Orphans often live miserable lives; their parents have died and they are placed under the care of elderly grandparents with meager assistance from neighbours and fellow villagers. This is the general livelihood of rural orphans. Statistics shows China has 57 million orphans, one-third of them need material relief and loving care badly. Caring for these orphans poses financial burden on the foster families and creates new forms of poverty. Compared with other children, orphans in rural areas are generally over-aged for school and drop-outs from school are invariably high.

Caring for rural orphans is the focal point of The Amity Foundation’s mission in helping the vulnerable and underprivileged children. In 2002, The Foundation inaugurated the “Child Sponsorship” project for orphans in poor and remote villages. Up till now, 5,600 orphans have been benefited from the project with better education and livelihood.

Milestones

• In December 2006, a volunteer group, formed by donors, spontaneously set up in Nanjing. Former national women’s volleyball team captain, famous athletes, Amity Orphan Sponsorship Ambassador Ms Sun Yue, IT, sports, law, media and business community from Nanjing became the core strength of the volunteer group.
• In spring 2007, The Amity Foundation and the volunteer group jointly launched an Amity orphan charity funding scheme, a creative “e – 10,000 Operations”. Through this charity operations network, we look forward to providing more urgently needed assistance to orphans and help light up their lives.