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Foster care(附图)
http://www.sina.com.cn 2003/06/10 10:03  上海英文星报

  IUNIAN, six years old, with pink cheeks and bright eyes, is playing with a learning machine on the sofa. She concentrates intently on figuring out the pictures of animals and plants according to the names uttered by the machine, which also broadcasts the words: "You are very clever".

  At the request of her mother, Qiunian performs a dance with her hands clapping and the floor of their tiny apartment creaking. She then sings a song to finish her performance.

  No one would think that the pretty little girl was not able to sit upright by herself when she was brought home by her foster parents from Shanghai Children's Home at the age of 17 months.

  Qiunian was abandoned by her biological parents right after birth because she just had a brain plasy and extremely thin legs.

  When she was 20 months old, she was still afraid of noise and unable to speak or pick up objects. The medical staff at Xinhua Hospital said the girl was handicapped in her legs, suffered from epilepsy and was mentally retarded.

  "I felt lonely at home after being laid off so I had the idea of taking care of a baby," said the foster mother, Chen Guiying. When the foster parents brought Qiunian home, they took care of her whole-heartedly.

  Neighbours and relatives were unable to understand why the couple had decided to foster such a handicapped child because it was a real challenge for a family with the foster mother laid off and a daughter in high school.

  "From the day that we brought her home, we have held the conviction that she would lead a normal life, the same as other children if she was properly cared for and educated," said Chen.

  Li Quzhong, the foster father, took Qiunian out every day to help her adjust to her new environment. "When others asked about her age, I had to lie to avoid embarrassment because she was as small as a new-born infant," Li said.

  When she reached her second birthday, her growth surprised the neighbours.

  When Qiunian was fostered, she was too weak to walk. "Her legs were as thin as carrots and her hips as large as my palm," recalled Li. To make her stronger, the couple carefully prepared a nutritious diet and fed her with food rich in calcium and vitamins.

  Above average

  The foster parents refused to think of their child as being retarded. They spent half a year to help her practise walking and Qiunian was able to walk without help when she was about three years old.

  They taught her to understand things around her in the words she could recognize. Her foster father made cards to help her memorize numbers and new words.

  Qiunian is now studying in a kindergarten with normal children of her age and her performance is above average. But behind this is her foster mother's help which also involves more lessons after class.

  "We changed to a better public kindergarten through our relations. If possible, I would like to send to her a better one," said the foster father who is worried about his limited finances.

  "Once we took her home, we will foster her as long as she likes," said the parents.

  Project to help

  In Shanghai, about 400 handicapped children like Quinian, who are aged from two months to 16 years old and come from Shanghai Children's Home are enjoying normal family life with local foster families.

  Of the children, 127 found homes in several villages in Nanhui Industrial Park. Others are scattered around the city's 17 districts and counties. And all of them are physically or mentally challenged to a certain degree.

  Fostering the children was initiated in July 1997, when Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, the city's Charity Foundation and local major newspaper, Xinmin Evening News, jointly carried out a programme called, "Let disabled and orphaned children enjoy the warmth of family life".

  Kind-hearted citizens brought children home to spend weekends and holidays in a normal family environment.

  Later, the Shanghai Foster Care Project was born, based on the aim set out as, "invested by the government, supported by society, foster families and unified guardianship".

  The government provides all the living costs, medical costs and education fees for the children and also pays the foster families a subsidy of about 700 yuan (US) a month.

  "The programme has been fully fledged for the past six years. Although the foster family is not the permanent way for needy children, it helps the children greatly in every aspect," said Zhang Shuping, director of the Shanghai Children's Home.

  Locals were willing to provide a family environment for children and more than 1,000 families have registered to be foster care families and many are still on the waiting list.

  To ensure all children are matched with suitable families and are able to enjoy a happy life, the procedures for fostering are very strict. They involve selection, training, assessment of child and family, annual foster agreement, matching and placement. After that, foster families get regular support and monitoring from Foster Family Office. "We visit families, communities and schools from time to time to follow up the children's situation. So the break-off rate in foster families is less than 7 per cent," said Chen Jun, vice-director of the home.

  Warmth of home

  Although the government has invested about 150 million yuan (US million) in building a well-equipped Children's Home, this can't take the place of a normal family with a father, a mother and other relatives.

  Professor Zeng Fanlin of Special Education Department at East China Normal University said: "Research shows that children begin to form the attachment with parents or carers from two years old. Without this relationship with a constant person, they will feel lonely and helpless."

  Children in welfare homes living in asgroupsusually find it hard to form such an attachment so they will possibly have emotional barriers in social communication and self-control. And foster families are a good way to solve this problem.

  Children can form the parent-child relationship with their foster parents and the attachment with a regular family can provide children with a feeling of security.

  In families, children can get better care since they have father, mother and other family members, while in a welfare home, a carer has to look after several children.

  Chen said: "Our final goal is to help children grow up in healthy way so that they can go back to society. But we found some children living in children's home have difficulties to go into society when they grow up. Just take a very small example: they don't know how to buy food in market."

  In this regard, foster families not only provide an emotional home for children but also provide more chances for them to have contact with society and to understand social life.

  Furthermore, foster families can make full use of the social resources such as schools, hospitals and community services.

  "The average cost for a fostered child is about 1,000 yuan to 1,200 yuan each month, and this is lower than what they need in a welfare home and the cost to run the welfare home," said Zhang.




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