Xu Pu, former manager at a US company in Shanghai, is cofounder of the Shanghai Baby Home, a care centre for disabled infants forsaken by their parents. She has devoted a lot to the charity, but says she has been 'taking' more than 'giving'.
Tell us about the care centre.
In June 2008, 11 of us white-collar mothers set up this centre to look after abandoned disabled babies from various provinces. We take them from local government welfare centres to Shanghai for surgery, because of the far more advanced medical resources here. Then we care for them until their adoption. So our home serves as a place of 'transit'. We hope each of them will eventually have a new family. We now have 10 children, aged from three months to about three years, living in a rented villa in Minhang district at a cost of more than 6,000 yuan (HK$7,100) per month. We pay some women to provide round-the-clock care. About 40 babies have been adopted, with nearly nine in 10 going to foreign families. We help babies with cleft lips, water on the brain, congenital heart disease and deformed genital organs, because we know experts who cure these conditions. Most of our babies are from Henan, Fujian and Shaanxi, where we have good ties with the welfare centres.
Why did you found this centre?
We founders became acquainted via yaolan.com, a website for mothers. All of us are passionate about helping poor children. We found that at many grass-roots public welfare centres, because of meagre funds and indifference, disabled babies are not properly treated. We suggested taking them to Shanghai for treatment and the centres agreed. That's how the home began.
Why are foreigners the main adopters?
Mainland families prefer healthy babies, whereas foreign couples are willing to adopt babies with problems, possibly because of their nations' medical and social security systems. In China, there is no such policy or cultural environment.