What We Propose to Do

As students, there is a limit as to what we can accomplish. Even with that in mind, we are dedicated to finding a way to help out entities such as Half the Sky to raise funds and in turn, help the children.

One way we propose to help out this organization is to ask the students of our school, Drexel University, to help participate in a Chinese cultural festival that will celebrate the wonderful Chinese culture while also educating the student body about this issue of Chinese orphans. There have been stories of other festivals being held that have successfully raised funds for their particular topics. For example, there was the a school in Michigan that held a Broadway Film Festival to raise money for theater renovations. There was also a Wine Festival held by a town in Arizona to raise money for holiday lights to be strewn across town in December. We hope to mirror these examples successes.

Pictured below is two children celebrating a Chinese Festival in Missouri:

If not a festival, we also want to try to host a walk-a-thon to get students out exercising for a good cause. These brings students together in a community-bonding way where everyone feels like that are together fighting for a cause. Many walk-a-thons are held for many different causes such as the Amer-a-thon and the Avon Walk for Cancer.

A Cry for Help; A Foundation to the Rescue

To help these orphans out, a foundation was created to aid these children through providing them opportunities to find love from others and to help nurture and raise them to become successful adults later in life. This foundation is the Half the Sky Foundation.

This foundation provides five programs to help out these orphaned children:
-The Baby Sisters Infant Nurture Program
-The Little Sisters Preschool Program
-The Big Sisters Program
-The Family Village Program
-The China Care Program

To help fund these programs, this foundation has expanded internationally and has establishments in six major countries throughout the world: United States, UK, Hong Kong, Australia, Netherlands, and Canada.

The foundation also simply states their goal as such:
Our goal is to ensure that every one of China's orphans has a caring adult in their life. 






To help donate to this foundation, or to just learn more, please click on the following link:
Half the Sky Foundation

What Does an Orphanage Look Like?

Here are a few pictures of orphanages so one can see what they really look like:

Some Statistics

To help give a brief overview of the situation surrounding these orphans, we want to provide a snapshot with statistics:

-In the 2000 Census taken in China, it was found that the sex ratio was 117 boys per every 100 girls.

-There are about 7 million abortions per year, 70% of the fetuses being female.

-95% of children living in welfare institutions are little girls. Also, about 50% of the children living in these institutions are also in need of special medical care.

- China Center of Adoption Affairs placed approximately 13,000 children for international adoption in 2005, while there were approximately 25,000 children adopted domestically.

Sources:
The Mystery of China's Orphans
Half the Sky
573,000 Orphans in China

Why Does This Occur?

Today, there are tens of thousands of children who are orphaned in China. 95% of these children are completely healthy little girls. Why is this occurring?

A little bit of background:

This problem spawned due to the passage of the One Child Policy, created in 1979, that was upheld in the People's Republic of China. This allows a family to have only one child, as the name implies. If the first child is a girl, the family would usually abandon her as the parents would rather have a son. If a family does have a second child, they've violated the policy and thus must have to pay heavy fines and are penalized in other ways, such as not being eligible to receive bonuses from work. 

In recent times, the rising costs of health care costs has caused poorer families to abandon their children because the families can no longer support their child. 

Thankfully, in 1992 China adopted its first Adoption Law. It was recorded in 1992 that 2,000 adoptions occurred. This number has dramatically increased to 55,000 adoptions recorded in 2011.

Pictured below: An orphaned girl crying on the side of the street.