Our work in china

ABOUT CHINA

There are currently over 600,000 orphans living in China. Tragically, due to stigma and an overall lack of support for families, 98% of children abandoned in China have special needs. Sadly, there does not appear to be a significant change in the number of abandoned children with specials needs. In just two months, 262 children with special needs were abandoned at the baby safety island in Guangzhou.

OUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE

AGCI is working to recruit and hire a team of local leaders who will open a regional Child Advocacy Center. With this regional center as a hub, it’s our goal to:

PROVIDE Implement Caregiver Training Programs at 16 orphanages throughout China so that 7,000 children living in institutions are given the chance to thrive.

PLACE Launch Adoption Administration Trainings for government officials, social workers, and orphanage directors while securing adoption grants. As a result, 13,500 orphans will be eligible to be adopted and 300 children with special needs will have the opportunity to be united with a family.

PREPARE Increase vocational training programs by 650% for orphans aging out so that 900 more children are prepared to successfully transition to independence each year.

POLICY  Influence Child Welfare Policy at the highest levels of government and create a path to family for 43,000 orphans. AGCI will also unite over 30 NGOs to create a regionally unified, strategic Child Advocacy plan.

We Intervene in 3 Ways

PLACE

Finding Families for Orphans

To date, we’ve united over 654 children with their forever families—87% of these families completed their adoption from China in less than 2 years. We believe that all families should have the opportunity to adopt, regardless of finances, which is

why over the past two years, families adopting from AGCI’s China program have received over $335,717 in adoption grants. Additionally, AGCI China families are happy families—24% of China adoptions in 2015 were returning AGCI families.

Provide

Family-Like Care

Since 1994, AGCI has served orphaned children throughout China. Through our work with orphanages, we’ve elevated the standard of care while advocating for adoptive and foster homes for orphans with special needs. Through the support of sponsors, we’ve also supplied orphanages with crucial developmental toys, bedding, clothes, room upgrades, medical care and therapy.

AGCI is currently in the process of acquiring our NGO license–this will allow us to further expand our orphan care efforts throughout Fujian. To date, we’ve served over 6,465 children through our orphan care efforts.

Policy

Changing the System

In 2013, of the 57 orphanages in the Fujian Province, only 9 were preparing adoption paperwork for the orphans in their care. Without this paperwork, children are ineligible to be adopted by loving families. To address this concern, AGCI hosted the first ever paperwork conference to educate orphanage directors on the importance of completing paperwork for children and advocating for children with special needs.

Just two years after our advocacy, 60 children with special needs have since united with their forever families through AGCI alone and over 6,000 more children now have the chance for family. To further support these orphanages, we’ve raised the funds to purchase the computers, scanners, printers, and cameras needed to help complete adoption paperwork and advocate for these children.

Stories

Place

“I don’t think I’ll ever quite be able to put my heart for Finny and the living, breathing picture of God’s grace and love and desire for His people she represents to me and to our family and many others she’s touched (into words). She is wonderfully and perfectly made and brings me to my knees in thanks and awe and need daily. God knit me together with Himself through her forever. He’s on full display through her and I get to live with her. It’s just mind-blowing to me, all these years later, how He worked it all out and continues to. Adoption is at the top of His gifts to us.”
– Demeter Family