Who We Have Helped
UChicago China Care fundraises throughout the year to fund medical treatments for the orphans at the China Care Foundation. These children are "often malnourished and frequently suffer from hypothermia as a result of being abandoned. Almost all were born with a mild or severe birth defect or health abnormality. They are desperate for medical and emotional attention and require a high level of skilled care during their early weeks and months of life" (China Care Foundation). Over the past five years, through fundraising and help from the students and community, we have raised enough money to fund medical treatment for four orphans. Learn more about their stories and the surgeries that changed their lives.
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The Proposal: Pan Bin is a 5-month-old boy who was abandoned with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. A cleft lip is a condition that creates an opening in the upper lip between the mouth and the nose. Pan Bin’s cleft lip caused him difficulties during feeding because he could not form a vacuum around the feeding bottle’s nipple. These difficulties during feeding can result in such life threatening medical problems as malnutrition or pneumonia. Pan Bin needed surgery to repair his cleft lip.
Additional Information: Pan Bin will need another surgery after several months to repair his cleft palate. After that surgery he should be able to live a healthy and normal life. Pan Bin is doing very well in our Beijing Children’s Home and he will soon be moving back to our Baotou home. Once he has fully recovered from surgery and is big enough, he should be ready to enter a loving foster family of his own.
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The Proposal: Hao Li Wei is a 1 year-old boy who was abandoned in Inner Mongolia province with club feet. This means that his feet were turned inward and downward and needed to be corrected so that he could walk normally. Hao Li Wei had already finished casting last year, but he still needed additional casting to further correct his deformity.
Additional Information: Hao Li Wei spent his casting time in our Beijing Children’s Home. Once he was finished with the casting treatment, Hao Li Wei returned to his foster family where he is enjoying good health and loving care. Hao Li Wei already has an adoptive family matched with him and hopefully they will be able to take him home within the next month.
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The Proposal: Sun Zhen Lan is a 1-year-old girl who was abandoned with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. Cleft means ‘split’ or separation. During early pregnancy, separate areas of the face develop individually and then join together. If some parts do not join properly, the result is a cleft. Sun Zhen Lan’s cleft lip had already been repaired and she needed surgery to have her cleft palate repaired.
Additional Information: Sun Zhen Lan will not need any further treatment for her cleft palate for several years. It is common that the cleft palate may open up again as the child grows up, but Sun Zhen Lan’s last surgery should last until she has grown much bigger. With her cleft palate repaired, Sun Zhen Lan should be able to live a healthier and more normal life.
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The Proposal: Guan came to China Care when she was seven months old, and was born with facial hemangiomas and multiple heart defects. These blood tumors coupled with Guan’s heart conditions posed serious life-threatening risks to her health and survival.
Additional Information: Thanks to your support, China Care was able to provide Guan with monthly intramuscular injection treatments for her hemangiomas. Her nannies are so proud that she can now stand up by herself. She is a happy little girl who often comes up with clever tricks to get her nanny’s attention. Guan is now well on her way to a healthy future and has gained considerable strength from her treatments.