My name is Angelina Anh Laute, a Grade 10 student at the Western Academy of Beijing. I am American with Vietnamese-German heritage, but I was born in Beijing and have lived here all my life. I am a drummer in a band with my best friends at school and have been a Taekwondo practitioner for the past five years.                                                 

Can you briefly tell us about the Peachy Run project and how it led to your current internship at the children’s home Dew Drops?

For my WAB Personal Project, I organized a community charity event, Peachy Charity Run & Brunch, dedicated to raising funds for a five-year-old orphan called Ping who suffers from a rare genetic skin disease (epidermolysis bullosa, or EB). I wanted to raise RMB 10,000 for one month of specialized care. Through social media campaigns, posters, and talks around my school, [as well as through]community outreach and local media, over 50 people attended the charity run and over 100 people donated locally and internationally, raising RMB 28,068.65 – almost triple my initial goal. My family has visited Ping at Dew Drops, a home for medically compromised children, for ten years. When my classmates and I had to choose an area of work for the World of Work one-week internship program, I thought of Dew Drops’ inspiring leaders and children and knew I wanted to work with them.

What motivated you to start the Peachy Run and raise funds for Ping?
My family started the project. Since I was a little girl, I’ve seen my mom help our Beijing community. I first saw this when I played with orphans in the dental office waiting room while my mom and her doctors gave free dental care to needy children. In high school, my brother started the Peachy Run. I wanted to help my community after watching my family work.

I realized that only a cause I care about and connect with would motivate me to finish my charity run. Ping came to mind. Two years ago, his patience, strength, and resilience inspired me. I understand Ping’s discomfort, insecurity, and physical pain because my brother had skin issues as a child. To prevent infections, his caregivers apply ointment and bandages daily. I always see him smiling. I wanted to give back after he inspired me.

Could you describe your experiences during the Peachy Run and the impact it had on Ping’s life?
During the project, strangers approached me at school and on social media. They told me my project inspired them. The best feeling is seeing so many people passionate about something I love. The power of community was shown by people working together for a common goal. The Peachy Run & Brunch will provide Ping with specialized care for over four months, including bandaging materials (4,000 rolls of gauze and 100 boxes of petroleum gauze), food, and 24/7 loving caregivers.

What made you decide to pursue an internship at the children’s home after the Peachy Run? How has your time at the home been so far, and what have you learned from the experience?
After my Peachy Run, I wanted to learn how I could continue to make my altruistic actions more effective and have a larger impact, and I knew Dew Drops and their team of strong and compassionate women would help me do that. In addition, I especially looked forward to the daily interactions with the children and the rewarding experience it would bring. My time at Dew Drops has made me understand the operational processes of a successful nonprofit organization. Every day, the women there must adapt to the constant changes in their work, with new children entering their programs and finding new innovative ways to spread their message to a wider audience. No matter how challenging work can get, they always have the safety and happiness of their children as the number one priority.

Can you share a specific moment or story from this week’s internship that has had a profound impact on you? How has this experience influenced your perspective on helping others and making a difference?One day I came to work with two braids and a little girl said she loved them and wished she could have them too. We sat on the ground and I braided her hair. We sang along to songs on her toy radio, she showed me her favorite puzzle. She explained her favorite colors and flowers, and I read her the Ugly Duckling while she turned the pages. While braiding her hair, we shared an intimacy like my mom and I. I assumed someone would braid my hair and read me picture books. Family’s smallest details create lasting memories. I’m glad I could give the little girl those small moments, as I had them when I was younger.

（Official WeChat account of the children’s home）

Images: Courtesy of Angelina Anh Laute

On a cold winter in 2014, onlookers gathered around a baby boy wrapped in blankets and abandoned on the side of the road. The only signs that he was once loved and cared for were the blanket he was wrapped in, some clothes, and milk powder. Those passing by shook their heads. “It’s too cold. Poor child.” As though impervious to the cold and crowd that’s gathered around him, the baby boy stayed fast asleep.

The baby was taken to the local welfare institution in town and named Dongdong, the Chinese for Winter, after the cold day he was discovered on. After a close examination by the staff it was determined that Dongdong was approximately just five days old. Born with a cleft palate and bilateral clubfeet, Dongdong would eventually require surgery.

Dongdong was soon admitted into the Chunhui Infant Nurture program in the local welfare institution and was assigned to his first Chunhui Mama, Wu Yijuan.

Wu Yijuan (“Mama Wu”) had cared for many babies and her heart ached when she first saw little Dongdong wrapped in thick clothes. Mama Wu held Dongdong close and the two soon established a close bond.

Although Dongdong was getting better, he was still underweight. At 13 months he weighed just 11 pounds – about half the weight of a healthy baby his age. He was placed in the Chunhui Family Program which recruits local married couples who have received the proper special needs training to become foster parents. There he met his second mom, Chen Yanqing (Mama Chen).

Looking into the eyes of her tiny new foster son, Mama Chen feared that she had taken on more than she could handle.  At times her grueling schedule made her consider quitting, but she had already fallen in love with her kids and couldn’t leave them.

At home Mama Chen did her best to give Dongdong as much support as he needed. She gave him a special chair to help him practice sitting up and made him nutritious foods to help him get better. By his second birthday, he had finally reached normal weight and was ready to undergo surgery for his club feet and cleft palate.

