Interviewing candidates recommended by Children of Madaifu during the flood in Shanxi
Flood in Baoji city, Shanxi Province
Madaifu: supporting orphans in underprivileged regions
After our visit to Xinxing, we headed to Children of Madaifu, also based in Baoji, Shaanxi.
Founded in 1999 by a French doctor called Marcel Roux(“Madaifu” in Chinese), Children of Madaifu is a French-registered non-for-profit organization. The association’s mission is to address the needs of orphans, abandoned children and street children in deprived areas of China such as Shaanxi and Gansu. The “Children of Madaifu” aims to keep such children in their local environment, by giving an allowance to foster carers within their families (grand-parents, uncles…) to provide for their fundamental needs and education. The aim of the program is to give hope and dignity back to these children. The association also supports projects aimed at helping the children, on a material, financial, educational or medical level.
Children of Madaifu supports around 150 children all around China. Similarly to SYB, it doesn’t focus on the number of children supported, but on their individual care and follow-up. When it starts sponsoring the education of a kid, Madaifu will commit to help him until the end of his education, and will keep in touch with him even after he starts working. Besides, Madaifu’s staff visits the home of every one of their beneficiaries 3 to 4 times a year, to re-evaluate their needs and provide them with additional support if needed. As professor Li, who has been working for over 10 years at Madaifu, said “When one of our kids joins SYB, I know we can relax, because you will take good care of him and he will have many opportunities afterwards!”
View their Website:http://www.madaifu.org/
Floriane, SYB program manager
马大夫基金会:资助贫困地区的孤儿
拜访过宝鸡新星流浪儿童援助中心后,我们前往同样位于陕西省宝鸡市的马大夫基金会。
马大夫基金会由法国医生胡•马塞尔于1999年创立,它是一个在法国注册的非营利机构。该机构以救助陕西、甘肃等中国贫困地区流离失所、被抛弃的孩子们为目标。马大夫基金会希望通过给予家庭一定的资金补助,让这些孩子回到亲戚身边或进入能够有利于对其提供感情和道德和学业上支持的环境中。该项目的目标是让这些孩子们重拾希望和尊严。同时,马大夫基金会也支持其他能够从物质、经济、教育及医疗层面能够对孩子们起到帮助的项目。
马大夫基金会在中国资助了大约150个孩子。和海上青焙坊一样,它并不专注于资助的儿童数量,而是重视对于每个孩子的关心。当马大夫基金会决定开始资助一个孩子的教育,这意味着他们会资助他直到他真正步入社会、离开校园,并且甚至会与他们保持联系,直到他们开始工作。此外,马大夫基金会的工作人员每年会对学生进行3-4次家访,以重新评估他们所需要的帮助,并为他们提供特别的支持。已经在马大夫工作了超过十年的李教授说:“当我们的孩子加入海上青焙坊后,我知道我们可以暂时休息了,因为我们知道你们会照顾好他,而他将来也会有很多的机会选择。”
林兰,项目经理