BofA Volunteer Trip to China Nov 2008: November 4

Today we flew from Beijing to Jinan which is where we will be spending the majority of our time volunteering in the orphanage.

We went to the Jinan orphanage where we met with the directors. They talked to us about the orphanage and how appreciative they are to have us there. The Jinan orphanage has been around for 60 years and currently has 300 orphans. The ages range from newborn to 18. The older kids leave the orphanage each day to go to school while the younger ones stay and learn social skills by playing with each other. 99% of the orphans are there with disabilities and/or other diseases. The directors told us said that the babies just need attention...they need us to hold them and give them love...and that's what we are here to do.

The directors then took us on a tour of orphanage. Each floor houses a different age group. Babies on one floor, pre-school on another etc. We played with some of the 2 year-olds during their exercise time. Because there are so many children with special needs at the orphanage there are specific floors and wings dedicated to teaching these children with physical therapy as well as speech therapy. When we went into one of the rooms that had children with cerebral palsy, they all said "Hello" and came over to shake our hands. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen! Our director told us that they all learned how to speak on the "Dr. Speech" speech therapy machine and before they got the machine they couldn't say anything. There were also rooms dedicated to physical therapy that teach the children how to walk, how to climb, how to lift weights to strengthen their arms, balance and how to open their hands properly. Jinan has schools for special needs children so as these children get older they will go to the city schools. For now though, teachers from the city schools show the Aunties (nannies) proper techniques on how to teach young children with special needs.