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Li
Zhaoping with her Beijing “Happy Family.”
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Li
Zhaoping and some of Tianjin adoptive families.
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Qualified pediatrician Li Zhaoping makes it her business to seek
out and treat Chinese orphans with congenital disabilities. That
her vocation is based on love and compassion is plain from the
way her face lights up when she speaks of the 100 children in
her care.
Li is chairperson of the Beijing International Committee for
Chinese Orphans (BICCO), and extended family members run the well-known
charitable institution the Hong Kong Wofoo Social Enterprises.
The two organizations co-sponsored the 2005 Disabled Orphans’
Assistance Project, which gave ten disabled orphans the chance
to have surgery performed by specialist Chinese and US orthopedic
surgeons. The children’s ages range from three months to
13 years old. Eight of them are from Ningbo in Zhejiang Province,
and two from remote Qinghai Province. Some have been bedridden
since birth. All of their lives were totally changed by the surgery
they received.
The 2005 Disabled Orphans Assistance Project was the BICCO’s
fifth, similar programs having been held in Beijing, Tianjin,
Yantai and Lanzhou.
Selfless Dedication
Li Zhaoping was born in Shanghai in 1945, and grew up in Hong
Kong. She later moved to the US, where she married and settled
down. In 1980, Li came back to China with her husband and worked
as an English teacher at Beijing-based Renmin University of China.
Five years later, she went back to the US to study medicine, eventually
qualifying as an assistant pediatrician.
Shortly before 1996, Li and her husband returned to China. It
was then that she began making frequent visits to the Tianjin
Children’s Welfare Institute, helping with the daily necessities
of feeding and bathing orphans as well as treating their illnesses.
The sense of fulfillment Li gained from this work prompted her,
with the support of her husband, her family and a group of close
friends, to establish the Beijing International Committee for
Chinese Orphans. The committee’s work consists of drumming
up finance, liaising with international medical experts, training
paramedics, and providing congenial, hygienic living conditions
within which orphans can learn to be self reliant.
A Brighter Future
Helping orphans with disabilities has been the main occupation
of 60-year-old Li Zhaoping -- “Mom” to the 100 or so
children in her care – for the past 20 years. During this
time she has arranged free orthopedic surgical operations and
post-operative treatment for more than 100 disabled orphans.
When talking about the children that have talipes equines, or
tip foot, a condition that prevents the heel of the foot from
touching the ground when walking, Li Zhaoping confirms: “After
surgery, children with this condition are completely cured, and
can walk, run and play as happily as any.”
Li’s work includes finding adoptive parents for her charges.
She has already found homes for 8 children in Beijing, and has
herself adopted a boy called Shao Shuai. He suffers from epidermolysis
bullosa hereditaria, a condition that causes the skin to blister
and putrefy. Unless he receives constant care, cankers rapidly
form on the boy’s hands and feet. Shao Shuai has lived in
Li Zhaoping’s household since he was an infant, and is now
a bright, sweet natured 6-year-old.
Li Zhaoping and her husband’s other son is from Taiwan.
They adopted him more than 39 years ago while studying there.
He was the seventh child of a family that simply did not have
the means to raise him. He has since graduated from university
and has a good job. Li Zhaoping and her husband maintain regular
contact with his birth family in Taiwan.
Happy Family
In August 2003, Li Zhaoping and Wu Peifu founded the Happy Family
Home on South Huawei Road, Chaoyang DistrictHHHH. It has since
moved to South Sanhuan Road. The Happy Family is a Non-Governmental
Organization subsidiary of the BICCO. Among its staff of volunteers
are physiotherapists, doctors and educators. The medical and daily
care that the home’s eight disabled orphans receive is free.
This is due to donations from bodies such as Amway, which established
the Amway Children’s Fund with an initial donation of RMB
3 million. During the two years since its establishment, Li Zhaoping
has arranged operations for 70 children. All were carried out
by the same orthopedists that contributed their expertise to the
BICCO
The Happy Family Home is warm and welcoming. On its office wall
are photos of all the children, along with relevant information
on their backgrounds and conditions. Looking at these images of
their smiling faces, it is difficult to appreciate their daily
battle with conditions that have plagued them since birth. They
include rare phenomena such as having three kidneys, as well as
the more common ailments of prolapsed liver and bladder. The children,
with Li Zhaoping’s help, nonetheless enjoy life to the full.
Those that undergo successful operations soon find other homes
and make their own way in the world. They leave room for just
a few of the multitude of other disabled orphans that so desperately
need the care and love that Li Zhaoping’s Happy Family Home
provides.
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