She pleaded for help so that those babies wouldn't be traumatized and so that they may lead normal lives and not be reliant on the tubes.  The nannies are so loving and caring and there are just so many babies. 
    We have never been so cold, so sad, so happy, so hungry, so dehydrated, so emotional, so touched, so needed, so busy, so exhausted.  We've loved every minute.  Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible. 

Moving forward

Happily the government has seen fit to provide funding for a new therapy center and hospital that will be attached to the orphanage.  The director of therapy gave us a tour and his pride in the project was obvious and deservedly so.  There will be 5 floors.  The first two devoted to therapy including physical, occupational, and speech.  The difficulty is not in providing the space at this point, but in staffing it.  There is such a need there for professionals to treat these children.  The top three floors are devoted to the hospital with a NICU for about 15 babies, a casting room for babies with clubbed feet, a surgical area for minor surgery, and other medical facilities.  Next to the hospital will be a new school and both are scheduled to open in the spring of 2013. 

 

     There is such a need for a variety of supplies for the orphanage in spite of the government’s funding of the facilities.  Pacifiers, books, toys, clothing, materials for oral stimulation, for language stimulation, PECS, brushes for sensory stimulation, etc. etc.  We look forward to raising funds to purchase some of these things for the children in Zhengzhou. 

The Formula Project

New Day, in conjunction with Nestles, supports the Formula Project.  They supply infant formula for underweight babies at the Zhengzhou orphanage and track the babies’ growth.  We got to tour the infant rooms and fell in love with each and every tiny little angel from heaven.  There were so, so many babies that some were two to a crib.  It was almost impossible to pull ourselves away from these little ones and it was in tears that we left Zhengzhou for the train back to New Day.  We vowed to return.

Time to sing!

While Roe was presenting her workshop, Eileen and Joyce spent time in a preschool class.  Music is the universal language and you can see in the pictures how delighted the children were with their amazing renditions of every children’s song they’ve ever learned!  In a touching display of the children’s eagerness to give back, they sang to Joyce and Eileen in Chinese.  Such a simple event, yet both described it as life changing. 

Thank you St. Cassian students!

The children of Grace’s school in Montclair, St Cassian School, donated the funds used to purchase these gifts for the children at Zhenzhou.  How delighted we were the day after we gave them the gifts to see one of the babies in the Formula Project wearing one of the fleece jackets!  A very special thank you to them for their kindness and caring.  We hope they know how much it was appreciated by the Grace Foundation, and even more so, by the staff at Zhengzhou.  Your giving has made a difference and we thank you.  Sending smiles and hugs your way.

The Orphanage in Zhengzhou

     It was with mixed emotions that we demonstrated how to work with the children in the orphanage to the staff.  Roe and Eileen also screened hearing.  The nannies bombarded us with questions and poor John was like a ping pong ball trying to translate all their questions and interpret our answers.  It was stunning to see that in the midst of apparent poverty—little if any heat, no hot water, limited staff to child ratio, and 800, yes 800, special needs babies, children, and teens—that the staff was so obviously caring, nurturing, and loving of all the children.  The children refer to each of them as “Ma Ma” and their affection for all of the children was touching, yet heartbreaking knowing that each one of them had been abandoned—with so, so many of them with little hope of ever having a “forever family”. 

     As we moved from room to room, nannies held little ones out to us, pleading with us to tell them how to help each child.  Was she autistic?  How do we keep him from hitting himself so much?   How can we get him to eat?  How can we get her to talk?  He cries all the time, what can we do?  Why won’t he crawl?  They want so much to help and we could have spent weeks and weeks and weeks with them and still not answer all their questions.  You can imagine how hard it was to leave them knowing we saw only a few of the hundreds of children there.

Training Workshops in Zhengzhou

    After the overnight train ride, that may only be adequately described as the train ride from hell, we were driven to a very Chinese hotel in the city. After quick showers and an even quicker breakfast, we were driven to the orphanage about 20 minutes away from the hotel. The pollution is even more appalling than the crazy driving—which is horrific. Drivers drive on the wrong side of the road, people brazenly walk through moving traffic (which doesn’t stop), and motor bikes take care of that pesky little one way street problem by driving the wrong way on the sidewalk.
     Once safely deposited at the orphanage, the staff was eager to listen and participate in our training sessions. John, our translator, is now an unofficial SLP after 4 exhausting workshops. Eileen started with her Autism Spectrum Disorders workshop, Diane and Roe followed with language development and intervention, then Roe presented on feeding and swallowing, and Eileen finished with an amazing interactive workshop on using play to stimulate language development. You can see how diligently the “nannies” attended—taking notes and pictures of the powerpoints that had been translated into Mandarin. They particularly enjoyed when we asked them to teach us a few words in Mandarin, and, in fact, laughed quite a bit at our attempts! They were delightful.

