Charities don’t Stop Caring; Hearts in the Centre of the Rainbow

The little baby boy whose discovery led to founding of Hopeful Hearts in 2002

CHARITIES DON’T STOP CARING

By Frank Hossack

by tapping into the talent of the Nanjing community; art classes, make-up workshops, handicraft events, sales of self-made products, and lectures or workshops by people passionate about their work or hobby.

Local restaurants supported the cause by dedicating their profit on certain days, while international schools, The British School of Nanjing and Nanjing International School, were in turn very supportive, organising fairs and markets for the school community and in favour of the charity.

Finally, Hopeful Hearts kept the funds coming in by cooperating with Alipay’s donation platform in 2020 together with the Amity Foundation, their legal umbrella organisation, to set up a platform that may receive monthly donations.

Speaking with The Nanjinger, Ellen WieckMesarosch, Chair Person of Hopeful Hearts, spoke on the subject of hospitals being once again permitted to do heart surgery. She told us, “We’ve maintained

close relationships with the fabulous team of the Second Hospital of Nanjing, in which as of today all our children are

receiving their surgery”.

Back in the orphanage, The Nanjinger also spoke with Linda Huang, Director for the Rainbow Centre, on their challenges in the COVID era.

Set up in 2014, the Rainbow Centre provides palliative care and hospice care for critically-ill children, to make a bit of difference in the quality of their lives. Some children have afflictions that are simply incurable, others perhaps only months to live.

Critical to that effort have been the volunteers, referred to as “mothers”, reflecting an overarching lack of male helpers and that we are talking about, after all, an orphanage. Rainbow is one of just a handful of centres in China providing palliative care to orphans and other critically-ill children.

Huang began by telling us that their first priority was to ensure the safety of the children, especially given their extremely fragile condition.

Next, Rainbow strived to continue to implement their nursing plans, including daily life, medical treatment, rehabilitation and education.

When necessary, the Centre has also been operating a closed loop to ensure that all nursing plans are not affected. Staff work at the Centre for 7, 14 or 21 consecutive days.

However, voluntary services were required to be suspended, and to some extent, children had less activities to occupy their limited time. At first, there were those who showed some discomfort. Administrative staff stepped in to provide more support in bringing a touch of happiness to the children, arranging other time to complete their own work.

That happiness consists of a bit of that which other kids get to do. They’re given birthday parties, Christmas parties, something of the everyday we so often take for granted.

Huang told us, “We have been trying our

best to ensure that the children’s life is rich and colourful. For example, yesterday we made ice cream moon cakes together with them children. They were very happy. Of course, we still look forward to seeing volunteers again”.

Both Hopeful Hearts and the Rainbow Centre are the beneficiaries in the second British Ball, held in the Ritz Carlton, Nanjing, on the evening of Saturday, 17 September.