Update May 2004

Dear Friends and supporters,

               We welcome Marsha Ma, and old friend and now a new member of our staff at Hope Foster Home. Marsha is our Project Coordinator. She is helping us on several new projects in Beijing as well as in other parts of China. We will report on these projects in more detail as we progress in our attempts to help children in more remote parts of China.

Foster Home Shunyi, Beijing:

Construction: More donations have come in towards the new construction. We received a donation from the pupils if Badminton School in Bristol UK for which we thank Sophie Roberts who headed up the entire fundraising project. Their efforts have sponsored the construction of our new dining room.

The Beijing Branch of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu CPA Ltd. has sponsored the new kitchen. Thank you all.  The construction is going well and on schedule.

The playground is almost complete and photos will be sent out to those who have donated items. It has been a while since we started the playground but the cold weather slowed a lot of the construction.

The babies: We have a new baby, Eloise, 3 months old with bilateral clubbed feet. (See attached photo) We casted her feet on the day she arrived.

Hayley has finally been accepted for major heart surgery in the US and should be leaving around the end of August. We are overjoyed and so grateful and for this opportunity for her. The twins leave for cleft lip surgery on May 23rd.  Michelle and Adam (both with congenital heat defects and on treatment for heart failure) still await confirmation to go for cardiac surgery and we are hopeful that this will happen soon. They are both doing well, especially Adam. Michelle is becoming more outgoing and she is much stronger than when she first arrived. We are still trying to get help for Jesher, born with a severe spinal deformity. All the other kids are doing very well. They are growing rapidly and are getting very noisy. Volunteers; Volunteers from Price Waterhouse Coopers came and painted walls. They have also helped with translation. Volunteers from GE and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu painted walls and planted tress and shrubs and brought us financial gifts as well as toys, food and clothing for the children. We welcome Christine O. from the Philippines as a volunteer and we hope that her time with us will be fruitful. Diane MC, an old friend also spent a week working with us. It’s great to see old friends.3 Mongolian Yurts (permanent, circular tents) have been erected to house larger volunteer groups from overseas whom we are expecting this Summer and Fall. Thank you all those who have made this possible.

Foster Home Sai Qi, Fujian Province

We have more donations for the support for the children in this foster home.  Thank you W T. and TW . We have put photos and information of the children in Sai Qi on our website and we are asking for individual sponsors for them. If you would like to sponsor and name one of these children go to http://www.hopefosterhome.com/hope_040.htm . Some of the children have also been put on  http://www.child-link.org  . Child-Link International Aid Foundation has kindly offered to help us get sponsors for the children. We are grateful to all of you who have rallied around to help. Our Project Coordinator Marsha will visit Sai Qi in the next few months and we will give an update on the situation of the children there after she returns.

Our thanks;

Apart from our gratitude for all the above, there are a few more people we would like to thank. BFG, you continue to be a tremendous blessing to us. Thank you for all that you have done. Thanks to Orthopedic surgeon Dr Diane Von Stein for her visit and valuable advice.

Many blessings to you all

Rob and Joyce