A New Advisor and Supporter, William Tao

I was so happy to have dinner with ‘Uncle Tao,’ during my recent trip to St. Louis. His name is William Tao, and he is the founder of a well-known engineering firm in St. Louis, William Tao Associates. Half of the high-rises in St. Louis can credit their existence to this firm, which has designed buildings around the world and won several awards for excellence in the industry. William Tao is a leader in the Chinese and Taiwanese communities and is respected throughout the region for his dedication to numerous local cultural institutions and charities.

I first heard his name twelve years ago, when I was still a student at Washington University. One of my classmates from Hong Kong received a scholarship that was funded by him. Then, he became grandfather to a Chinese baby girl, who was adopted by his second son Richard. Mr. Tao is a 1950 graduate of Washington University, and in 1997, the school awarded him an Honorary Doctorate for his outstanding support. I was among thousands of Wash U graduates that same year: a new MSW.

I am much honored to have gotten to know Uncle Tao on a more personal level, thanks to our ties in adoption. I even told him that I felt like he was part of a real-life version of Iris Chang’s book, “Chinese Americans.” Uncle Tao loves his native country of China, and he is also devoted to America, his chosen home for more than half a century. He has worked tirelessly to build a bridge between these two countries all his life.

Most Chinese, especially first-generation Chinese, tend to focus on their own career and family and do not have time to be involved in their adopted community or local politics. Uncle Tao, however, has been a leading supporter of great St. Louis events like Chinese Culture Days, and institutions like the Missouri Botanical Garden, Washington University, and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. He networks in local politics and counts the mayor among his friends. When he retired 20 years ago, he gave his company to his employees. He also donated a million dollars to various charities in the last 10 years of his retirement. He told me his theory—life is about giving, not receiving. He said he didn’t wish to pass wealth to his children, but he made sure they had a good education with which to reach their own dreams.

I wish I had known him 50 years ago—to see him arrive in the U.S. as a young Chinese immigrant and build such full and successful lives for himself, his family, and so many others. As a younger generation, overseas Chinese, I am inspired by him and determined to follow in his footsteps. I am extremely glad that he has agreed to be my adviser and supporter. He, too, is very much touched by the needs of children in China and he will work with me and my Children’s Hope colleagues to help them. Besides his immediate financial support for Chinese orphans, his network of relationships and his world of wisdom are priceless.

Forever Instilled in Young Hearts: CCAA's China Culture Camp

These girls are special. They were invited as guests to a 10-day China culture camp organized and paid for by the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). All 30 of the campers were adopted from China over 10 years ago. Five of these young women were adopted through our agency.

They came to Beijing on August 14 and will leave tomorrow, August 24. I came back from the States last night, just soon enough to catch them before they head back. I went tonight to the girls' hotel, the Radisson, which is within walking distance from our office and my apartment. It’s 9:00 p.m., they just came back from a dinner with the Vice Minister of Civil Affairs, Mr. Dou, and other officials. I am not sure if the girls understand, but to those of us working in the field of child welfare, being able to meet Mr. Dou is a big deal! For the girls, this is the second time they have met him (the first was at the camp's opening ceremony).

I went up the hallways of the fourth and fifth floors of their hotel. I saw the doors open and the girls were in and out of each other’s rooms. Joy Barker, whose mother works with me at Children’s Hope, was sitting by the computer in Mr. Wu’s room and she turned her head to the door and found me standing there, and she asked, "Is that you, Melody?”

Then I found two other Children’s Hope kids, daughters of our own staff member Carol Forslind, Tory and Brittney Forslind in the room.

“Do you know me?” I asked. “No,” their eyes answered.

“I knew you when you were very little because I helped your mom and dad to adopt you.” The memory all came back to me when Carol and Steve adopted Tory as their first child from China and then Brittney, Taomei, Melody, finally Steven--all five. It feels like just yesterday but...can it be already 10 years? Seeing these beautiful teenage girls in front of me told me, yes, this is all so true. Joy and Tori helped me to find Alyssa Smith so we can take a group picture.

Emma Reading was out with her friends and missed the shot. When she came back, she found me and asked, “Is it true you helped my mom to get me?” After I said yes, she then said, "I better give you a big hug. Oh, maybe two. Okay, let me give you another one!”

She then went downstairs and got her camera to take a picture of me to show her mom. What a charming character! Her baby picture flashed back in my mind and I told her, you still have that look. Seeing them in China looking so great and so well-behaved really makes me happy. I am sure the people organizing this camp share the same feelings I do.

I asked Joy, "How do you like this camp," She answered, “I like it. It’s special.”

