By staff reporter LIU DONGPING

His personal adoption experience prompted founder and president of Prince of Peace Kenneth Yeung to help orphans and abandoned children in China.

Mr. and Mrs. Yeung with their daughter Melissa Joy.

THE Prince of Peace Children's Home represents the dreams of Kenneth Yeung that have become a concrete reality in Tianjin's Wuqing District. This modern orphanage and rehabilitation center started trial operation late last year and will celebrate its formal inauguration this July.

Yeung's dream started with a charity poster he saw on a street in the United States. Beneath a little girl's innocent face on the poster, was the line: "Priorities -- A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove? But the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child." Reading this poster set Yeung on a mission to help needy children.

An Adoptive Father

As a businessperson, Yeung often travels between the United States and China. When on a trip to Tianjin 11 years ago he saw small children abandoned by their parents, he thought of adopting an orphan from China. He made enquiries at the relevant department in Tianjin, asking to adopt a Chinese girl. At the time China had no administrative body handling foreign adoption of Chinese children, so Yeung had no idea what would come of his request.

Just before he was ready to leave for the States, news came to him that the department in Tianjin had helped locate an abandoned newborn girl. Yeung called home and consulted his wife, and the couple decided to adopt the baby.

The Prince of Peace Children's Home in Tianjin.

They named their daughter Melissa Joy Yeung, in hopes that they can bring her a life of joy and happiness. When Melissa turned three years old, Mrs. Yeung quit her job and stayed at home to take care of her child. When Little Melissa displayed a talent for music, the couple bought a piano and arranged for a music tutor. Melissa can now play difficult piano pieces and excels at singing and dancing at school.

The Yeungs did not hide the truth of adoption from their daughter because they want her to develop a healthy mindset and face life's realities. When Melissa was a third grader, they told her of her adoption and asked the teacher she trusted most to help explain. They also took Melissa to get-togethers for adopted Chinese children organized by the Chinese Consulate, so she could share her experience. Melissa quickly came to accept the facts. "You love me like any parents would their own children, and I will love you even more," she told her adoptive parents.

Not long ago, Melissa came to Tianjin with her parents to visit the orphans at the Prince of Peace Children's Home her father had founded, bringing with her toys she and her classmates had specially collected.

In response to the comment that Melissa was lucky to have been adopted by the Yeungs, Yeung said: "So are we. Melissa has given us happiness that we have never experienced before and changed our lives."

Corporate and Charity Undertakings

Kenneth Yeung is a native of Shantou, Guangdong Province. At the age of 11, he went to live with his grandparents in Hong Kong. After graduation from middle school in 1969, he entered the sociology department of the University of San Francisco, and later studied for his master's at the University of Hawaii. In 1985 he sold his house and put all his savings in establishing his own enterprise in San Francisco, naming it Prince of Peace.

In his start-up years, he dealt in diet tea. Not long after, the famous Singaporean Tiger Balm manufacturer was looking for its American agent in San Francisco. Prince of Peace competed with over a dozen experienced companies to be Tiger Balm's general agent in the United States, and stood out in the process of evaluation enough to win the contract.

Tennis star Michael Te Pei Chang (center) visits orphans at the children's home.

Yeung was determined to make this hard-won business opportunity a success. One day he saw on TV that football star Joe Montana had sprained his ankle in a game. Immediately he sent out some Tiger Balm, together with a letter of good will. Not long after, Joe Montana contacted Yeung through his agent and expressed his willingness to advertise for Tiger Balm. At that time, Montana's minimum endorsement fee was US $300,000. Kenneth confessed to the agent that his business could only allow US $25,000 for an advertisement. Convinced of both the efficacy of Tiger Balm and Yeung's sincerity, Montana did the advertisement and as a result, Tiger Balm sales shot up almost eightfold that year and entered supermarkets and retail outlets. His Tiger Balm success won Yeung more agent business and the award of Entrepreneur of the Year by the prestigious Singapore American Business Association.

Yeung's business success has enabled him to realize the dream he had the moment he adopted Joy - of opening an orphanage in China to provide love and care for more children in need. Yeung spent a lot of time and energy collecting information and studying Chinese laws and regulations. At the suggestion of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, he contacted the Soong Ching Ling Foundation in Beijing and the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs. After more consultation and examination processes, an agreement on the Prince of Peace Children's Home project was concluded between Tianjin's Wuqing District Bureau of Civil Affairs and POP's Foundation, a philanthropic organization that Yeung founded in 1994 to facilitate the adoption of Chinese orphans by American families. It is the first Sino-foreign orphanage approved by the Chinese government. POP's Foundation invested US $300,000 in the first stage of construction.

After construction started, Yeung began to plan for specialized management. Through friends he got in touch with World Vision China, a prestigious philanthropic institution that operates several welfare projects in China, and invited the firm to manage the children's home. World Vision is experienced in providing care for orphans and children with disabilities and training special education staff. To Yeung's joy, World Vision China not only agreed to manage the children's home, but also offered an investment to set up a children's rehabilitation center within the facility. The three partners invested a total of RMB 6.55 million in constructing 4,500 square meters of floor space over a compound of 6,000 square meters. The facility can accommodate 100 children under age six and is open for rehabilitation and relevant services to disabled children.

As a trial operation, the children's home enrolled 14 abandoned children with disabilities at the end of last year. After a check-up, it transpired that a baby girl suffering congenital heart disease needed an operation immediately. Failing to find a financial source from the civil affairs department, the children's home shouldered the entire medical cost and saved her life. "If I can help change the fate of a needy child, I'd rather do that than have all the world's luxury," says Yeung. "In a hundred years' time, when our lives are over, our importance will continue in the lives of children that we have helped."

Willing donators and volunteers can contact Ms. Deng Yuhua at the Prince of Peace Children's Home.

Tel: 0086-22-82103391

Fax: 0086-22-82103941

E-mail: patsytang@wvi.org

Add: Room 401, Unit 4, Building 5, Songheyuan Sub-district, Quanwang Road, Yangcun Town, Wuqing District, Tianjin

Postcode: 301700