Giving China's Orphans the Love They Deserve

In 1997, Jenny and Richard Bowen adopted their daughter, Maya, from a welfare institution in Guangzhou, China. The Bowens quickly learned that Maya was emotionally repressed due to her previous environment. However, after a year of receiving constant love and attention from her new family, Maya came out of her hiding place and transformed into a happy, healthy tot.

The Bowens saw how easy it was to make a difference in a child's life and thought of all the other orphans in China who were waiting for loving homes. In 1998, along with a small group of adoptive families, Jenny started the Halfthe Sky Foundation to provide the nurturing affection that so many abandoned Chinese children were missing.

Today, Half the Sky has reached the majority of provinces in China, from Hunan to Tianjin to Shanghai to Beijing. The organization's programs are based on the Western Reggio Emilia approach and focus on providing family-like care to orphaned children of all ages and abilities. Food and shelter are simply not enough, as kids who do not experience love will often fail to develop normally. Half the Sky exists to ensure that every boy and girl knows that they have somebody who cares for them.

So far, Half the Sky has trained over 8,700 caregivers and transformed the lives of nearly 64,000 children. The Infant Nurture Program trains nannies to act as parents and form emotional bonds with their charges, since these bonds play a key role in proper brain development. The Preschool Program prepares young children for school, while the Youth Services Program guides older children via mentorships, sponsorships, and vocational training.

Half the Sky has also established the Family Village Program to provide permanent homes and families for children who are unlikely to be adopted due to physical and developmental difficulties. In 2009, the charity set up China Care Home in Beijing, where specialized medical treatments are given to abandoned infants and toddlers from all over China.