A poor orphanage in Taiyuan is unable to afford formula for their children. The children are given cow's milk and sugar water which is causing many medical problems for the infants.

Physician's recommendation

We would like to help give the children of Taiyuan a better chance at survival by supplying their milk needs. With proper nutrition their immune systems will be stronger and they will not be as susceptible to disease. Many already have a major medical problem which weakens them; malnutrition on top of that can often be detrimental to their survival.

We are currently running a formula project in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. This project was begun when a child from there arrived very sick and fighting for his life. He had to be taken immediately to the hospital. He had a congenital heart disease and the malnutrition caused by cow's milk, problem explained above, lowered his immune system and made him very susceptible to infection. This infection spread to his heart causing it to enlarge and have an irregular heart beat.

Proper nutrition in this case would have saved money; a lengthy stay in ICU and the hospital would not have been needed to bring his health to the state where he was strong enough to have heart surgery.

This project has been going for six months and we can already see a difference in the health of the children. The director now sees the importance of giving the children formula. Here is a testimonial from him.

In February 2006, we started participating in the milk powder program. Since that time, there have been 27 children 0-6 months and 31 children 7-12 months of age that have benefited from this high-quality milk powder. During the six months that we have been participating in the milk program, we have seen a lot of improvement in the children. All of the children sleep better, have healthier appetites, and look stronger. The foster families have also reported that the children have more regular bowel movements due to having a more balanced diet and proper nutrition. On average, we have noticed that the children in the milk powder program gain approximately two pounds each month and are growing taller and stronger. We are very pleased with the milk powder program and continue to look forward to watching our children grow stronger and healthier.

Director Zhang

We would like to expand our formula project and add another orphanage.
The Taiyuan orphanage currently has 50 children under the age of one. One child will typically consume eight 500 gram bags of formula a month. For 50 children this would be 400 bags a month. Providing these children with formula will go a long way to improving their health and give them a chance of survival.

The total cost for this project would be 28,584