Rotary Club of Beijing

During the recent visit to Beijing, RI President John Kenny and his wife June visited the Sun Children’s Village, a sanctuary for children whose parents are currently imprisoned for serious crime or have received death sentence. Without such care, these children will not only be stigmatized and homeless, they may also become social outcasts and thereby engage in criminal lives.
The Rotary Club of Beijing has been supporting the Sun Children’s Village in Shunyi district in the rural suburbs of Beijing since 2000. The Beijing Children’s Village is home to about 130 children aged from 2 months to 18 year-old.
According to Madam Zhang, the founder and an ex-prison liaison officer of the Sun Children’s Village, there are currently 600,000 children whose parents are in prison in China. These children, who technically are not orphans, are not protected by any social welfare provision available from the government, hence Madam Zhang’s idea/initiative to care for these children 15 years ago.
Besides Beijing, there are five others Sun Children’s Villages in other provinces in China, caring for a total of 550 children, providing room, board and education. Over the years, more than 4,000 children have received help from the Village.

RI President Kenny and June, accompanied by PP Regula, IPP Kevin, RCB President John Barnes and PDG and Special Representative Y. K. Cheng visited the Village on the morning of 14th August to meet with Madam Zhang and the Children who lived there.
The two baby girls are Strawberry and Dragonfly. They are roughly two months old and have been in the Children’s Village for a few weeks. They were kidnapped and were found with their kidnappers on a train. While the latter were sent to jail, the girls are now in the Children’s Village. So far their parents could not be found.
The boys in green T-shirts with John and June are Dongdong, Dongdi and Alimu, an Uighur.
The four nice 8 year old girls all live in our Rotary house.

Pictures taken by Rtn. Regula and Rtn. Kevin – Sumitted by Rtn. Kevin, edited by Rtn. Gilbert

Our Club has been very honored with the visit to Beijing of the Rotary International President 2009-10 John Kenny and his wife Ms. June Kenny.
On Thursday 13 August a dinner was organized in the famous restaurant Xiheyaju in Ritan Dong Lu. Present were Mr. and Mrs. Kenny, PDG and Special Representative Y. K. Cheng, RCB President John Barnes, IPP Kevin Fong and PE Gilbert.

The purpose was to introduce some of our local existing and potential service partners: the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, the China Children and Teenagers Fund, the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy and the UNDP.
During the dinner a relaxed exchange of ideas between all certainly enhanced the relations between all parties present.