Child sponsorship letter from Urumqi, China

An example child sponsorship letter from Urumqi, China:

Dear Sponsors,

SOS Children’s Village Urumqi

In the last 6 months, we have taken in 4 orphaned children. They are sent to the village because their relatives cannot support them anymore as they are of school age. As soon as they come to the village, they receive a thorough physical examination at hospital. Two of them have some minor malnutrition problems. Thanks to the help from their new SOS mothers, their health condition has been improved. At present, they have become used to their new family and have made some friends in the village. Up to now, including 33 big boys in the youth home, 137 orphaned children are living in the care of SOS Children’s Village Urumqi.

As time goes on, more and more children become adolescents. In order to let our SOS mothers to better help adolescent children, we organize a workshop for our SOS mothers at the beginning of this year. At the workshop, we invite a professor of child development to give our SOS mothers a lecture about adolescent education. They also learn some skills on how to communicate with their adolescent children and how to cope with some common adolescent problems at the workshop. According to our educational co-workers, it is obvious that the workshop helped them a lot because they come to the village office with fewer problems of adolescents.

In early June, one of our children graduated from a nursing school. As soon as she leaves the school, she gets an employment letter from a hospital in Urumqi. Now she is working as a nurse in the hospital. She lives in a dorm in the hospital. She usually comes back to her SOS family in holidays. Her little brothers and sisters are very excited when she come back home with some small gifts for them.

This year, local government has provided great financial support to our village. First, it offers to install solar heaters for all the houses in our village, which can save us a lot of gas. Second, the local government helps to replace the previous cement basketball court with a rubber one, so as to avoid more injures from basketball court. At last, our local government has approved to build our village a 6-story multi-function building, which comprises a social Centre, a library and a training Centre and probably a children development research Centre. The project will be completed within about two years.

SOS Youth Home

By this July, 33 youths have moved into the youth house and become members of the youth community. Since there are only 4 dorms in the youth homes, it is crowded when all youths comes back from school. However, they usually get along well with one another, and every one can more or less fulfill his duty as a community member.

Early this year, since many of our youths like playing basketball they organize themselves a basketball team. And a basketball couch volunteers to train them at weekends. Since then their playing skills have been improved at a big space. In holidays we encourage them to take part in some basketball matches for teenagers. Playing basketball helps to build a healthy body and also gives them a sense of competition, which many of our children lack.

In June, 11 youths finish their 9-year compulsory schooling (junior high school) and take a senior high school entrance exam. Recently, they received results and six of them have passed the exam. Up to now, all the six youths have received an admission letter from different senior high schools. Among them, three youths are admitted to some renowned senior high schools in the city of Urumqi. From this September, they are going to receive another three year’s study at senior high school before higher education at college. The rest five youths, who haven’t passed the entrance exam for senior high schools, will receive some trainings and professional skills in some secondary technical schools. For this reason, we organize a small orientation meeting for the youths who are going to attend secondary technical schools. At the meeting we provide some analysis on current situation of job markets and give some guidance on how to choose a technical school and technical skills as well. Up to now, all of them have sent out their applications. It is hoped that they will receive admission notices within a month. 

SOS Nursery

In the past 6 months, SOS Nursery attaches great importance to improving our Nursery teachers’ professional skills by several means. First, our teachers are encouraged to take an active part in teaching skills contests which are mostly held by local government agencies of education. One of our teachers won second place in a contest of preschool teaching skills. Second, the Nursery also recommends our teacher to attend a local important competition on creative teaching toys and methods for Nursery children. Ten teachers participated in the competition with their creative thoughts and teaching toys. Though none of them got awards, they all think they have learned a lot from the competition.

In addition, the Nursery organizes an exhibit of children’s art. It mainly aims to express deep sorrows and support to those who lost their relatives in the earthquake in Yusu County in Qinghai Province in April this year. Many children participate in the exhibit with their paintings and art works.

At present, around 135 children are receiving daycare and preschool education in our Nursery. 14 of them are from the SOS Children’s Village. Some children from poor families can attend our Nursery for free.

Sincerely,

SOS Children's Village Urumqi