When Dongdong arrived at Chunhui Care Home he was trusted to the care of Yan Weimin, Mama Yan. She gave him the emotional support and encouragement he needed and helped boost his sense of confidence. Mama Yan accompanied him to the hospital where his doctor placed orthopedic casts on his legs.

Following his clubfoot treatments, Dongdong underwent successful cleft palate surgery before returning to Chunhui Care Home to recuperate. He loves spending time with Mama Yan.

15 months after his arrival at Chunhui Care Home, Dongdong had finally recuperated enough to return to the welfare institution. “When I walk, I don’t trip over!”, he’d say with pride. When the Chunhui Family Mentor Zeng Feiling saw Dongdong she was thrilled to see that he was “a totally different boy. Chunhui Care Home really created a miracle!”

Dongdong has also become more independent in his day-to-day activities. He is able to eat and dress himself.

In 2018 Dongdong’s life took another change for the better; a loving couple from Spain have adopted Dongdong and brought him back to Europe. Looking back on Dongdong’s journey which started from the cold streets, to the orphanage’s nursery to the loving Chunhui family, to the miraculous Chunhui Care Home, and finally to his new home 10,000 miles away, it is with the love and care of his Chunhui Mamas who gave the frail and silent little baby a chance at a new life and to become the joyful, energetic child that he is today.

Chunhui Children’s Foundation
Chunhui Children was registered in Beijing in 2012 and granted public fundraising status in 2017. They recruit front-line caregivers and teachers and train them to provide consistent family-like love and science-based, child-centered education for orphaned children in welfare institutions and for children left behind by migrant parents in rural areas. In 2015, Chunhui Children received a 5A social organization status and was awarded the title of “Pioneer Social Organization” for 2015-2017. Chunhui Children currently runs three core programs for children in welfare institutions and left-behind children in rural areas – Chunhui Mama, Chunhui Care Home, and Chunhui Village.

Chunhui Children is now operating programs in 105 Children Welfare Institutions of 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, and cooperating with 65 percent of Children Welfare Institutions in China. To date, more than 180,000 children lacking family love have benefited from Chunhui programs — more than 150,000 orphaned children benefited from Chunhui Mama, 20,715 left-behind children benefited from Chunhui Village, and 2,777 children with severe diseases benefited from Chunhui Care Home.

2019 Chunhui Night
This year’s Chunhui Night Gala will be held on November 9 at China World Hotel. All donations received at the Gala will be used to fund Chunhui programs. Tickets are RMB 9,200 per person, enough to support a child at Chunhui for an entire year. To RSVP, please email event@chbaf.org.

November 9 at China World Hotel
From 5:30pm – 9:00pm, Level 1 Conference Hall, China World Hotel, Beijing, No. 1 Jianguomenwai Avenue, Chaoyang District, RSVP Contact: event@chbaf.org
Dress Code: Formal or Evening dress

Photos: Provided by Chunhui, unsplash

If Beijing feels a long way from family this Christmas Day, then a Christian group invites you to join them for a dinner which will bring the true spirit of giving to the city’s orphans.

To find out more, we talked to Pastor Joseph Castillo of ANIF, who is organizing the event. What, we asked, is ANIF?

“ANIF stands for All Nations International Fellowship,” he told us, “we are a fellowship of expats living in China. We gather for expat activities such as holidays and charity efforts, united by commonalities: first our faith in Jesus Christ from various religious backgrounds, and secondly by common need for English-speaking relationships in a foreign country.

“Our event is on Christmas Day, December 25, from 5-9pm,” Pastor Castillo continued. “From 5 to 6 is reception snacks and fellowship, 6 to 7pm dinner and 7 to 9pm Caroloke, Drama, Dance and Christmas games, and gift exchange. This will be held at the Holiday Inn Ballroom at Hua Cai Holiday Inn, Carrefour Wangjing (subway line 14, DonghuQu station).”

Who’s invited?

“Everyone is welcome, there will be no translators and we discourage people seeking language exchange or business relationships. (It’s really annoying!) We are coming together to celebrate Christmas and help the orphans in doing so.”

What does it cost?

“It is free. We only ask everyone coming for dinner to bring a dish or RMB 50 to chip in for catering. Some people can’t cook, so they may enjoy catered food if they just chip in. If you arrive at 7pm then no need to cook or donate towards dinner.”

“For the gift exchange, we only ask if you want a gift you bring a gift. We are asking everyone not to buy a gift. Find something around your home that you don’t use, wrap it up and give it as a gift. We will play “Name That Carol” and everyone will get a gift. Save your money to donate to the orphans on Christmas day; you can do so by bringing a brand new toy, clothes or money.”

Which orphanages does the event support?

“We support two orphanages in Beijing,” Castillo said. “One is Dew Drops Little Flower. These orphanages provide housing, food, medical and care for their primary needs. Our objective focuses on the education of orphans. After 16 years old the kids must think about how to survive the real world on their own. They need to be empowered beyond the charity system.

“Our projects include hospice care for orphans, group educational foster care, special care for infants, long-term care for severely disabled children, and special causes. Our vision is to give helpless children the tools they need in life not only to survive but to thrive.

Pastor Castillo told us why this charity event is close to his heart.

