Teresa Woo and Eulalla Lee Andreasen founded the Ping An Medical Foster Home in 2003 to help Chinese orphans with serious illnesses and birth defects get medical attention and rehabilitative care. Though it is still a resolutely grassroots organization (“We don’t even have a website,” says Woo), Ping An has grown in capacity and scope in its six years of operations and now cares for a continually changing batch of sick children.
The orphans are housed in a couple of rented apartments in Beijing under the care of a team of full-time nannies. Woo tries her best to facilitate operations and medical procedures for her charges, many of whom are suffering from ailments like cleft palates and spina bifida, before setting them up with adoptive parents from overseas. In addition to the co-founders and nannies, a dedicated team of volunteer professionals – doctors, nurses, lawyers, caretakers and therapists – work together to enable around-the-clock care for these kids. All of the operational costs are funded through financial and material donations.
Our sister magazine thebeijinger has held fundraisers for Ping An Foster Home in years past – most notably through the annual Christmas funk parties that helped raise money for operations; but, as always, the organization needs assistance year-round in the form of cash donations and volunteers to help the children under the care of Ping An.
To find out more about how to contribute, you can e-mail Teresa Woo at pungfat@hotmail.com.
