A Visit to the Yongxiu Orphanage in April 2000

See photos from this visit below the text.

On 24-APR-2000 as a rare exception we (8 adoptive families from Denmark) visited the orphanage. It is placed at the bank of the Jiangxi river in a very poor area 15 km north of Nanchang, 3 km west of the Nanchang-Jiujiang highway.  The orphanage was funded by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and implemented by Save The Children (UK) and YongXiu Civil Affairs.  It is a very nice and clean orphanage with not too many children. Everything inside is built in polished marble/stone (which is easy to clean and will keep the building cool in the hot summer).

The orphanage is built and organized as ten family groups of 4-6 children plus one nanny each. The primary nanny is with her group 24 hours a day, six days a week and a substitute nanny will take over on her weekly day off.  Each family group has :

30 sqm living room/playing room with an air-conditioning unit, TV, 2 wooden sofas, 2 adult chairs, 2 tables, 2 baby-walkers, 2 combined eating, playing and potty chairs.

12 sqm children�s sleeping room with 4-6 child beds

15 sqm sleeping room for the nanny with a large bed, a chair, table, closet and drawers

7 sqm kitchen (fine Chinese standard) with gas, stove, bottle steamer etc.

7 sqm bath/toilet (fine Chinese standard) with toilet, bathtub and washing machine.

A typical day in the orphanage will be like this:  The children wake up at 4-5 in the morning. At 6 they get up and each get a bottle of mothers milk substitute. Then they have a bath. At 9:00 they get cold rice-gruel. Then they play individually or with other children. At 12:00 they get their main meal, which is steamed egg, rice with a little soup or other soft/mashed food, noodles etc. At 12:30 � 13:30 they have a nap. Then they play individually or with other children. At 15:00 they will get rice-gruel + a little fruit (apple, banana or orange). At 19:00 they each get a bottle. At 20:30 � 21:00 they are put to bed. They usually sleep until the morning.  Much of the day is spent in a baby-walker or in the combined eating, playing and potty chair. The children are not used to toys. In the evening, the nanny will watch TV and several of the children are interested, especially if it is something with music. The children do not play outdoors.

All the children are named Jiang (derived from the name of the province Jiangxi), Yong (derived from the name of the orphanage Yongxiu) and the next name from a long list of popular Chinese names.

After having received our children at the hotel room in Nanchang we had a 1:30 hour talk with the relevant nannies. They answered all our questions and made a good impression.  All nannies were very caring. In general the children were healthy and well taken care off. Mr Cai is a nice man. He also went with us to Civil Affairs and Notary Office, as he is the one to formally give away the adopted children.

From the road a few miles from Yongxiu.

Please e-mail me at webmaster@gurrad.com if you have any additional information or if your child is from here and you would like to post a picture here or other contact information.