Sunbeam Children's Foundation

The Birth of Sunbeam Children's Village

The journey of a thousand miles
Begins with a simple step ~ Lao Tse

Our vision of a children's village is to provide a comprehensive care programme within the residential centre, reaching out to the community in positive ways with possible employment opportunities for local residents.

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Background

The Project

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Sunbeam Today

Future Plans

Background

The Board of Directors of Sunbeam Children's Foundation were brought to the Kei Oi School in Baiwan in November 1996 where they visited the ruins of the former school, at the time serving as a dormitory. There were no glass windows, only wooden bars without protection from the chilly winter, no beds, only wooden planks often shared by several children and no kitchen, only an area with a water pump and food being cooked over a simple fire.

Malnourished children, surviving on rice congee with tapioca, sweet potatoes and corn, carried their own firewood on their backs, rain or shine, and at times on bare feet along a winding mountain path on their way to school. We were stirred by their living condition. There was no doubt in our minds either of the need for a new dormitory or a shelter for orphaned children in the neighbourhood.

Representatives of the local government offered a piece of land for our foundation right behind the new school, for a residential centre. Soon thereafter the building was designed without cost by a Canadian architect and husband of one of our founding members. The centre will provide 80 dormitory places for students of Nan On Primary School (formerly called Kei Oi Primary School) and also accommodate 60 orphans and children with special needs. Food, shelter, clothing and medical care would be provided in a supportive environment.

The Project

Baiwan was chosen for the site of our first project to provide local children proper housing they desperately needed and deserved.

Baiwan is a small township in Qingxin County in the Province of Guangdong. It is an isolated community surrounded by limestone mountains. It is the poorest township in Guangdong Province with a per capita income of HK$1,396.00 or US$180.00 per annum. Most families have four or more children. In 1995 a new school was built with funds raised by the Hong Kong Community.

The enrolment of students in the autumn of 1998 was 671. The children range in age from 5-14. It was impossible for many children to attend school due to economic circumstances and also because of the distance from their homes to the school.