Half the Sky
Half the Sky is an organization that works to help children in orphanages in China. They have four programs that they put into orphanages - a baby sisters program, a little sisters program, a big sisters program, and a foster village program. You can read about some of their programs at their website, but I want to talk about the Baby Sisters program.
The Baby Sisters program is for, well, babies. It is an infant nurture program that provides play time for the baby almost every day. Each HTS nanny is assigned 3 to 5 babies. The babies are carried to the playroom once a day to play with their HTS nanny - she plays with them, interacts with them, talks to them, and watches over them as they explore their world and play. My friend adopted a child from an orphanage with a Baby Sisters program and she was told that her child spent about two hours a day in the playroom with her HTS nanny (I understand that many HTS orphanages offer more than two hours per day per child). My friend’s 14 month old daughter was very close to where you would expect a child to be developmentally, her gross and fine motor skills were both in the normal range and she learned English very quickly. My friend also has pictures that were taken of her daughter about once a month for her entire stay at the orphanage. What a wonderful wonderful gift.
The infant nurture centers (playrooms) are painted in soft colors. The floors are carpeted and half the room is padded with play mats. There are rocking chairs and mirrors and pull-up bars and lots of developmental toys. But the core of the program is the one-on-one nurture that the babies receive.
Why am I talking about Half the Sky? When I upgraded to a bigger package with my hosting company several people offered to send me money. I declined that offer, but then someone offered to send money to my favorite charity. Half the Sky is my favorite charity.
If you would like to show your appreciation for what you get out of the ChinaAdoptTalk.com site, please consider sending a donation to Half the Sky. I thought it would be nice if we tried to help a specific cause, and HTS suggested that we could work towards paying the salaries for the nannies at the center in Nanning, Guangxi. The cost for the salaries for 18 nannies is $17,300 per year. This is not the total cost for running the center, it is just the cost for the salaries.
If you would like to donate you can download this pdf form to fill out and either fax in with a credit card number or mail in with a check. Our own CWS added the blurb at the top that will credit your donation toward our total. HTS will periodically let us know how much they’ve received in donations that were credited to us. I will post updates on the blog and here.
I never imagined my little blog would get so big, but I really love the little community we’ve formed. The thought that people are asking what my favorite charity is so they can donate to it warmed my heart so much I cried (though I should admit that with my adoption hormones at the time it didn’t take much to make me cry). I talked to my husband about it because I felt self conscious asking anyone to send money in my name, but he said that if people are asking to do it then I should provide a way to do it. So, I am. And I’m really excited about the prospect that we could pay the yearly salaries for some or maybe even all of the nannies at an orphanage. Imagine how excited we will all be if one of our very own is referred a child from this orphanage!
| Began | September 27, 2006 | |
| First update | October 27, 2006 | $2,983.25 |
| 2nd update | January 3, 2007 | $6,838.00 |
| 3rd update | April 24, 2007 | $7,838.00 |
4 Responses to “Half the Sky”
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October 28th, 2006 at 9:05 am
In March of 2004 we adopted a 13 month old girl from Gaoyou CWI in Jiangsu Province. Although otherwise healthy she was somewhat delayed as she couldn’t sit up or even crawl. This was disturbing to me, because although our daughter was able to recover from her delays with our help, what would the long term impacts be to the children left at the institution?
In April of 2005 I was able to join a Half the Sky build trip as they went to Gaoyou and Haikou in Hainan Province to add infant nurture centers to those institutions and a Foster Care village at Gaoyou. I can tell you first hand that they are the real deal. As the RQ described, the added training and staff really make a difference in the children’s lives. It was incredibly rewarding to help improve our daughter’s CWI, and thanks to Half the Sky children at the institutions we visited are now much more developmentally on track.
Our daughter is doing great now and we are currently anxiously waiting for our SN TA for a soon to be 3 year old boy at the Shanghai CWI, which happily is home to a HTS program.
I am proud to say that since my return from the build trip I have been actively raising funds for HTS programs and I encourage everyone to give what they can to this great organization.
December 29th, 2006 at 10:36 am
Hi,
I am also a suporter and donot to Half the Sky. I think they are wonderful. MaY I ask how one goes about being part of one of the “build trips”– I would love to do that!
Country Girl
January 3rd, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Thanks for telling us about Half the Sky. Tonight we signed up to sponsor a child for a year.
October 29th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Hi RQ,
Have you done an update lately? You’re getting closer to your goal! We’re sponsoring one child now, and plan to sign up for another in Feb for my birthday. It’s so rewarding to get those updates and see how the babies have grown!