“I was an orphan. At 15 years old I lost my last parent and ended up a ward of the State for two or three years. After I was 18 I had no place to go, no skill and no education. So a Church in Chicago helped me rent a home, get into community college, get a GED [General Educational Development test, equivalent to a high school diploma] then sent me to university, paying all my tuition, dorm and books.

“Now I am a successful and famous expat in China, and it’s my goal to empower kids beyond the system as myself. So this coming 2017 Semester we are partnering with one of Beijing’s best international schools, Vision International School, to send ten orphans to school.”

Photo: chinalittleflower.org

The United Family Charitable Fund has teamed up with China’s overseas charity foundation and the Beijing Marathon Association to bring this year’s Run for Hope full marathon (42.19km) that’s going to take place on September 22. This race starts at Tiananmen and finishes at the Olympic Park (map will be made available later) and is going to be held in an effort to raise funds to pay the medical expenses of orphans in need of life-changing surgeries; five of whom are on the immediate help list with four more on a waiting list.

The registration fee of RMB 1,500 is considered a donation and all participants have to do is run. To secure a place though, interested moms, dads, and teens would need to pay and refundable deposit of RMB 800 due July 26. The deposit is only refundable once the full RMB 1,500 has been paid before September 22. As for institutions applicants, here are the guidelines:

1.   When registering, the company must provide the exact number of runners and submit the correct amount of deposits. (Reimbursed upon donations)
2.   Person responsible for each company needs to directly submit the information of each person participating.
3.   The corporation needs to directly submit any donations
4.   Registering time for enterprises: July 1- 30
5.   Each member participating needs to sign the pledge
6.   Enterprises need to follow the foundation’s guidelines while donating
7.   Each participating enterprise needs to submit all donations prior to September 22 2015

Participants will get free registration prizes, three free marathon-training courses, two free rehabilitation courses a certificate, and a T-shirt. Trophies will be given to the top three companies and other rewards while special prizes will be given to the top five fundraisers.

Last year’s Run for Hope took place with the air quality index of +440 and over 200 people participated in the marathon. In addition to assisting orphans get medical help, United Family Charitable Fund other programs include providing abused women and migrant workers with access to innovative healthcare.

Registration fees need to be dropped off at the United Family Charitable Fund office Rm 4002 Putian Executive Office Block, 2 Jiangtai Lu, Chaoyang District.

For more information call 5927 7462 or visit www.unitedfoundation.org

Photos: United Family Charitable Fund

The spirit of the eight-year-old orphan at the center of the Ray Wigdal case was laid to rest on Monday morning at a memorial service in Baobaoshan, although her body still remains in limbo.

Fourteen people were in attendance when the memorial service was said for Phoebe, who has no last name as her parents abandoned her at birth and she was never formally adopted by the people who raised her.

Eyes filled with tears, the only caregivers Phoebe ever knew gathered at 9am this morning to recall the girl as spiritual, selfless and playful.

Abandoned shortly after birth due to cleft palate, Phoebe was raised in Beijing by American Ray Wigdal from the time she was three days old until her untimely death earlier this month.

Wigdal spent the last ten years arranging for medical care for Phoebe and 16 other Chinese children abandoned due to birth defects, until the children were taken from him and placed in protective custody two and a half weeks ago when suspicions arose about the nature of Phoebe’s death.

Among those speaking at the ceremony were Wigdal and two Chinese women who were among some of Phoebe’s primary caregivers: "Granny” Guo and Maggie Zhang.

The only siblings Phoebe ever knew – the surviving ten children that have been raised by Wigdal, Guo, Zhang and other volunteers – were not in attendance as they remain at a rescue center southeast of the city and are not allowed contact with their former caregivers. A source close to the children said they held their own memorial for Phoebe at the rescue center on Sunday.

Wigdal has been interviewed by police and has not been detained nor charged with any crime, although he admits that he does not possess the paperwork giving him the legal right to adopt or foster the children.

A room on the second floor of Baobaoshan was filled with flowers and ringed with photos of Phoebe’s life, from when she was first found with an unrepaired cleft palate right through to her last photo, taken when she was in the intensive care unit. In between Phoebe could be seen in all stages of her life: from her recovery from surgery to fix the cleft palate, to horsing around with the kids she knew as her sisters and brothers, to displaying her arts and crafts projects.

Some of the possessions from Phoebe’s short life were displayed on a table at the center of the room: a teddy bear, a Snoopy t-shirt, an unfinished coloring sheet, a toy cell phone, a tiny cross.

Wigdal shared his memory of first meeting Phoebe.

“Eight years ago, I was feeling down that it had been a while since someone remembered my birthday, September 12," he recalled. "I prayed that day that this year, someone would remember my birthday.

“On the morning of the 12th, my phone rang and the person on the other end said ‘there’s a little baby that needs your help.’ And I knew that my prayer had been answered. That was the moment that Phoebe came into my life.”

Since that time, Phoebe’s birthday was unofficially deemed to be September 12, and the two would always celebrate together.

The small group listened to passages from the Bible and sang several hymns, with many of them wiping away tears as they sang “Jesus Loves You,” which Wigdal noted was Phoebe’s favorite hymn.

Guo, in her 70s, recounted how much Phoebe stood out amongst the children she knew as brothers and sisters as the most spiritual. “She was so active … she was so cute,” she remembered in a quiet voice.

