China
Harmony’s Outreaches in China
In China, Harmony Outreach has four very diverse projects. The cornerstone of our work in China is our home for orphans called Harmony House. We also support inland projects including the Kaifeng Deaf School and the Catholic orphanage of DaMing.
HARMONY HOUSE ORPHAN HOME
Harmony House is a safe haven for orphaned and special needs children. We take in children who were abandoned because they were born with special needs and transform their sad lives into something new and beautiful. James 1:27 says, “Pure religion in the sight of God is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted by the world.”
For the children that God brings into our care, we try to step into the shoes of their missing parents and make their problems our problem. For us, “visiting orphans...in their affliction” means taking the tough hand of cards they have been dealt and putting some aces in it. We do this through our Three Steps to Hope (foster care, surgery and adoption) program. Typically it takes about two years for a child to graduate from our program and be adopted into a loving family. And when they do, we take in another vulnerable child to take his or her place.
Harmony House is designed, as much as possible, to model a normal family environment. The children are cared for in a free-standing home with a back yard and play equipment. They are cared for by nannies in a structured environment which includes naps, play times and school for the older children. We love coming to the rescue of vulnerable children and helping to transform their lives into something new and beautiful. Harmony orphans have been adopted into loving families all over the U.S. and the world.
KAIFENG DEAF SCHOOL
Kaifeng Deaf School was Harmony Outreach's very first inland project. When we first visited the school in 2006 we were struck by the deplorable conditions in which the children and staff were living and working. The deaf school was a boarding school and was the de facto home for approximately 60 children. Receiving a mere pittance of income each month, the school’s only affordable housing was an abandoned and dilapidated factory compound. Making the best of the situation, they grew much of the food they ate. Despite the difficult conditions, the children were healthy and full of love and laughter. This was testament to us of the loving care provided by Headmistress Zhang Hong (Hannah) and her staff who did their best to shield and protect the children and provide them a nurturing environment in which to grow and learn. In private, however, Zhang Hong's brave face would melt away and she would often cry as she described her struggle to care for the children.
Harmony adopted the Kaifeng Deaf School and quickly set about to bring them encouragement and help. We helped relocate them to new facilities and remodeled them, we purchased their first vehicle, we provided new furniture, a clean water filtration system, bedding and appliances, and we gave the staff much needed salary increases.
China, unlike the U.S., does not have a comprehensive strategy for helping the deaf to overcome their disabilities and function within society. Most of the children's parents are poor farmers or migrant workers. Not knowing how to deal with a deaf child, many families virtually abandon their children or make them feel valueless and unloved. Our goal is to help KDS provide the children a nurturing environment where they will be loved while they are taught how to overcome their hearing disabilities. For these children, graduation is when they have been sufficiently prepared and equipped to go to regular public schools and/or to function in society.
DAMING CATHOLIC ORPHANAGE
Without question one of the poorest and neediest orphanages in China is the Catholic orphanage of DaMing located in south Hebei province. The sweet nuns at DaMing will be quick to tell you they never intended to start an orphanage. The orphanage began inadvertently one day when a little girl with club feet was left on the doorstep of their convent. The nuns took her in, raised money for her clubbed feet surgery, and cared for her. Over time other people began leaving special needs and mentally handicapped children for the sisters to find, and the sisters would take in any child left at their gate. Slowly this developed into a full-scale orphanage.
For political reasons, China's government does not allow the Roman Catholic church to directly support the Chinese Catholic church or related activity in China, including the DaMing orphanage. With very little financial resources the sisters are in a really tough situation.
It does not matter whether you are Catholic. Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor. When He was asked to define neighbor, He did so by telling the story of the Good Samaritan—a Samaritan who came to the rescue of a Jew who had been beaten and robbed. The Samaritan took no notice of the fact that his people and the Jews had different religious traditions. He saw his suffering neighbor and came to his rescue. Jesus ended the story by saying, “Go and do likewise.”
Because we love the nuns at DaMing and believe in the beautiful work they are doing, Harmony has come alongside them to help them bear their burden. In addition to occasional financial support, Harmony has done a lot of projects to bless DaMing including buying them coal in the winter, providing them with a water filtration system, sending them a truckload of furniture and supplies, replacing their heating system, buying them a commercial-size washing machine, transferring deaf children in their care to the Kaifeng Deaf School, and helping to find adoptive families for some of their children.
