With over more than 20 years of working in China, Holt has cultivated a strong relationship with the Chinese government – accomplishing all child welfare goals through partnership with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and participating orphanages. Initially, upon determining the service needs in an area, Holt works with local partners to establish community-based programs. As local capacity develops, Holt progressively transfers management and financial responsibility while continuing to monitor, train and provide technical assistance to help programs achieve independence.
As everywhere, Holt strives to promote permanent placement as the best solution for orphaned and abandoned children in China. For many, though, permanency through adoption is not a likely outcome. For older children, and children with medical and developmental conditions, Holt has developed alternative solutions to life-long institutionalization. In long-term foster care and group homes, children receive loving, attentive care from devoted foster parents. In addition to ICA and foster care, Holt has pioneered in China to stabilize home environments for children at risk of separation from their families due to poverty, HIV and drugs through Family Strengthening programs. Other Holt projects include emergency medical treatment for infants, skills training for older children with special needs, and additional assistance for vulnerable children in the community.
RELATED: Brief Overview of Holt’s History in China
Types of Child Welfare Programs in China
Baby Care Unit: Helps local orphanages improve the feeding and initial care of pre-mature babies, weak babies, and babies with special needs who are newly admitted to the institution, so that they can be quickly placed into foster care after their health is stable.
Nanchang Orphanage Baby Care Unit
Short-Term Foster Care: Supports foster homes throughout China that provide a more family-like environment for children awaiting placement into a permanent home of their own.
Left: Before entering Holt’s Foster Care Program (October 2009); Right: Six months after entering (April 2010).
Long-Term Foster Care: Supports a number of foster homes for older and special needs children in several locations. These homes provide a family-like environment outside the institution to children who are less likely to be adopted soon.
Long-Term Foster Care in China
Group Home: Provides another mode of care for older children and children with special needs besides foster care and institutional care, especially in cases where foster care may be problematic. Each Group Home family cares for no more than 6 children at any given time.
Group Home families in Jiangxi province.
Family Strengthening: Serves children from impoverished families in middle and high schools. Most of the children’s families have been impacted by HIV or drugs and all children have lost at least one parent. In some cases, children with one living parent are still in at-risk situations because the remaining parent has left home, leaving their child(ren) to be cared for by relatives.
Nanning Family Strengthening Program
Medical Services: Provides funding for various medical services to children, including pre- and post- surgery care, rehabilitation therapy, critical surgeries, and specialized medical interventions.
Left: Before receiving surgery and pre-/post-surgery care in Holt’s Peace House; Right: After receiving surgery and care.
Social Adaptation: Help children living in the orphanage (most older and/or with special needs) learn some vocational skills, enhance their self-esteem, and build up a spirit of independence.
Left: Special Needs Knitting Group in our Social Adaptation Program. These children frequently sell the crafts they make to local buyers; Right: Music training class in our Longchuan Social Adaptation Program.
Continuing Education Support: Maintains an education fund for young orphaned children preparing to enter vocational or tertiary schools or colleges, particularly those who have aged out of Holt’s Sponsorship Program. Holt collaborates with local Civil Affairs offices in several provinces to provide funding for each student’s tuition, fees, and living expenses as they attend the school of their choice.
Left: A student in our Continuing Education Support program in one of his school’s classrooms; Right:A student in our Continuing Education Support Program shows off her university acceptance letter.
Outings and Special Activities for Orphanage Children: Children who are not adopted and who are growing up in orphanages have far fewer opportunities to experience the world outside than other children. Holt staff members have escorted hundreds of them on field trips, to visit restaurants and parks, and celebrate holidays. These simple experiences leave a lasting impression and open up a new world to these children.
Left: Children in a Guangxi province orphanage celebrate Children’s Day with a fun group dance performance; Right: Barbeque outing for children in a Guangxi province orphanage to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
RELATED: China Program Map & Descriptions
RELATED: Meet Holt’s Staff in China
Stand with Holt in supporting vulnerable children in China!
Please consider donating to one of Holt’s many child welfare programs in China, Sponsoring a child through Holt, or simply earmarking your donation to Holt “as most needed for children in China”.