We all loved her – but Ray loved her the most,” Guo recalled, adding that the feeling was mutual. “Even when she was as sick as she was, she asked to see Uncle Ray so that he she could study the Bible with him.”

She also recounted the last moments of Phoebe’s life.

Already hospitalized and weakened due to a systemic infection resulting from two previous surgeries on her damaged kidney, she underwent a third procedure to relieve an intestinal blockage that was preventing her from eating. She survived the procedure, but only awoke briefly to ask for a baozi before dying of heart failure shortly afterward, Guo said.

Zhang also fought back tears as she recalled Phoebe’s caring nature.

“She was always the one to turn the other cheek,” Zhang said. “She always asked about our health and told us she loved us, and to take care of the ayis. Even when she was in the hospital and in pain, she told me to make sure I took care of Granny Guo."

Normally at Babaoshan, the body of the deceased is taken directly to an on-site crematorium after the ceremony. But with Phoebe’s body still locked at the hospital, there was no cremation and no plans for a grave. As to why the body has not been released more than two weeks after her passing, Wigdal speculates that the reason is so that authorities can check her DNA against a database of children reported as missing or abducted.

Wigdal leaves China today on his annual Christmas trip back home to see his elderly father, not knowing if he’ll be allowed to see the children again, but vowing to return to China in the spring, as he has after every trip home for the past 30 years of his life in Beijing.

Zhang, Guo, and the rest of the mourners packed up the bag of Phoebe’s belongings and boarded a van to drive into the sea of Beijing traffic, also unsure if they will be allowed to see the kids they raised.

Meanwhile, Phoebe’s body remains at the morgue at the Capital Institute of Pediatrics, with no parents to claim her.

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on December 22, 2015.

Photos: Michael Wester

After a flurry of stories hit the Chinese media three weeks ago about a “missing” American man raising 11 orphans in Beijing (and the subsequent death of one of them), one thing was absent: a response from the man himself. theBeijinger were able to arrange a face-to-face interview with the person at the center of this drama, Ray Wigdal.

Over the course of two three-hour meetings last weekend in Beijing, we did our best to gather Wigdal’s side of the story.

Inconsistencies in the story remain; in particular some accounts we’ve read in the Chinese news and coming from additional unnamed sources remain contradictory.

Nevertheless, we wanted to give Wigdal the opportunity to answer the accusations that have whipped the Chinese media into a frenzy, with reports referring to him as “torturing” the children and references to the kids he had been caring for the past 11 years as “starving.” This has resulted in the children being removed from his care and placed in protective custody.

There’s no doubt that Wigdal is a polarizing figure: six sources reached by the Beijinger have characterized him on one hand as selfless and heroic in his passion for rescuing orphan children; others have painted him as a misguided rebel with a short temper deliberately working outside normal channels, without the capacity to give the children proper care.

Below we present a profile of the man based on our conversations with him.

Despite press reports to the contrary, Ray Wigdal is not missing – nor has he left Beijing, nor is he in hiding. The 56-year-old American that has called Beijing his home away from home for the past 30 years is right here.

In fact, for most of the past 10 days, he has spent his time talking to the police about his unusual situation, between doing what he can to assure the children are OK and keeping his mind off the situation by continuing to engage in his hobbies such as playing pickup basketball and watching Green Bay Packers NFL games.

“As far as this disappearance thing, I’ve never been out of sight,” Wigdal said at a Starbucks in the Lido area over the weekend, one week after one of the children he cared for, eight-year-old Phoebe, died in a Beijing hospital.

Since her death, Wigdal has been in almost constant contact with officials who have questioned him extensively about his situation and Phoebe’s death. His Chinese-speaking basketball teammates even chuckled about the news reports. Those playing with him joked, “Hey Ray, aren’t you supposed to be missing?”

Wigdal said the allegations against him are “trumped up” and he notes that Chinese officials have not told him he has done anything wrong, other than not possessing proper documentation for the children. Nevertheless, the children are in custody at a child protection center and he has not been allowed to visit them there.

THE BACKGROUND

Widgal, who grew up in Wisconsin but considers his home to be Alaska now, traces his interest in helping needy children to experiences when he was young.

He recalls his grandmother caring for mentally challenged children, and he also had disadvantaged friends as a consequence of his father’s occupation.

“My dad was a chef and a counselor at a juvenile detention center – the children there were either abused, or they had committed a crime,” he recalls. “I spent my youth growing up there and met a lot of children – they were down and out, but they were just like normal kids.

"I was not a down-and-out kid and we did everything as a family like camping and fishing, so it was so sad to see these kids didn’t have that.“

After attending two years of university in Wisconsin, he left school and landed a high-wage job as a production supervisor at an engine manufacturing plant. At age 20 he found himself making good money, driving a nice car, and managing people twice his age – but he wasn’t happy. One of his friends at the plant told him one day, “You know what? You don’t know Jesus.”

He wanted nothing to do with what he called “Jesus freaks," but his friend managed to convince him to attend a weekend retreat for Christian businessmen. He showed up in a three-piece suit, only to find the attendees were casually dressed and had no intention of talking business. He felt conned.

