Double Happiness!

Shuang Xin Li Men, literally translated means "Double Happiness Comes through the Door" with your support RTC will continue to cross thresholds by "Connecting Lives... Creating Futures" for children with special needs in Chinese orphanages and foster homes. Your gift will be doubled/matched by the support of our generous anonymous donors, up to $10,500 by donating on line at givenmn.org or by check dated through November 16.  All gifts in any amount are welcome.    http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Red-Thread-Charities

Red Thread Charities

redthreadcharities.org 

6632 West Shore Drive

Edina, MN  55435

Red Scarves to Red Guards

Sunday's event 

Well, Danling did it again! Her talk on Sunday about growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution held an audience of over 100 people spellbound!  I think about Danling's life as a teenager, forced away from her parents and school to work in the fields for long hours every day while being "re educated". I think about what her parents went through, forced away from their school aged sons who were left to fend for themselves...how they worried to the point of desperation.  Who could live through torture like this?  Amazingly, Danling and her family did live through this.  Her parents and brothers are alive and well in Beijing.  Danling has gone on to help countless people, myself included, adopt children from China.  She founded Red Thread Charities which has helped so many children live more fulfilled lives in orphanges in China.  Thank you to all who donate to our cause!  And thank you Danling, for everything you do!          

Danling and her mother.  Oct 2010

Another entry from our resident travel blogger, Tom

Yesterday, (actually 2 weeks ago) Tuesday in Beijing the weather was perfect, mid 60's to 70's and blue skies. We took in the Hutong area on our first outing leaving in heavy traffic around 9:00 am.  We had a rickshaw tour through the alleys of households that dated back to the Ming dynasty. This was a chance to see the ancient lifestyle that still exists today, despite the Olympic building program and an increase in high rise contruction..bikes everywhere, cars all over and lots of places in reconstruction..property goes for outrageous prices..in the millions for an apartment. Many share bathrooms and are lucky to have a place here.

From there we got dropped off and hiked to the Drum Tower (google it) and ancient time keeping building..the spot of the Bachman tradgedy in the 08 Olympics..Later we had lunch with a family..Homemade dishes spun around on a Lazy Susan..needless to say it made many stops in front of me..I am getting pretty good at the use of chop sticks..We got back to our hotel to check out around 2:00 pm and then off to Tian'men Square..the largest public square in the world..The square was filled with people and guards were scattered about. The size of the square is staggering and the  huge screen depicting scenes from  China was the screen seen during the Olympics. Across the way is the Forbidden City. Commoners were forbidden to enter and would be punished by death. It was home of the Ming and Qing dynasty emperor till the end of the Ming Dynasty in 1911. A day here might be enough to see all the courtyards and art collections. We had about 2 hours..then were off to Pearl City where shops are pilled on one another and bargaining is a blast..Later we had dinner and then made our way to the train station..Will down load some photos later... the food has been outstanding...I need to watch myself.  Tom

 

 

Children Helping Children

Half way around the world a child can make a difference in another child's life.  A brownie troop in MN hand made sensory blankets for the orphanage.  Sensory blankets are super soft and textural with ribbon tags around them.  Babies can bond with them and take them with them when they are adopted as a comforting transitional item from foster or orphanage care to the forever family.  Being an adoptive mom, I know that on adoption day, within 24 hours, that precious child has been bathed and dressed in cute Baby Gap clothing.  New parents, new language, new hotel with heat, new smells, new sights and sounds. Nothing is left from the child's previous life.  The sensory blankets are meant to bridge that transition, something that the child can hold onto that was a piece of his life before adoption.  Thank you to Brownie Troop 52931... Emma, Cece, Skylar, Sophia, Emily, Zoe, Misk, Abby, and of course our 2009 volunteer, Paige Indritz for making a difference in a child's life.  

