Foster home survives without aid

Efforts to legalise centre for orphans falls on deaf ears

NANNING: For at least three months, Ban Aihua has tried to legalise her privately-run foster home, a humble shelter for 68 children.

However, her plea to register the home as a non-governmental charity agency has fallen on deaf ears.

She is still waiting for official authorisation to run a welfare home in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The news of a deadly fire that killed seven people at an unlicensed orphanage in Henan Province on Jan 4 was particularly disturbing, Ban said.

“I’m in the same boat as the foster mother in Henan and may face similar risks,” she said.

In the wake of the Henan fire, authorities began questioning Yuan Lihai, the “foster mother” who has cared for more than 100 unwanted children who were mostly ill or handicapped over the past 26 years.

Ban said she was particularly sad to hear that Yuan, who struggled to earn a living for the kids by selling snacks, begging and applying for government subsidies, may face prosecution despite decades of efforts to make up for government inaction and provide for the children.

I’m in the same boat as the foster mother in Henan and may face similar risks. — BAN AIHUA

“Yuan is not alone,” said Ban, 54, who lives with 68 children between the ages of five and 17 in a village in the city of Hechi.

In her younger days, Ban taught at a village school for four years. She later migrated to east China’s Jiangxi Province, where she took temporary jobs, got married and settled down.

When she returned to her home village for her father’s funeral in 2001, however, she found that many children were not attending school. She decided to stay and open her own private school, which would later become the welfare home that now houses her and her charges.

As public schools were located far from the outlying village, Ban set up the private school in her own home, providing food, lodging and tuition for free.

That year, 56 children attended her school, including orphans, children from broken marriages and migrant families. — Xinhua