How a US filmmaker started a charity to improve the care of orphans in China
The dire state of mainland orphanages 15 years ago spurred filmmaker Jenny Bowen into action. Her charity, Half the Sky, has been a huge success and now works with officials across the country
As the only Westerner working with the Chinese government to train children's welfare workers, Jenny Bowen has helped improve the lives of thousands of orphans across the mainland. That's a massive achievement, the result of much hard work over the past 15 years.
The journey began in 1996, when Bowen - a scriptwriter and filmmaker based in California - and her husband Richard read a Human Rights Watch report on the state of orphanages on the mainland.
The report came soon after a damning British documentary, The Dying Rooms, which uncovered systematic neglect of abandoned babies in the state-run orphanages and, most disturbing of all, "dark rooms" where children were left to die.
The very first visit to an orphanage was overwhelming
Bowen and her husband decided to do something - adopt. The couple had already raised two children of their own and the nest was empty. They eventually adopted two girls - Maya and Anya, who are now in their late teens. But their personal journey soon became far bigger than their own family.
"The very first visit to an orphanage was overwhelming, seeing so many children," Bowen says.
"The circumstances were very poor. There were children who were tied up, children who were languishing, there was all sorts of institutional behaviour; children picking at themselves and banging their heads on the wall and just running around throwing themselves at strangers because they had such a need to be held."
That sense of hopelessness was followed by anger, and the urge to gather up all the children and take them home. Then came the realisation that the conditions weren't poor because of a lack of love, but due to a lack of resources.