Categories China Adoption Blog

My Chinese Dream: Send Children Back Home

At Great Wall we value our close working relationship with our Orphanage Partnerships. Recently, we have been honored to have Director Tang Rongsheng of the Shenzhen City Social Welfare Institute share with us his respected perspective on his position working with the children of China. Through all the obstacles and unforeseen circumstances that can occur in an adoption we are lucky to know that we have Director Tang’s support, along with his deep love and affection for these children.  In our partnership with Director Tang and the Shenzhen City Social Welfare Institute, we have helped around 100 children come home to their forever family.

Director Tang has been awarded and recognized for his heartwarming speech below. We are happy to share this speech with your family and hope that it touches you as much as it has our team here at Great Wall China Adoption.

My Chinese Dream: Send Children Back Home

By Tang Rongsheng

Director of Shenzhen Social Welfare Center

You can never feel the eagerness without looking at their eyes.

You can never know the urgency without hearing their pledge.

You can never imagine the power of love without walking into their life.

Four years ago, I was chosen to be part of the special children at the Shenzhen Social Welfare Center. The innocent eyes of those children are filled with eagerness and persistence, as well as bitterness and fearfulness, which urges me to re-explore the meaning of life.

Every time when the children call me “daddy Tang”, I feel a gust of happiness inside. Since then, I began to realize that I’ve been closely tied to them.

As an old Chinese saying goes, “Paternal love is as deep as sea.” In countless sleepless nights, I kept asking myself what I can do for those children. However, I am fully aware that “father” is meaningful only in the setting of a family where children come from and will eventually return to.

Hard work pays off in the end. A total of 240 children have returned “home” in the past four years, of whom 140 were adopted by foreign families. Behind every adopted child lies a touching story. Every successful adoption is a result of our persistence, devotion and hard work, which reflects the cross-border love and demonstrates the wisdom of Shenzhen people in promoting adoption.

As the only representative from a Chinese welfare institution, I gave a speech titled “Give Children a Home” at the annual adoption conference in Austin two years ago. Hundreds of American families were impressed and adopted, afterwards, more than a hundred children with disabilities from my center. For these children, a new, beautiful life has embraced them since then. And I was also happy to pass on the title of “father.”

Whenever a child is about to start a new life in a new family and says goodbye to me and whenever a child travel a long distance to visit the welfare center with his new family, I always feel joyful and meanwhile, have a strong attachment to them. At that moment, I feel that I’ve understood them by looking at their eyes, heard their inner voices, and experienced their feelings.

The adoption work is ordinary but complicated. To send children back home and to prioritize the interests of children are my working principles. For any individuals engaged in children’s welfare work, the benefits of children are always their core values.

I’ve been interviewed by the China’s Central Television for five times in the past two years. The Chinese authoritative media have the same hope that we, the frontline welfare workers, have–to help children rescued from human traffickers return home. I always believe that it will never be wrong to give every child a home.

I admire and appreciate those who have devoted time and energy, even a little, to orphans and children with disabilities.

I despise those who turn blind eyes to and make troubles to those children.

I am in deep love with the cause of children’s welfare because it’s filled with the aroma of love, it beats the passion of love and it enjoys the joy of love.

If you ask me what I have done in the past four years, my answer is : send children back home. If you ask me what is the happiest experience I’ve had, my answer is : send children back home. If you ask me what I will do in the future, the answer is the same: to send children back home.

To let every child in China have a cozy home is my Chinese Dream. It is also the Chinese Dream of all the staff at my center and the Chinese Dream of all kind-hearted people.

Thank you.

Officially Introducing GWCA’s China Hosting Program!

Orphan hosting provides children an amazing opportunity to see
life outside their orphanage and their country. We call these people who
host waiting children Orphan Warriors.

Will you consider being an Orphan Warrior for these Chinese orphans? Great Wall China Adoption is collaborating with New Horizons for Children, the largest faith-based host program that has brought over 2,000 children to the U.S. through hosting, to bring Special Focus children from multiple orphanages all over China to the U.S. to experience the love of a family and the holiday season for 5 weeks. The approximate dates are December 15, 2013 – January 19, 2014. Photo listings of the children available for hosting will be available here on approximately October 1st, and final details of the program will be available at that time. Special Focus children that may be hosted are aged 6-13 and are older and healthy or have minor to moderate special medical needs. The cost to host a child, which covers their airfare, visa, medical insurance, etc, is $3150.

We are also looking for host families for our Chinese Chaperones traveling with the children, who will be caretakers from the children’s orphanages. There is NO COST to host a chaperone! If you are interested in hosting a chaperone and a wonderful opportunity to gain insight into Chinese culture, please let us know. For more information on the details of the hosting program, please contact New Horizons for Children via their website at http://www.newhorizonsforchildren.org/orphan-hosting/view-available-kids-here/ and be sure to fill out a pre-application for hosting and get connected with your regional coordinator. There are a limited number of children for this first hosting trip, so be sure to sign up early!

Children in Families First Act of 2013 (CHIFF)

Children Need Families. We Need Your Voice!
Children in Families First Act of 2013 (CHIFF) Introduced in the Senate Today!

As you know, every day, all over the world, more children find themselves living without families – on the streets, in orphanages, in refugee camps. By some estimates, there are now 200 million orphans in the world. But the U.S. Government, through our foreign policy and programming, is not helping to turn this around.

Americans know that family is the bedrock of any society, and that children need the permanent love, care, and protection of a family to grow into healthy, productive adults. Although U.S. foreign policy in theory emphasizes preserving or creating safe, permanent families for children through family reunification, kinship care, domestic or intercountry adoption, the structures and coordination are not there to make it happen. We need change, and NCFA believes this legislation will get us on the right path.

It seeks to redirect a portion of the funds the U.S. currently spends on children living abroad toward ensuring that all children grow up in a family. It restructures the way intercountry adoption is more appropriately placing an office in the Department of State, providing clear direction to not just regulate, but advocate for children in families, and a better balance of adoption support and administration between Department of State and USCIS. (For more detail see the attached, complete legislation.)

You can play a key role in helping to make this happen. Tell your stories. Explain your concerns. As trusted experts in this professional community, your voices will be valuable in explaining to congress and the public why this matters.

Here are specific ways you can get involved.

1. Call your Members of Congress! Ask them to cosponsor the Children in Families First Act of 2013 (S.1530). Let them know that you want your government to make a family for every child a priority!
2. Connect with Congress online. Social media allows you to directly connect with your elected officials.
3. Visit your members of Congress or their staff.
4. Email a letter to your 3 Members of Congress.
5. Be a part of the community! Like CHIFF on Facebook and Twitter!

To learn more, please regularly visit: www.childreninfamiliesfirst.org