Nevertheless he stayed and played Frisbee and basketball with some of the people there and found them to be “regular guys.” But it was that evening that his life was changed: the personal testimony of a 96-year-old man who was alcoholic and broke by age 66 before being saved by religion.

When Wigdal returned to work, he felt changed, as the days went on, he realized that simply earning a living was not his calling. He wanted to do something more meaningful. It wasn’t about going to church or reading the Bible: he wanted to be a force for good in the world.

He declined an offer from his company to pay for business school and instead enrolled at a Christian college at his own expense to get a degree in Bible Studies. At one point he spent a semester abroad in Jerusalem, where he picked up Hebrew quickly and realized he had a knack for foreign languages.

After finishing school, he moved to Alaska, lured by high-wage jobs, doing everything from working as a fisherman, to road construction crews, and later as the superintendent of a small school. He was putting money away, but still seeking his mission in life. “I wanted to do something as a good Christian and also as an American,” he recalled.

THE CHINA CONNECTION

After researching many countries, he honed in on China. Most Americans knew nothing about China at the time, and he contacted an organization that could get foreign students permission to study in Beijing, still a rarity in the mid-’80s.

In 1985 he enrolled in Beijing Language and Culture University (known then as Beijing Language Institute), where he was a quick learner. He would continue to return to Alaska in the summers, where he would make enough money on seasonal high-wage jobs to pay for his living expenses as a student in China.

This became a pattern that he has sustained for nearly 30 years – spending his summers working in Alaska and returning to China for the rest of the year.

For the first six years he concentrated all of his time on learning the language. In the ’90s he continued making much of his income in the summers, while regularly traveling the world and returning to Beijing and finding occasional work doing everything from business consulting to translation to coaching tennis.

HELPING THE DISADVANTAGED

All along Widgal continued to think about how he could make a difference in the world. At that time he was deeply moved by numerous news reports he was reading about female infants that were abandoned by their parents, primarily because they wanted sons and only had one chance under China’s one-child policy.

Reading a book published in the mid-’90s on high mortality rates in Chinese orphanages was enough to push him into action: he decided his mission was to find a way to help Chinese orphans outside the mainstream system, where he felt children had little chance of survival, let alone leading a normal life.

“From a spiritual standpoint, everybody is born as an orphan,” Wigdal says, while pointing out that the New Testament refers to orphans throughout.

Via the connections he had built during his years in China, he began to spread the word that if someone knew of a baby that has been abandoned, he would figure out a way to get medical treatment for them.

THE FIRST CHILD

As a result, a child was delivered to him, in 2002.

The infant, who he named Elizabeth, was found with severe birth defects, lying in a shoe box. However, by the time the child was delivered to him, there was not much Wigdal or the doctors he consulted could do – the infant died ten days later, which devastated him. Wigdal wondered then if he was cut out for this mission. “I was concerned whether I could go through this emotionally,” he said.

The second child he took in was a mentally challenged six-year-old boy who had been surviving as a beggar and rummaging through trash at a train station. Wigdal named him Blaza, a Romanization of the nickname that stuck from his days as a beggar.

From then on, his network of contacts would let him know when an infant was found and he would arrange to take care of it in Beijing. Wigdal would arrange for surgeries for the children, and as word spread about the success he had in getting them treated, it made it more likely that another child would be found.

Over the course of the next 11 years, 17 children passed through his hands, all of them born with birth defects such as cleft palate, spina bifida, heart defects or scoliosis, and all in need of immediate medical treatment.

Six of the children died either before, during or after operations to fix their problems, Wigdal said.

Though each was a devastating loss, he feels that none of children would have made it if he hadn’t taken them in.

“They would not be alive if I didn’t do this,” he said, referring to his research that indicated that the vast majority of orphans with birth defects died before adoption.

However, he does not consider himself a savior. “I am not the giver of life or death. I am no more responsible for their lives than I am for their deaths,” he said.

ROLE AS CAREGIVER

Contrary to reports that imply that Wigdal is the children’s full-time foster father, Widgal claims he’s never been a prototypical live-in parent for the children – in fact he spends almost half of each year in the US, working in Alaska in the summers and visiting his family in Wisconsin in winter.

To supplement his efforts, Wigdal put together a team of friends and contact that would help take care of the children. Consisting primarily of six or seven Chinese women who range in age from their 20s to 60s, the group would share childcare duties supplemented by a number of volunteer ayis who were compensated for travel and other expenses but were not paid regular wages.

When in China, Wigdal maintains a separate residence from the children, but spends almost all his time with the kids. His role in the children’s life, in addition to assisting with basic care, was to arrange for their medical treatment, educate them in English and take them to play outside to do “kid stuff.”

While he is in the US, his volunteer corps – the most regular of which is a now 76-year-old woman referred to as “Granny” Guo – take care of the kids. Meanwhile he maintains contact with them via Skype or Yahoo Messenger, usually twice per day.

THE COST OF CHILD CARE

As for how he has afforded to take care of 11 children, he says funds come from several sources: his own income and savings from work in the US; contributions from Chinese volunteers; and charitable contributions from hundreds of supporters overseas, the vast majority of whom he has never met.

Although he does not actively solicit funds from supporters, he travels frequently and speaks regularly at churches in the US. “When people ask me, I say ‘l won’t solicit money directly, but if you want to contribute, I can’t think of anyone more deserving than these children.’”

