GIVING HOMES, HEALTH AND HOPE TO CHILDREN AT RISK AND IN NEED.

                                     by: Cory Barron-Children’s Hope International

Her whole hand could not fit around a finger. But on the day after her heart surgery, 8-month-old old Lu Han Wen was gripping Melody Zhang’s thumb with a desire to live.  Now six months later, she is thriving in her foster home in Beijing.  

During her entire 12 week stay in China this summer, Melody, Children’s Hope International’s Associate Director, was able to witness what the generosity of Children’s Hope families has accomplished through “Give Me New Life” in China. 

“We have been accomplishing good things in China , but we always knew we were to do more. We just did not know when and how,” Melody says regarding the over 600 life changing surgeries provided for Chinese orphans since 2000 through “Give Me New Life”.

In December 2004, because of the Chinese Government’s new ambitious $74 million medical plan for the orphans called the Tomorrow Project, Melody and her family moved back to China.  For the next three-years she will work out of the CHI Beijing office to help thousands of children like little Lu Han Wen. Melody already has leased property in Beijing for the Children’s Hope Center that will house orphans rehabbing from surgeries provided by Project Tomorrow.

“This is God calling Melody back to China”, says Dwyatt Gantt, CHI Executive Director. “For a time like this, she was born.”

It was Jian Ying Wu in CHI’s Beijing Office who was instrumental in establishing a relationship with China Association of Social Work, an arm of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, with CHI’s “Give Me New Life” project.   Whether in their own Province or in Beijing, orphans were given operations by skilled Chinese physicians.  “Tomorrow Project” will use this same model multiplied by 100. Jian Ying Wu as a representative of the Chinese Association of Social Work, works in the committee overseeing “Project Tomorrow”.

These are some of the cribs at the Children’s Hope  >>>>
Center that will give children the time they need to gain strength before their trips back to the province.

Since the most severe cases will be brought to Beijing (300-500/year), the Aunties (caregivers) escorting these children and the children themselves will need temporary housing.  The property Melody already leased will not be enough. She is working with established foster care organizations to also provide safe clean beds for children following the surgeries.

 “I would be miserable if I don’t follow my heart,” adds Melody. “My husband Kevin and I have rejoiced over what we saw happening in China.”

It’s a homecoming for Melody. To do work she never thought possible even one-year-ago let alone when she moved to America in 1994.

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