Generous Donation

While preparing for our volunteer trip back here in Wisconsin,  I was surprised by a very generous donation from a waiting family!  The instructions from the family was to “use this donation in any way that the orphanage might need”.  Whew!  That was a hard one!  I presented it to our RTC board.  I always referred to it as our “Happy Dilemma.”   We thought and thought…. What would be fair?  Who should make this decision?  We finally decided that we would present it to the orphanage director and ask her opinion.  We told her of our “Happy Dilemma”. She talked rapidly with the other staff members and came up with a solution!  It took all of about 15 seconds!!!  Our team had recommended further evaluation on a child with hearing impairment.  They will be using the funds to get further testing and procure hearing aids for a little boy who happens to be in the same preschool group as the child with the donating parents!  I talked to the donating mom who was delighted that the funds be used to help a child! Some day a little girl will know that her friend in China was helped by her own parents. What a special bond!  If any of you might feel creative about a donation, our group makes sure it goes to the kids.  Our generous volunteers pay their way to China and the trip is so rewarding they usually return a second or third time.  Still it is expensive…  If there are any pediatric PTs, OTs, child pychologists,  pediatricians with a lot of CP knowledge… Special Ed teachers…. Speech therapists with cleft experience.  We have another trip planned for October 2011.  Please consider a very rewarding trip.  What else could be more important?  The children need you.  

Hello from Quin

 Hi.  I'm Quin and I'm one of the kid volunteers.  Our team has been really busy for the past 5 days examining kids in the orphanage and helping the teachers and nannies learn therapy techniques.  Here I am in one of the therapy rooms playing with a little girl who has Down syndrome.  Children who are born with Down syndrome can really be helped with therapy and they are really fun!  I am helping this little girl learn how to share toys.  She gets to hear music for 15 minutes which helps her brain become more organized.  In the second picture she has on earphones tied with a red scarf.  At first she didn't like it but when she heard the music it helped her concentrate better.  The little boy in the last photo has a hard time using his muscles.  The big therapy ball helps him have fun and stretch while reaching for toys.  The kids really like therapy. This orphanage has almost 400 children.  Some of the kids will be adopted by parents in the United States and Europe.  It's nice for kids to be able to have fun while they get their therapy. 

School Visit

School Visit on Thursday, Oct. 21…Hangzhou Foreign Language School

This school was built 7 years ago in only 14 months. It is a government run boarding school with an emphasis on a foreign language. There are 3500 students here in grades 7-12. It is one of the top schools in the area with only 1 of every 100 elementary students getting in. The lower grades pay a lesser fee than grades 10 – 12. At the end of their 10th grade year they make a  choice between the science and math area or history and social studies area. Graduating from this school eliminates them from taking the tough entrance exam for entrance into the local universities. This was the deal the government made with the colleges.

How about this for a school day!! Breakfast is around 7:15 am and classes start @ 7:40 am and run till noon. Much like in the US school system (about the only similar item) the lunch program runs the school. The Jr. High kids eat @ 11:30 and the Sr. High around noon. They have about an 1 ½ hour lunch break and then back to classes till 5:00 pm..Supper is served and then back to study areas from 6:20 to 8:40 for Jr. High and till 9:20 for High School..Lights out @ 10:00 pm for the Sr. High kids, a bit earlier for the younger ones. Sports or clubs take place in the late afternoon. There is no competition between other schools as it would cut into study time. Basketball is big here among the students as a sport and they like the NBA, especially the Lakers. We told them the Lakers were originally from Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, and city of Minneapolis, the city of Lakes.

The campus would be a large version of St. Olaf or Gustavus. The mulit-storied ( a 3 story cafeteria) buildings have marble stairways with stainless steel handrails, no carpet here. The huge gym would rival the Target Center and many outdoor basketball courts ring the campus. Expansive walkways, and landscaping is set around ponds, shrubs and trees. The architecture is creative the library looming over a huge granite football like courtyard.

20% of these kids go onto Universities all over the world without having to take the college exams. There were lists of the student’s names with the college acceptances next to their names. One had 9 schools.. from the Big Ten, California, Ivy League to schools in Europe. About 40-50% go onto colleges in China with vo-tech schools being an option. This is a brain factory. They want to be here and I am sure the principal deals with few discipline problems. The director said “If a kid came home from school @ 3:00 pm., he /she would be shot by the parents.” Education here is big time and I feel the game is over. China wins.

I talked to a student for about 15 minutes and within 12 hours he had emailed me. He was interested in the most fantastic sport in the US, who was the most famous American author and had I been to a NBA game. I gave him my answers and told him I’d take him a game if he came to America. My bet is he will be over, these kids are driven..Fun to see this.