Donors find out where to give through word of mouth, and the money is deposited to a US bank account that is managed by Wigdal’s accountant.

The other component to affording 11 kids – six boys and five girls – is relatively frugal living and depending on the kindness of others: things like Guo’s negotiating inexpensive rents for the apartments the kids have lived in, while Jenny Lou (the owner of the well-known Beijing grocery chain) offers Wigdal bread that has passed the sell-by date but is still fine to eat.

But the question arises: 11 kids? Some married couples complain of being able to handle one child. How is it he was able to handle 11?

First, he says, he’s never been a single caregiver – it’s always been a team effort. And the range in ages of the children has meant the older children can help the younger ones.“ When you have a group with 12, 11, ten, nine, three eight-year-olds – they all learn to take care of each other,” he said. “The only time I ever had trouble with children was when I had eight bottle feeding babies at the same time – now that was crazy.”

THE ACCUSATIONS

Wigdal is quick to point out that the stories in the Chinese media have plenty of inaccuracies and exaggerations; however he also admits they contain grains of truth.

One of the more scandalous accusations in the original reports was an eyewitness saying the kids had been seen begging and rooting through the trash. Wigdal admits this happened – but with only one of the children, the oldest under his care, now 17-year-old Blaza.

“Blaza is mentally retarded. Before I took him in, from four to six years old, that’s how he survived: he ate out of the trash,” recalls Wigdal. It’s been a hard habit to break due to the boy’s intellectual limitations. “He still does this once in a while when I’m not around. I tell Granny Guo not to have him take out the trash, but sometimes when I’m not around, she forgets – and then he ends up rummaging around in other people’s trash.”

Were other kids doing the same? “There’s no way the other children were eating out of the trash," he said. "They’re so picky about what they eat.”

Wigdal assumes that Blaza is also the cause of the rumors that the children were hungry. He claims the children were adequately fed, but that Blaza, like most teenagers, has an insatiable appetite.

“Blaza is always hungry. In fact he can’t help himself, he’ll even keep eating until he throws up," said Wigdal. "I have to have him eat separately from the other children as he will try to eat their food too.”

He also admits to twisting Blaza’s ear in public if he wouldn’t listen, and being stern with the children to teach them to be disciplined. “But hitting them and kicking them? Come on,” he says.

PHOEBE’S DEATH

The most damaging accusation against Wigdal was the suggestion that he was the cause of the injury that sent Phoebe to the hospital in September.

Wigdal was in Alaska until flying back to Beijing on the evening of September 10, and showed his visa entry stamp to prove it. According to his account, he returned that evening to find Phoebe was in immediate pain from an injury that occurred an estimated two weeks before. Her abdomen was swollen from fluid buildup and she complained that she was in so much pain that she thought she might die. Wigdal took her to the hospital immediately in the early hours of that next day. Doctors determined that she had a ruptured kidney due to blunt force trauma and immediately performed surgery.

Phoebe remained in the hospital for most of September, and came out by October, doing fine and acting normal. Pictures taken during this period show Phoebe smiling. But by November, she took a turn for the worse, and her condition declined until her death in early December.

Wigdal says that Phoebe could not pinpoint the exact time or nature of her injury, but that she had told both Widgal and Guo that she had hit a table when roughhousing with one of the other children, and also had fallen off her bike.

During her hospitalization, Wigdal said he visited Phoebe numerous times, and called when he could not be there. He was unable to explain why reporters quoted volunteers attending to Phoebe during her stay as saying that he had not been there. He suspects reporters may have talked to one of the caregivers that were keeping vigil with Phoebe that did not know him.

According to Wigdal and one additional source, Phoebe’s eventual cause of death has cited as heart failure, a fact corroborated by another source, although a formal autopsy report has yet to be issued.

“Phoebe was a very spiritual person," recalls Wigdal. "More than any of the other children, she loved reading the Bible, and throughout her illness she’d ask for Bible time either in person or if I wasn’t there, over the phone.”

WHITHER THE CHILDREN?

Wigdal has been concerned with the children’s well-being since they were taken from him, but has had no direct access as he is not on the approval list for visitors at the center where the children are staying. He made one visit to the center and was able to view them via a closed circuit camera and he claims they didn’t look happy, and even said that one of the children, 11-year-old David, managed to contact him multiple times via a cell phone, and on one occasion claims to have been hit by staff at the facility.

Since that time he’s done, what he can to try to arrange the children the continued medical care they need. One of the children has a severe form of scoliosis that impacts the functioning of her internal organs, and over the weekend Wigdal was at Oasis Hospital to try to arrange a checkup for her.

He is also working to prepare a memorial ceremony for Phoebe at Babaoshan sometime before he heads back to the US on December 22, although at this point Phoebe’s body still has not been released from the hospital.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR WIGDAL

Wigdal admits that he deliberately worked outside of the system to get the kids the care they needed. His plan all along has been to prioritize the immediate life-or-death medical needs of the kids, and worry about getting them proper identification papers later. He admits this has been an uphill battle, mostly handled by one of the volunteer members of his team.

While he finds himself unable to see the children he’s been raising for the better part of 11 years, he holds out hope that he will one day be reunited with them. “As for our team, we just want to get back to where we were, helping [the kids]with their medical issues and working through the process to get their hukous [household registrations],” Wigdal said.

