Sun Village’s Most Pressing Funding Needs

Beijing’s Sun Village is currently the home of 130 children with ages from 1 to 20 years old.  The day-to-day operations of Sun Village in addition to the children’s educational needs and sustaining an environment where they can grow up healthily require the generous support from society at large to supplement Sun Village’s own income through its farming activities.  Below are 5 major areas where Sun Village has the most urgent needs:

1)      Sun Village’s heating expenses for the coming winter

As Sun Village is located in Beijing’s outskirts where heating facilities is non-existent, it is up to Sun Village to find funding for heating during the winter months (approximately from November 15 to March 15 of the following year).  The amount of coal required to sufficiently heat the premises is about 100 tonnes, amounting to a total of 400 tonnes for the 4 months.  At the present price of about RMB650/tonne, the heating expenses for Sun Village comes to RMB260,000.

2)      Education Funds (for 130 children at present)

a.       5 university students, each requiring an annual budget of RMB8,000.  The total comes to RMB40,000.

b.      20 high school/ vocation college students who need RMB5,000 each for tuition and board, accumulating to RMB100,000.

c.       30 junior high students each needing RMB1000, bringing the total to RMB30,000.

d.      65 primary school students who require RMB600 per person.  The sum adds up to RMB39,000.

e.       10 pre-schoolers who need RMB1,000 each, bringing the total to RMB10,000.

The above budget includes books, uniforms, extracurricular activities as well as music, art and physical education classes.

Grand Total: RMB217,000

3)      Medical Expenses

Most of the children at Sun Village come from the poverty-stricken regions of the country and have long been exposed to poor living environment and malnutrition, resulting in respiratory and digestive disorders.  Due to the relatively large population at Sun Village, accidents occur from time to time, especially with children under the age of 12.  In addition to facing all these needs, Sun Village is further challenged by the rising costs of medication and medical services.

a.       Each child requires a medical expense of RMB50/month, which adds to a total of RMB77,000 per year for all 130 children.

b.      Each child must undergo a body check at least once every half-year.  Each examination costs RMB150, bringing the total sum to RMB19,500 annually.

c.       3 types of vaccination is required for each child every year, including flu, hepatitis B, and smallpox.  This comes to RMB200 per child and a total of RMB26,000.

d.      The insurance policy for each child costs at least RMB100 so the total for all 130 children would be RMB13,000.

e.       Possible hospitalization and operation expenses:  assuming that 15 operations are required for the children every year and each incident would cost RMB3000, the total for the year would be RMB45,000.

Grand Total: RMB180,5000

4)      Rental

The premises of Sun Village sit on an area of about 60 acres, of which 40 acres are given by the local government.  The remaining 20 acres are treated as farm land and cost RMB8,000 annually in rent.  The date and peach farms take up a total of 380 acres and require a rental expense of RMB137,000. 

Grand Total: RMB145,000

5)      Expenses related to visiting and communicating with parents in prison

Children at Sun Village come from 16 provinces around the country.  Each year, they have one chance to visit their father or mother.  Most of their parents are serving prison terms at locations that are far from cities, highways and the general populace.  As a result, these trips can be quite far and might even require stops during the way.  For this reason, the teachers from Sun Village have to accompany the children to visit their father or mother, most of whom are at detention centers in Guangxi and Chong Qing.  Every year, the children will also get to call their parents 5 times – at various important holidays.

a.       Average expense for each child to visit his/her father or mother is RMB500, inclusive of board, train and car.  Annual total comes to RMB65,000.

b.      Every child gets to speak his/her father or mother 5 times/year, each time costing about RMB10, which brings the total to RMB6,500 for the whole year.     

Grand Total: RMB71,500

Sun Village’s “One-Help-One” Child Adoption Program

Sun Village does not receive funding from the government.  Other than the income from its self-operated farm, Sun Village needs the generous support and donation from society at large as the organization takes care of all expenses incurred by the children including education expenses, medical expenses, clothing, and visits to their parents.  Adoption of Sun Village’s children can take the following forms:

a.       The expenses incurred by a child average about RMB350 per month and come to RMB4,200 per year.

b.      Interested adopters/donors can sign an agreement with Sum Village and choose a child to support or delegate that decision to Sun Village.  They can also provide support without specifying the beneficiary child.

c.       Adoption period is set by adopter/donor and can be a period of one year or several.

Sun Village’s Support Program for Non-onsite Children

Due to limited resources, Sun Village can only bring a small number of children on-site to raise and support.  Most children of convicts who are under-aged have to rely on other family members or elderly grandparents for assistance.  For such children, Sun Village will work with various detention centers and prison in providing them an annual aid of RMB500 to be used for schooling purposes and visiting their parents.

Mode of Operation: Based on a confirmation letter from the prison or detention center, Sun Village will raise funds from donors and deposit the donations into an account designated by the prison or detention center which will subsequently issue the money to the children in need.  Sun Village will oversee and monitor this process to ensure the funds are properly distributed.

Sun Village’s Education Support Program

Through Sun Village’s support, the children who are disadvantaged due to family circumstances can still be educated like normal children.  The children living at Sun Village must, at a very minimum, finish 9 years of compulsory education.  After junior high, Sun Village will evaluate the children, and those who are keen to learn and have shown strong performance will be encouraged to continue (out-of-province children will continue schooling back home).  All tuition and boarding expenses will be borne by Sun Village.  For children who can move onto university, Sun Village will do their best to assist them complete their degrees.

For children whose grades are mediocre or who have quitted school for a long time or cannot move onto senior high school, Sun Village will work with them to select a vocational college so that they would still be able to find work upon graduation.  Presently, the education needs of the children at Sun Village are as follows:

a.       5 university students, each requiring an annual budget of RMB8,000. 

b.      20 high school/ vocation college students who need RMB5,000 each for tuition and board.

c.       30 junior high students each needing RMB1000.

d.      65 primary school students who require RMB600 per person.

e.       10 pre-schoolers who need RMB1,000 each.

