Good Samaritan consumed by greed

China’s Caring Mama began wanting to help orphans, but when the cash started flowing in she lost her way.

IT all started when a former miner brought her the first orphan. Apparently driven by her sympathy for children who have lost their parents, Li Lijuan founded the Village of Love welfare home in the Wuan township of Hebei province, and has taken in 118 children (including the disabled and those abandoned by their parents) over the past two decades.

Under her care, some of them have grown up healthily, attended university or received treatment for their disabilities.

“I want to provide education and a good environment for these pitiful children,” Li was reported as saying in an interview in 2005.

But what started as a noble cause became ugly when more and more donations poured in for the welfare home. Greed set in and the children were turned into money-making tools.

Known as the Caring Mama, having gained fame for spending millions to raise the children, Li was recently detained for criminal offences, including blackmail and disturbing social order, according to a China Daily news report.

Village of Love, which had 74 residents, including 69 toddlers and babies, was closed down by the local government after she refused to cooperate with the authorities for inspections despite numerous warnings.

The number of children she adopted has exceeded the limit permitted for private welfare homes.

After her arrest, it was discovered that Li, 49, owns several houses and luxury cars. Police froze her personal bank accounts, whose funds amounted to more than 20 million yuan (RM12.5mil) and over US$20,000 (RM78,000).

“As the number of children grew and Li became more popular, she received huge amounts of donations from the public as well as government welfare subsidies,” said the publicity bureau of the Wuan Municipal Council in a state- ment, adding that the easy money led the Good Samaritan astray.

Li was said to have used the children to besiege the local governments and intimidate officials.

Police were also investigating allegations that children who went against her orders were not given food or were beaten.

Initial investigations found that Li had also listed children with parents or legal guardians under the home so that she could get more welfare payments.

Wuhan Evening Post reported that Li had blackmailed a company that needed to pass a fibre optic cable above her welfare home, saying that radiation from the cable was hazardous to the children’s health.

Failing to negotiate a deal, the company changed its plan by rerouting the cable but Li brought children from the welfare home to the construction site to protest against the project.

In the end, she received a 70,000 yuan (RM43,700) “donation” from the company.

In one incident, she even told the children to go under trucks and jump into foundation ditches to stop a major construction project.

She was also reported to have blackmailed 300,000 yuan (RM187,400) from a hotel and a hospital after leading groups of children to create chaos at these places.

The story of the Caring Mama first gained wide prominence in 2015.

Her good deeds led to Li being named one of the 10 Touching Figures of Hebei the following year. But greed changed her.

As she became more notorious over the past few years, those who refused to give in to her unreasonable demands reported her crimes to the police.

On another story related to orphans, some 280 people who lost their families in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake returned to their foster home for a reunion in memory of the 10th anniversary of the deadly disaster.

“We are home!” they cheered as they caught up with each other, sharing their hardship and happy moments at the shelter last week, Xinhua reported.

On May 12 a decade ago, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Wenchuan of Sichuan province, killing nearly 90,000 people and making hundreds of children orphans.

To accommodate these children, the Ankang Home was built with help from private companies and charity foundations. Of the 672 orphans, 48 minors are still living at the home.

Meanwhile, the dozens of children who were born at a Buddhist temple in the aftermath of the earthquake have also got together to celebrate their 10th birthday.

The temple was used as a temporary hospital after the nearby Shifang Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital was destroyed in the disaster.

Expectant mothers at the hospital were evacuated and moved to the temple. From the date of the earthquake, a total of 108 babies were born in a period of about three months.

To show their appreciation, the children and their families celebrate their birthday together at the temple yearly.

The reunion also saw the children participating in the filming of a documentary about their births.

Children who went against her oders were not given food or were beaten.