Chinahighlights Visited the House of Love

About 20 members of the staff of China Highlights travel recently visited the House of Love which caters for orphans with special needs. Our staff members arrived with lots of milk drinks and fruit for the kids to eat and drink but more importantly we arrived with time to spend with the children.

Mr Brian Trower, Vice President - Finance for Helping Hands was the leader of our team. On our way, Brian gave us a brief update on Helping Hands and the House of Love and the other projects that Helping Hands supports.

House of Love is a residential unit that provides fulltime care for orphans with cerebral palsy. The facility currently houses 10 children. The children receive physical therapy, and the Charity employs a teacher for the children. One of the children attends the deaf school in Guilin. Helping Hands goals include providing medical assistance to orphans and providing training to local health care professionals.

The House of Love is located at the northern suburbs of the city and around 30 minutes' drive from the city center. The place is very quite, surprisingly tranquil. You can even hear the chattering sounds of birds.

Connie Yang who is the administrator for the House of Love led us up to the second floor of a big building. 10 children aging from 2 to 14 live in the House of Love. A large brightly decorated room with toys, books serves as their day room.

The kids were very happy to see us. The children all suffer from cerebral palsy and have varying disabilities as a result of the condition. They are all very clever with quick minds. Playing with them, we could see their eagerness for love abd affection and they really enjoyed the opportunity to play with new friends.

A boy about 10 caught my eye. He is in good looking with strong body. His main disability was that he is deaf and therefore unable to speak. I was very sad that this disability has robbed him of the opportunity that most other children have. However, we could communicate together with body language and by being inventive. He attends the deaf school where he learn sigh language but unfortunately I was not able to communicated with him by signing.

The facility is principally funded by sponsorship of the children by and donations"said Ms Connie Yang, who is the administrator of the House of Love. Ms Yang continued, "We are delighted to have China Highlights Travel as a major sponsor of the House of Love. Their ongoing support ensures the continued viability of the House of Love and its ability to deliver the services that these children require." Mr Brian Trower, the Vice President - Finance for the Helping Hands, was speaking about volunteering and the work the assdociation when he said,"The concept of businesses becoming involved in supporting the work of organizations like ours is quite new in China. We are really appreciate the way that China Highlights Travel has embraced this spirit of generosity and their commitment to those less fortunate in our community. We believe that they will be a positive role model for other companies in China." Mr Trower is an expatiate Australian who has lived and worked in China for 5 years.

Although these children have a disability which prevents them from doing many things we were very impressed by their great attitude to life and their determination to be as involved as possible with all the activities at the House of Love.

Related Links:

1. Chinahighlights Travel Gives a Helping Hand
2. See photos of this visit
3. China Highlights visited the House of Love in January, 2010