The above budget includes books, uniforms, extracurricular activities as well as music, art and physical education classes.

Donation Logistics

a.       Can sign an agreement with Sun Village, wherein all details of the sponsorship will be stated.

b.      Donation can be paid all at once or through different installments.  Cheques or bank deposits are both acceptable.

c.       Once the donation is received, Sun Village will issue a receipt to the donor.

d.      Sun Village will report to the donors updates of the children who are receiving their donations through various means.

e.       Sun Village is happy to answer enquiries from donors on how their donations are used at any time.

Information on Sun Village

The Sun Village
Web site: www.sunvillage.com.cn
Email: ertoncun@163.com, donation@sunvillage.com.cn
Tel: 010-60443757(with Fax)/6044390/660443523(with Fax)/60443524
Address: Banqiao Country, Zhaoquanying Town , Shunyi District, Beijing 

Eleven-month-old Niuniu has been living with the other kids at Sun Children's Village in Shunyi District, on the outskirts of Beijing, for about a month. She looks delighted when she gets to ride on the back of a Saint Bernard dog belonging to a volunteer. Both the older kids and the caretaking "aunties" dote on her.

All the children living at Sun Children's Village have at least one thing in common: their parents are in prison.

"Niuniu's dad escaped from prison 10 years ago and was caught by the police   in Fujian Province a month ago with the baby. The police couldn't find Niuniu's mom, so they sent her to our village," said Zhang Ying, the village's assistant director.

Niuniu is the youngest of the 112 children living in the village. Eight of them are under the age of six.

Ma Yanwei's parents were sentenced to 15 years for abducting and trafficking children. Before coming to the village, Yanwei and his younger sister Yanhua lived with their 80-year-old grandfather. When their grandpa could no longer care for them, the local police knew who to contact: Zhang Suqin.

   Zhang, 45, is the former deputy editor-in-chief of a newspaper published by the Shaanxi Province Prison Administration. Since 1995, she has been working tirelessly to set up villages and provide homes for the children of convicts.

The first children's village was opened nine years ago in Shaanxi. She now operates four villages, with the Beijing branch opening in Shunyi District in late 2000. She made a deal with the primary and middle schools in Banqiao Town, where the village is located, to waive tuitions fees for "her" kids. District officials cover the costs of their textbooks.

Zhang said that during her years working for the prison administration, she saw at first hand how the women inmates worried about their children: some escaped custody, the hair of others turned prematurely white, some lost their sanity. Zhang thought that if she could find a way to help them care for their kids, they would be more likely to reform.

At the same time, she believed, loving care for the children could help to break a cycle.  
"If these children continue to be neglected and treated as outcasts of society, their traumatic experiences could lead them to build up resentment toward, and even hatred for, society. They could end up committing crimes just like their parents."

Although the children are in no way responsible for the wrongdoings of their parents, discrimination against them persists, particularly in rural areas.

Ma Yanwei and Yanhua remember the abrupt and cruel change in the way people treated them after their parents' imprisonment. Neighbors continually cursed them and no one was willing to reach out to help a criminal's child. Alienated, trying desperately to survive, they bummed around, stealing unripe cucumbers from the fields in spring, catching and eating frogs in summer, climbing trees to devour persimmons in autumn, and feeding on wheat seedlings in winter, like sheep.

"At that time, I hated everyone, including my parents. I believed my parents were the source of all this misery," Yanwei confessed.

  About 400,000 criminal cases are tried around the country every year. Of those adults convicted, about 70 percent are married and have children, potentially affecting, at the very least, some 280,000 children.

Zhang Ying said that some of the children had witnessed one parent killing the other. Some were abandoned after their fathers or mothers were imprisoned; others were abused by their relatives, sometimes for years.

Systems are in place to provide care for orphans and abandoned babies in China, but only the prisoners' kids whose parents are dead qualify for social welfare. There are no regulations providing for their care, and in most cases relatives are simply expected to take them in.

"The civil affairs administrations don't have enough resources to provide adequate aid," said a volunteer whom the children call Aunt Su.

Ma Yanwei is now a senior at Banqiao High School. "I like the children's village, because I am well treated here. I don't have to worry about food and clothing, and I've even learned to use a computer here. I now feel I'm the same as other children."

Zhang Suqin provides more than a refuge for these kids: it is a real home   where they can grow up emotionally and physically healthy. But without government financial aid, Zhang has to seek funding wherever she can, including NGOs, enterprises and individuals.

"People call Zhang Suqin the Beggar Queen, but she doesn't care. She always tells us that our work has a positive impact, not only on society but also on the prisoners and their children. Criminals see hope when they realize their children are being well cared for. They feel grateful to society and want to repay (the kindness)," said Aunt Su.

Zhang Suqin rents 17 hectares of land where they plant jujubes, peanuts, corn and soybeans. She expects the money from selling these crops will solve some of the village's financial problems. The children are also encouraged to work on the land. "Farm work can help children build healthy bodies and also raise their self-confidence," said Zhang.

  In another groundbreaking move, Zhang has implemented a pet therapy program at the village, with volunteers bringing their dogs to visit every weekend. The animals help some of the children there walk out of the shadows that have darkened their lives.

To date, Zhang has set up three children's villages in Shaanxi and one in Beijing, providing homes to 2,000 children of convicts.

"I don't know how to express my appreciation to Granny Zhang Suqin.   Without her help, I wouldn't have realized that even though I couldn't control the fate of my family, I can change my own fate for a better future. I will continue to work hard all the way through university," said Ma Yanwei.

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Wu Nanlan, December 20, 2004)