In an ideal scenario, he’d like to see all of the children get the paperwork they need to be adopted by American parents, and live close enough to each other to stay in touch with one as a family – although he admits this is a long shot.

In the meantime, Wigdal will return to the US next week to spend Christmas with his elderly father, who is in a nursing home. He plans to return to China after Chinese New Year, as has been his pattern for years, and ideally wants to continue to assist orphans in China.

Wigdal’s passion for helping orphans seems undiminished. He says wants to establish a more formal foundation to raise money for the ten children, to give them a chance to get continued medical care and eventually go to college. And, he says, if he has any way to help change the way orphans are cared for in China, then he’d be happy to do so. “I just want to see change – orphans adopted faster, better foster care," he said, and he doesn’t expect the recent developments to change his mission. “My heart for the past 20 years has been dedicated to orphans,” Wigdal said.

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on December 17, 2014

Photos: rayschildren.org, 1983 Cedarvile College Yearbook

[Updated: 12/10 12:23pm: updates throughout, please click here to get the updated version] CCTV-13 aired a telephone conversation with American foster caregiver Ray Wigdal last night on the News 1+1 program that implied he is currently in the US caring for an elderly father.

The conversation was part of a larger news piece on the case of Wigdal and his 11 foster children, and in the segment Ray speaks only in Mandarin. 

Some of the revelations in the 21-minute news segment include one of the elderly women involved in the children’s care stating that Wigdal was not in fact the children’s sole full-time caregiver but rather one of many volunteers that took care of the kids, with his role being primarily as their teacher, taking them out to play, and finding the connections necessary to get the childrens’ surgeries arranged via charities.

Additionally, reporters indicate that the body of the foster child that passed away Dec 7 remains at the hospital due to a bureaucratic snarl in that child had no proper identification. The cause of death remains unclear as the hospital has not issued an official autopsy report.

Meanwhile, pictures appeared on Wigdal’s website today that appear to show him at the girl’s bedside while she was in the hospital some time in September, which contradicts some Chinese news reports indicating that he had not visited the child.

Related:
Dec 5: Shunyi Foreign Foster Parent of 11 Disappears, Critically Ill Child at Hospital
Dec 8: Girl at Center of Suspected Abuse Case Dies
Dec 9: Who Is Ray Wigdal? Contrasting Views Emerge of Missing American Foster Father

We have translated the portions of Ray’s words here from the original Mandarin:

On how he treated the children:
Wigdal:  All you need to do is ask the children, I never bullied them. I’ve been a school principal in the past, so I know how to teach children obedience, how to study and to quiet down – but I never hit them. I love the children so much, I could never beat them or hit them or bully them, let alone torture them. To suggest that is just going way too far. I love the children and I think the children can testify to that.

On his role in raising the children:
Wigdal: The children do not have a hukou, and of course these are not my natural children by birth, I am just a volunteer, I just help pay for their upbringing, teach them English, take them to play, or organize medical treatment, and I’ve been doing this for the past ten years. Sometimes I spent my own money on them, sometimes friends helped out. Whatever the cost we always found a way to get these kids the surgeries they need.

On why he and the kids moved so often, which some Chinese news reports have said implied that he was running from something:
Wigdal: Neighbors who saw so many kids, it’s not that they complained they were too noisy – I think they’re actually pretty quiet – but they just couldn’t take accept the idea of living next to so many children, and would complain to the landlord. So many times we have been asked to leave the apartments we lived in – no one wants to move so many times, but we found ourselves having to find new places to live three or four times every half year.

On his relationship to the children:
Wigdal: I am Uncle Ray. “Uncle Ray” in English is not like the Chinese lei shushu. "Uncle Ray" is more like saying your real uncle, and in English we don’t use that term so casually. I always told the children that I was part of their family, I am your uncle. But I would always tell them I hoped in the future they will one day have their own mothers and fathers. This is why I always very carefully used the term “uncle”. This way if one day the children are in fact adopted, they’ll have their own mom and dad and I will remain an uncle. The children would ask me sometimes, “Uncle Ray, are you my dad?” and I would reply “no”. But remember, none of these children have mothers or fathers – so we’ve told them that we [myself and the ayis who helped take care of them]are your family.

On his future relationship to the children:
Wigdal: I hope to have an opportunity to see them, to support them, to encourage them. After all, you can ask them, I think they love me and I love them, and we all consider ourselves family. But I understand, I haven’t been doing nothing for the past thirty years, I know there’s no real chance that I could actually adopt these children … but if I can help friends to take care of them, I will be very happy to do so.

On his status as "missing":
Wigdal: I never thought this situation would get so messy. I hate to see these articles that say I have disappeared – I’m very easy to find, in fact the police found me right away. My father is 85 years old and I’ve [come back to the US]to take care of him, but I want to return to China, hopefully before Spring Festival. If customs does not allow me back, what can I say? I don’t feel I’ve violated any laws or done anything bad. I can understand why there has been some misunderstandings. I understand a lot of the regulations and sitations, including China’s hukou system, and I’ve spent a considerable amount of effort with orphanages and friends in China’s civil affairs bureau, and I know this sort of paperwork is not easy to process.

