Fundraiser for Urumqi CWI

The Urumqi CWI's front doors

Toñito lives with a foster family, however he goes to pre-school every day at a nearby orphanage called "Urumqi CWI (Children's Welfare Institute). Most of the healthy children have a similar living-schooling situation. Nonetheless, there are many children with special needs (many times they are a little older) that live at the CWI so they can receive appropriate care. We have heard from other families that have visited that they are in need of certain items that are harder to attain in this off-the-beaten-track location. Therefore, I am currently collecting the following items to bring with us this spring:

• art supplies/manipulatives- to be used for therapy for children in primary school/jr. high
• rubber pants, all sizes- to be used for children with spina bifida/no bowel control
• clothes sizes 6+- these definitely can be gently used!
• cleft bottles- to be used with kids with cleft lip/palate

Enfamil sells a bulk box of 72 cleft-bottles for $144, so I will be collecting money to purchase these. These bottles really save lives, and are unavailable in China- here is a quote from one advocacy article on rainbowkids.com:

"It’s such a little thing. A $3.00 special bottle for infants who are born with cleft lip/palate. Here in the U.S., and throughout the industrialized world, these bottles are sent home with every family that gives birth to a child born with this craniofacial disorder. Unfortunately, these bottles are ONLY available in developed nations. For the thousands of infants born in developing nations and living in orphanages, their chances of survival without this $3.00 nurser, are about 10% or less."

In addition to collecting the above items from my MOMs Club, family, and friends, I am also collecting donations to sell at a garage sale this spring, with the proceeds to benefit this orphanage. So, if anyone has any gently used furniture, tools, electronics, household items, baby items, sports equipment, books, etc, etc, that you were already going to donate (or you just want to remove some clutter from your basement and help out a worthy cause!) please let me know! Remember, a little bit of US dollars goes a lot farther in rural China...