The CCAA prepared for the girls' arrival May 18 through August 14. Over 50 children applied to be part of this camp. They were each presented a poster of their referral and their current picture, as well as to Minister Dou. The girls enjoyed sightseeing, traditional dance, visiting an actually family, and Rickshaw ride, and some shopping!

As I say goodbye to them and they leave tomorrow, I hope what they experienced in China is now forever in their minds and their hearts.

Pictures:

1) (left to right) Joy, Brittney, Tory, Melody Zhang, Melody, Marianna
2) (left to right) Brittney and Joy
3) Thirty American adoptees return to China to experience the CCAA's China Culture Camp.

The Story of a 11-Year-Old Boy

As I have mentioned before, Children’s Hope has partnered with CCTV to help children with severe medical needs, starting this past June. (CCTV's web site is in Chinese with no available English translation.) With each story aired on CCTV every week, we have been receiving thousands of phone calls. On our China web site, we add a daily update on the amount of donation received for each child in this project. The majority of the donations have come from individuals. Over $100,000 has been received on behalf of Children's Hope for the four children.

Liu Chao’s parents got divorced when he was only a little baby. He lived with his dad until two years ago, when a fatal car accident took his dad’s life, as well as both of his feet and his left leg. Over 60% of his body was seriously burned and has resulted in numerous problems, including deformed sex organs and anus, etc. China’s largest TV station, CCTV aired Liu Chao’s story with a plea for help. On July 21, Children’s Hope brought Liu Chao from his home town in HuBei to Beijing, and on July 26 we arranged the first surgery to correct his anus. Chao misses his dad so much, and he has many surgeries to endure, which are estimated at over $15,000. Funds are being raised for him right now.

Job Trainings for 22 Older Orphans

In the next few days I will give an update on some of what is happening on the China side, while I have been in the US:

Twenty-two older orphans from HeNan province came to Beijing and spent one month at Changping vocational training school this summer. They completed a one month job training for hotel workers as of August 1, and fourteen of them took the test for training certificate issued by the Ministry of Labor. As of today, seven of these orphans have received job offers from hotels in Beijing.

Children’s Hope currently works with two vocational schools in Beijing to help provide vocational training to older orphans. Our goal is to build a school for older orphans someday. The cost for one child to receive one month of training now is $250, including the dorm, food, etc. The typical training is one month for hotel workers and construction workers, three months for art and craft workers, and six months for cartoon makers.

Remember Little Loving Heart?

Remember the four year old Dang Ai Xin, the little loving heart? I received a reply from Jenny Bowen, the founder and director of Half the Sky in June, who told me they had success in getting one little girl like her to the US last year, and she gave me the contact email for Dr. Peter Koltai of Stanford University of Medicine. I asked my friend in Beijing, John Bentley, who took Ai Xin into his foster care program shortly after, to follow up on this. After two weeks, John called me with great news--he got a response from Dr. Koitai, who said he will treat her for free if his hospital also agrees to take her in for free. John emailed me last week telling me he also found a host family for her in California near Stanford.

There is no cure for her reoccurring tumor, and the treatment is to get the tumor under remission. We now need to work on getting her paperwork for travel to US. Isn’t this great for little Dang Ai Xin?

John gave her an English name, Emily. Let’s pray for Emily to get closer to her help in the next few weeks!

Visiting Wonderful Friends in the US

Dear Friend:

I hope you are enjoying the summer. I arrived in the US July 9 and will soon be returning to China in mid-August. Many of you might already know that I carry two hats on my head: the associate director for Children’s Hope International in the US, and the other, the director of the Children’s Hope Committee under China Association of Social Work. It’s important to have these two hats in order to do our work right now.

With my US hat on, I traveled and did some fundraising in the US. A very special moment came when I was in Florida meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Allen. They were touched so much by the need of orphans and children in China that they will start a special emergency fund to help children receive urgent surgeries. Mr. Allen is also helping us with a major project to provide the orphanages with hundreds of computers and other equipment that will help speed up the paper processing for adoption.

For these two projects, over $500,000 will be donated on behalf of Children’s Hope. We are so grateful to the wonderful friends like the Allen’s. Thank you for helping the children!

Please come back this week for updates on what’s going on at the China side. So much has been happening in just one month, and so much more to be done!

Sincerely yours,
Melody Zhang


(Left) Mrs. Carole Allen with Kenza, her adopted daughter from China, on July 18. Carole is donating to the medical emergency fund. Her husband Arthur is in the process of obtaining 500 computers and additional equipment for orphanages in China.