CHINA: Love is Blind

The recently relaxed one-child policy in China led many parents to abandon children who were born with mental or physical disabilities.

Photographer Alice Carfrae travelled between Beijing and Zhengzhou to visit two projects run by Bethel, a dedicated organization that is set up to provide high-quality care, education, life skills and livelihood opportunities to blind and visually impaired children in China through foster care projects. Bethel also runs an associate programme in training and outreach called 555, which aims to prevent blindness, lower orphan rates and conduct eye screenings to identify young visually-impaired children living in the country.

Above: (Left) Cane belonging to En Hong who arrived at Bethel in 2008. They believe she may have been living on the streets. (Right) Yuan Ming has albinism. He came into Bethel’s care when he was just a year old. He has learned to walk and he is now talking a lot. 

Almost all of the children helped by Bethel have been abandoned by their parents, because they have a physical or mental health problems. Susan Ou, manager of Bethel’s Love is Blind project, says minor disabilities such as missing fingers can be reason enough for parents to abandon a child.

Above: (Far left) Gui Gui hugs his friend as they wait in line for lunch and then gives his teacher a big hug (middle). (Right) A teacher takes Ai Fei’s hand and guides her to class. 

In the past decades, China’s One Child policy has exacerbated this problem as a great deal of pressure is put on the child to provide for the rest of the family, especially for their parents as they reach old age. If they are unable to work, they cannot meet this requirement or support the family, and this leads some parents to abandon their child.

Above: Children attend a cognitive skills class at Bethel. Developing cognitive skills by moving parts of the body and using the senses at a young age is a very important for a child with a visual impairment. 

There are two projects within the Love is Blind programme. The first is a partnership between Bethel and an orphanage in Zhengzhou and another orphanage in Dou Dian, outside Beijing, which includes a farm, school and home for visually impaired children.

Above: (Left) Hong Fa plays the Chinese flute whilst his friend Xiao Dong listens. Peter (middle, right) loves to sing and has a perfect tenor voice. He was awarded a scholarship for his excellent work which he spent on music lessons.

Speech therapy is now regarded as a vital component for many of the children, and music also plays a huge part in the children’s lives, with specially designed music rooms offering stimulation and relaxation.

Above: Jian Ang (left) helps Jianshan do up his jacket at the orphanage in Zhengzhou. 

Early on, children are encouraged to understand the concept of their own bodies, which instils confidence and a strong sense of self. At Bethel, both the environment and the children are very well cared for, and this, in turn, helps to prevent the kind of discrimination against disabilities, which has pervaded wider Chinese society for many years.

Above: (Left) Yuan Ming has albinism, when he came into Bethel’s care he was just a year old. He has learned to walk and he is now talking a lot. (Right) Jian Ang also has albinism. When he arrived, he was a tiny, weak baby. Now he runs everywhere and does well in class. 

The role of education, whatever their needs, is paramount. 

Above: (Left) a caregiver touches the head of a child and describes what it does so that he understands the concept of his body. (Middle) Xuerou plays with her teacher, before coming to Bethel she could not even sit up. (Right) Children are encouraged to play and explore. 

In Alice's words:

Zhengzhou is not the prettiest city. Its grey buildings are shrouded by a grey choking smoke. Henan is one of China’s poorer provinces and its capital reflects this. The Zhengzhou City Children’s Welfare Institute is located on the very outskirts of the city, where land is cheaper.

Despite being newly painted, the centre still did not look especially inviting from the outside, but we were welcomed warmly by Ma Jingya, who has been working as a teacher there for two years.

When we arrived, the twelve children in Bethel’s preschool initiative were taking an after lunch nap. We took this chance to look around one of the apartments they share, including a girl’s room, a boy’s room and a separate space for babies. The apartment looked very cosy with the kitchen and living room especially feeling like family homes. The only clue to the nature of the environment is stickers with children’s names and pictures to identify chairs, cups and toothbrushes.

Above: Baby room at the Zhengzhou orphanage.

The first child to wake was Xuerou. As I walked over to her cot I could see her yawning and smiling to herself. I whispered hello and she squealed with delight. Susan Ou, Bethel’s manager, told me she loves being talked to and cuddled. Xuerou is a child in whom they have seen the most significant changes since her arrival, very weak and malnourished.

Xuerou’s former circumstances are not known, but at first, she couldn’t even sit up or eat solid food, nor had she ever been taught how to walk or talk. It took six months of intensive care for her to respond to food and three years before she was able to stand. Now she is six, and can walk, but remains very small for her age. Susan told me that she understands when you tell her she is beautiful and will let you brush her hair.

Above: When Xuerou first arrived at age 4, she was very weak. She couldn’t sit up or eat any solid food. She now understands when you tell her that she is beautiful and she loves being cuddled and having her hair brushed.

I also spent a day with Gui Gui, a five year old boy who came into Bethel’s care at 18 months, after being abandoned by his parents. Gui Gui was expecting us but was feeling too shy to say hello. However, his shyness dissipated as soon as his Braille class started. The teacher, who is also blind, formed the children into a group to act out the Braille dots. Gui Gui was particularly quick and bossy, shouting out answers and physically putting the others in the correct place.

Gui Gui has transformed over the years, staff told me, from a terrified little boy who couldn’t walk or talk into the smiling bundle of energy I see today, who jumps downstairs in his haste to get to lunch. It wasn’t long before he was taking my hand and guiding me round his home.

He took particular interest in my camera, feeling his way around the buttons and the shutter. He would shout for his friends and the teacher and when he located them he would point the camera in their direction and push the shutter button in rapid succession as though firing a gun.

Gui Gui showed me one of his favorite places, the music room. He can play many instruments including the piano, which he asked me to play with him. When he realized I am not musical, he sat himself on my lap, took my hands in his and guided my fingers to the right keys to help me play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star — which is exactly what he is.

 

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAPTIA

Text by Legatum Foundation

ALICE CARFRAE

@ACarfrae

Alice Carfrae is an English documentary photographer currently based in Beijing, China. She works for clients such as The Telegraph magazine, Ford Foundation, Legatum, The Welsh Ruby Union, the Youth Justice Board, and Billionaire.com.