Orphans sheltered by single mothers in China's SOS
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-06-24 00:40

Qi Qi, 16, a boy growing up in the SOS Children's Village of Tianjin, an industrial and business city in north China, has risen to stardom by playing marimba at international shows. "Today I want to give my mother an exclusive performance," he said.

That's the best way Qi Qi could think of to repay his mother. "She has experienced too much hardship, " he said.

In the shade of green trees, villas lie in neat rows in the SOSChildren's Village of Tianjin. Qi Qi lives in the 15th villa, where he, his mother Cao Jinrong and his orphanized brothers and sisters have formed a very harmonious big family.

"Qi Qi was abandoned by his parents and sent to our village when he was just over one year old. " Cao Jinrong recalled.

One thing the 43-year-old mother felt most proud of was that she chose for Qi Qi a kindergarten specialized for children's music and art talents development when he was just aged three, which has ever since linked the little boy to his beloved marimba.

To encourage Qi Qi, Cao not only accompanied him to practice playing at class every day, but managed to make a simple marimba-like instrument for him to play in spare time.

"Other parents bought their kids keyboard simulators for practice, which is but a luxury to us. So, I and my eldest daughter nailed discarded wood battens together into the shape of a marimba, and the hand-made musical instrument has been widely applauded by other parents," Cao said.

Qi Qi practiced very hard on the artificial marimba and was turned into the best player in his class. At the age of 11, he wasenrolled in a middle school attached to the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music, majored in percussion instrument.

In 1999, Qi Qi, on behalf of all the orphans in China's SOS children's villages, pitched in the fund-raising performances in other countries organized by the SOS Kinderdorf International (SOSKDI). Later he was granted the Hermann Gmeiner Prize for Music, anaward dubbed with the name of the SOS KDI founder.

"Without Mom, I could accomplish nothing. That's the reason whyI want to play marimba exclusively for her on this extraordinary day," Qi said. A grand celebration was held here Thursday to mark the 20th birth day of Tianjin SOS Children's Village, the first ofits kind in China.

In 1984, SOS KDI inked a cooperation accord with the Ministry of Civil Affairs in establishing SOS children's villages in China,and ensuing construction started in 1985. So far, China has set upnine SOS children's villages in cities of Tianjin, Yantai, Qiqihar,Nanchang, Kaifeng Chengdu, Putian, Urumqi and Lhasa.

According to Bai Yihua, president of the China SOS Children's Village Association, these villages, under a family-like management, are non-profit social welfare institutions to take in and bring up mentally and physically sound orphans who lost their parents and have no relatives and friends to turn to.

"We have challenged the traditional way of fostering orphans byrebuilding families for them, which constitutes the core in the management of SOS children's villages. Orphans can regain their sense of security and confidence at new homes, and form their outlook of life, learn to share responsibilities and establish close relations with other family members," Bai said.

Led by a village head, every SOS children's village has 12 to 18 families, and each of them usually adopts six to eight orphans aged below 14 with a single woman recruited to act as mother. Boys, who have grown up to 14, will move to SOS youth apartments, where they will lead a collective life and learn to handle their daily life independently.

Starting to work in Tianjin SOS Children's Village from 1988, Cao Jinrong is now mother of 15 kids. Everyday, she is busy in accompanying her kids to and fro from schools, preparing meals forthem and cleaning their cozy rooms.

"Mothers in SOS children's villages have to remain single, which means we have to give up marriage and not to have our own babies. Our task is not as simple as rearing these orphanized children, and we shall have them with full-hearted maternal affections and bring them up healthily in an environment of familylife," Cao said.

There are now 314 employees, including single mothers like Cao,working for orphans in China's nine SOS children's villages, which by the end of last year set up 135 families and adopted 1,297 orphanized children. The 10th village will soon be built in the national capital of Beijing.

"I really feel proud for our single mothers and young people growing up from SOS children's villages," said SOS KDI President Helmut Kutin, who came here attending celebration for the 20th founding anniversary.

"When we create the village model, we hope the children to be influenced by the sacrifice spirit of their mothers and grow up tobe kindhearted and merciful," Kutin said.

Aiming to provide orphans with family care, SOS Children's Villages were originated in Austria, with the first one built by Hermann Gmeiner, a well-known doctor and an academician of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in the country's Inmuster in 1949.

Currently, more than 440 such villages have been formed in morethan 130 countries and regions, according to SOS KDI.

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