 

     The orphanage director treated us to a traditional dinner afterwards near our hotel. Although it was delicious, we were so exhausted that it was hard to stay awake as dish after dish after dish was brought in and shared. How happy we were to collapse in our hotel beds before returning to the orphanage.

Falling in love at New Day

What an amazing day we had! The morning was spent in both the preschool room where we worked along with the staff with the children, and in the toddler and infant rooms assessing the little ones. It was hard to not be moved to tears on many occasions by both the sweet little ones,so in need of help, and by the gentle kindness of the nannies and caregivers. Eileen presented on Autism, which was a powerpoint that we had never seen before. In spite of the surprise, Eileen handled it like a pro and our translator was wonderful. We went back to assess and interact with the infants and toddlers in the afternoon and spent time with their "Speech Pathologist" who actually was fantastic and creative, but was never trained as an SLP. She was eager and open to any feedback we could give her and wish we could bring her back to MSU with us. After a very full, moving day we're exhausted but leaving for Zhengzhou in a few hours. Wish us luck, it's going to be a busy day and a half ahead! Please look on our facebook page for lots more pictures and a video clip of Eileen doing her workshop.

Greetings from New Day Foster Home in Beijing China! We made it safe and sound, even after a pat-down for Roe and a complete baggage inspection for Eileen because of the scary otoscopes she had in her carry-on bag. I mean seriously... But the flight was fine and we were graciously met by an intern, Natalie, and our driver who got us safely to New Day. Since then it has been a whirlwind of activity and freezing cold. We were unable to post because of restrictions on social networking (which this blog is considered) and only now have received our VPN number allowing posts. Tomorrow we begin our training with the staff and will be taking the overnight train to Zhengzhou. I'll post pictures of the children tomorrow as this is the first chance we have had to meet them. No outsiders are permitted in their home on the weekends. For now, here we are in front of the guest house (note our "friend" scarves) and at the Great Wall with Natalie and Joy, a visiting OT from Texas.

Donations for Swallows Nest, Zhenzhou

So many people have asked how to donate needed items to the orphanages. This is the link to Swallows Nest and as you can see they desperately need even the most common items. You can donate directly to the listed addresses, or when we return we will be sending things over and will gladly put your donations in with ours. Paste this into your browser or read what is on their website below: http://www.swallowsnestzz.org/documents/otc_requirements.php

"Current Needs at Swallows Nest At Swallows Nest we are constantly striving to stretch our limited financial resources to the most advantage. A number of our wonderful supporters have asked about donating actual medical supplies and other items we may use directly in the care of the children. The following is an ongoing list of OTC meds we use at Swallows Nest. Any of these items which you may be able to send to use is greatly appreciated: •Cough, cold, and fever meds for infants and young children. •Eucerin Cream and Lotion for dry skin. •Diaper rash meds and powder. •Meds for diarrhea and constipation....we like "Little Tummy's" •Antibiotic ointments such as Bactroban. •Bandaid Antiseptic wash, blue bottle. •Infant and children Tylenol, Motrin, Ibuprofen. •We accept gently used clothing, blankets, for children. Sizes preemie to size 3."

Mailing addresses: USA

Lee Tanzillo Swallows Nest Children's Home Inc. 5705 Blackhawk Forest Dr. Westerville, OH 43082 Email: swallowsnestzz@aol.com Phone: +1 (614) 309-3973 in the US

Pam Williams 2800 E Diascund Reservoir Rd. Lanexa, VA 23089 Email: swallowsnestzz@aol.com Phone: 1-757-585-0070

CHINA

Clay Williams, English Teacher Henan Gong Cheng Xue Yuan 62 Tong Bai LuZhengzhou, Henan PRC 450007 Email: swallowsnestzz@aol.com

Getting ready!

Visas acquired, passports ready, flight booked, translator arranged, workshop data forwarded, bags packed (almost) and, best of all, the new audiometer (Macro MA1)was delivered! We'll be screening the children in both Swallow's Nest and New Day and will be donating the new audiometer. Hearing screenings are virtually non-existent in these facilities, and in the special needs population hearing loss is a huge risk. Hopefully the audiometer will help identify which children are currently in need of aural rehab, and will benefit those in the future as well. Aural rehab...something to think about for the next visit. We'll be flying out on Thursday at noon, arriving in Beijing 14 hours later, and New Day has arranged for someone to meet us at the airport and drive us to Qingyundian. In an interesting little twist, we will make a stop at Sam's Club in Beijing to pick up "American" things to eat. Our volunteer coordinator has also arranged for us to re-visit Beijing on Sunday so we can do some sightseeing. A bonus we weren't expecting. They think of everything!