On how he came to be taking care of orphans:
Wigdal: In the 90s I worked in an orphanage in another country to do some charity work and I wanted to see if I was able to take care of children and help them get medical treatment. This is how this started. People called me when they saw to say there was an abandoned orphan at the train station no one is taking care of. All of the children were brought to me by elderly peope who told me that they had no one to take care on them. All of them were abandoned due to cleft lip or cleft palate.

On his qualifications for taking care of children:
Wigdal: I’ve been a principal in a school in Alaska, so I am quite capable from an education standpoint. As to who spends the most money, who takes care of the kids the most, we’re all working together.

The original story has generated dozens of netizen comments since its posting, with most expressing support and admiration for Wigdal’s support of unwanted children. The three top-ranked comments are translated here:

"He took these abandoned kids in — that’s admirable enough. He is way better than the kids’ natural parents and the government workers." — Zhexuejia (235 agrees)

"I don’t make comments often. If what has been reported is all true, the laowai really did as much as he could. In all fairness, how many parents have never spanked their kids? Think of how many people don’t even love their kids. The laowai has tried his best to take the kids in, take care of them and help them with their operations. We can’t ask too much — whatever he did was not his obligation. " — Yan Guikong (157 agrees)

"This laowai is way better than the ‘youguan bumen (relevant government departments)’. Who knows how many of the ten kids would have already died without this laowai’s help."   — Li Suoshi  (116 agrees)

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on December 10, 2014

Image: CCTV, rayschildren.org

Police are seeking the whereabouts of a fifty-something foreigner they suspect of child abuse whose eight-year-old foster daughter is recovering from surgery at a Beijing hospital.

The Legal Daily reported Thursday that the girl, called Phoebe, is one of 11 ethnic Chinese foster children the man has been raising in various apartments around Beijing, most recently at Capital Paradise in Shunyi.

The girl, who at 20 kilos is underweight for her age, is still in critical condition at the hospital after three surgeries to relieve a duodenal obstruction and kidney damage that doctors believe were caused by external blunt force. A volunteer attending to the girl claims she said she had been beaten by her foster father, who has not been seen nor heard from since November 24.

Reports say the man, referred to as Ray, lived for a time this year in a two-bedroom flat in Capital Paradise, where neighbors complained that the foster kids would occasionally be caught rifling through the trash to look for food. Area residents say the man was a frequent customer at the Pinnacle Plaza Starbucks where he would sip coffee while his children played in and around the store.

According to hospital officials, Phoebe is fluent in English and speaks only simple Chinese. She is extremely withdrawn and in her current condition is mostly too scared to talk to anyone.

The bulk of the Legal Daily report was based on an interview with a foreign volunteer using the pseudonym Xu Qiang, who claims to have helped the man take care of his 11 foster kids for several years.

This was the girl’s third trip to the hospital, the first two times being brought in by her foster father and also being checked out by him before doctors were satisfied that she had fully recovered. The third time she was brought in, on November 24, she was brought by a volunteer. Since then the man, nor his ten other foster children, has not been heard from.

Xu said Ray has been in China for over 30 years, speaks Chinese fluently, and as far as he knows, has not held a regular job. He has been raising orphans from infancy since at least 2004, with most of the children abandoned by their natural parents because of birth defects such as cleft palate and mental retardation.

Xu said Ray and an "old Chinese lady" occasionally found the children abandoned at train stations and other locations, while others had been brought to him. Ray posts the stories of the orphans onto a website at www.rayschildren.org and accepts donations to pay for the children’s corrective surgeries, and the children typically remained with him afterward.

Xu and an additional witness contacted by the Beijinger claims Ray was harsh to the children in public, often pushing them, twisting their ears or yelling at them.

Xu said he volunteered at Ray’s house three times per week and would bring food each time, but it never seemed to be enough to feed the children, who seemed to subsist on potato chips and other junk food. The kids were trained to not answer the door unless it was a foreign face on the other side.

None of the children were formally educated and typically lived together in one room of a two-bedroom apartment in squalid conditions. The children were home-schooled and all have some level of reading and writing skills, although lagging behind kids of their age, Xu said.

On at least one occasion the children were spotted begging, in fluent English, in front of a foreign supermarket wearing tattered and dirty clothes.

Xu said that Ray would move every several months, and after each month would cease to contact former volunteers. Reporters interviewed Capital Paradise security guards who say he has since moved out, and Xu’s latest attempts to contact the man via email and phone have failed.

This post first appeared on theBeijinger.com on December 5, 2014

Photos: Legal Daily via theBeijinger

Founded by Doctor Marcel Roux, former vice-president and director of Médecins Sans Frontières, Madaifu has been helping orphans from Gansu and northern Shaanxi stay in school, through its ‘Orphanage Without Walls’ programme for over 15 years. Dr Roux passed away in 2006, leaving behind family and friends who carry on his work today.

For the tenth year running, Madaifu are selling apples throughout Beijing, to raise funds and awareness for their projects. There are many sites across Beijing, where the apples are available, including at Deli de Luxe at Chaoyang Park West Gate. Teesh Law, the owner of the deli is offering an extended ordering period, up to Thursday November 20. Apples will be available for collection from there on Saturday November 22 and Sunday November 23.

One apple costs RMB 5, and a 10kg box is RMB 250. Send your details to info@delideluxechina.com to secure your box!

Photo courtesy of WxMom (Flickr)