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To enable our children to learn about the world outside through visits to the cities, awarding trips to Hong Kong for those who performed well, IT communication and exchange programme with NGO in Hong Kong.
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To provide educational/vocational counseling for the children completing junior secondary school and sponsor further education for those with potentials to further education.
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To extend the service of play-group to more local pre-school children and plan youth group to share the resources in SCV with local young people.
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To continue providing continuous staff development to our employees to up-grade their knowledge and skills.
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To start a youth group for our older children and to include young people from the community.We plan to have sports activities, art jamming, karoke, BBQ, movies etc. We also will include some classes in personal and social hygiene, sex education etc.
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To start a Sunbeam alumni for young people after they leave The Sunbeam Children's Village.
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We still have 105 children living in The Sunbeam Children's Village in Baiwan and now have 24 full-time members of staff. Our children attend local pre-schools, primary schools and junior/senior secondary schools. We also have children studying at senior secondary schools in Qingyuan and other near-by cities. There is one young man who has just completed his first year at university and another at college. Generally our children are performing well.
Our staff led by our Director Ms. Sherman Kwok and Deputy Director Mr. Yan Wei now consist of social workers, teachers and a nurse, in addition to our child-care workers, cooks, a steward and ancillary staff.
Our children enjoy extra curricular activities. Their homework is supervised and remedial classes are given where deemed necessary. In addition they receive counseling and career advice.
Open days for local residents are sometimes held in The Sunbeam Village. During the summers daycamps are held for Sunbeam children, local children and "home-alone" children whose parents have gone to cities to find work.
They are all growing up in a caring and nurturing environment where their health, education and social development are taken care of.
We currently have 105 children living in The Sunbeam Village in Baiwan.We have increased the number of senior staff in order to improve our services to our children.
In November 2005 our new Director Sherman Kwok took up her post, she is experienced and committed and is doing very well. In addition to Yan Wei our Assistant Director (who is also a social worker and has been with us for almost six years) and three new social work graduates who joined us in July 2005, Ms. Kwok has recruited two teachers and four child-care workers. We have a total of 24 full time staff working in The Sunbeam Village now.
Our medical room has been up-graded in loving memory of Jonathan Wong.
The playgroup that was started in September 2005 is proving to be popular and successful. The playgroup serves our own pre-school children and some children from the local community who live in abject poverty. They enjoy organized activities, supervised play, a nutritious meal and a snack each day.
In May 2006 The Sunbeam Village held its first open day for the community. It was a great success with over 800 adults and children from the area attending. Our own children enjoyed playing hosts. A second open day was held at the end of 2006 and was also a big success.
Sunbeam Village's award winners' visit to Hong Kong
In July 2006 we had our first prize giving and awards were given to children in many categories. The six main winners came to Hong Kong as a special reward for their achievements. They visited Disneyland, Ocean Park, museums etc. Friends of one of our Board members funded this trip. In addition Yu-hua won “The Wong Kai Sing Award” for her brave fight against leukemia. The award is donated in loving memory of Jonathan Wong. She joined the other winners to visit Hong Kong. Nine members of staff received awards for five years and over of service to SCV.
We are rejoicing in the fact that the first of our Sunbeam” children” gained the necessary grades for entrance to university and one to college. They commenced their studies in September 2006.Others have moved on to technical colleges and secondary schools. We have high hopes for our younger children.
Sunbeam Cadet training commenced in October 2006 for all age groups.
We have a 9-year-old boy who suffered from polio in infancy and had never walked or experienced life outside the four walls of his very basic home until he came to us. Last summer he had surgery that has enabled him to walk unaided and he is now receiving rehabilitation in Foshan and is doing quite well. He is also receiving tuition.
Another Sunbeam “child” who has been with us since we opened our doors in 1999 was crippled when he came to us, as the result of an injury that had not been treated properly when he was younger. After extensive consultations/x-rays/opinions, it was decided that the best choice for him was to amputate the lower leg, fit a good prosthesis and then to rehabilitate him. He had the surgery in July 2006. He is now fully mobile and also rides a bicycle to school each day.
Much needed renovation work was carried out during the summer and autumn of 2006 and a small annex for new staff quarters was constructed to accommodate the growing number of resident staff.
There are now 105 children living in The Sunbeam Village in Baiwan. Most of our children are attending Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in the area, and some children are attending Secondary School in Qingyuan.
Our Playgroup, which was opened in September 2005, is running well and we hope to admit more children from the local area soon, to enjoy the programme and facilities.
We are endeavoring to improve our services to the Sunbeam children under the leadership our new Director Ms. Sherman Kwok who is very experienced and committed. She is assisted by Mr.Yan Wei (Assistant to the Director and Senior Social worker) who has been with us for nearly five years; in addition we have three young Social workers in the team. We have recently employed a full-time teacher to help our children with remedial classes, preparation for exams, and supervision of homework, career advice etc.
Our little girl who was treated for leukemia is doing well at the moment and our eight-year-old boy who had surgery to his feet last summer (he had suffered from polio in infancy) is now able to walk unassisted for the first time in his life. He is currently receiving further rehabilitation in a center in Foshan.
After seven years of operation our building is in need of repair and maintenance work, which we are tackling in order of priority. We are also up-grading our medical room.
We currently have over 100 children living and thriving in The Sunbeam Children's Village in Baiwan. We have recently admitted more new children. They are all settling well into our home
Our children are all living in a nurturing and caring environment and they are also receiving an education and health care. Most of our children are attending Primary and Junior Secondary schools in Baiwan.Some of the older children are attending Secondary school in Qingyuan and one girl is attending a vocational training school in Zhao Qing.
Our little girl with leukemia is progressing quite well at the moment and will soon have completed her treatment. She is attending Primary school; she is very lively and happy.
At the beginning of September we opened a playgroup for local village children who do have parents but live in abject poverty. They have organized activities; supervised play and they receive a nutritious meal and a snack each day. We are hoping to teach them personal and social hygiene.
At the moment we have 18 members of staff working in The Sunbeam Village. We have recently employed four new social work graduates from universities in China. In addition to their social work duties they help with IT training, extra curricular activities supervise homework and give remedial classes.
We have up-graded our library, in addition to many more books; we have two new computers in the library, which the children use to watch CD ROMS. Additional sofas and tables have been added. The up grading of our library was funded by The French International School who held a readathon to raise the money for Sunbeam.
The Sunbeam Children's Foundation has now been operating for over four years. We currently have 86 children living and thriving in The Sunbeam Village. We further have 36 children on our waiting list having background checks and evaluations carried out.
Most of our children are attending primary and secondary schools in Baiwan.We have five students studying at a secondary school in Qingyuan and two teenage girls who are studying at a vocational training school to enable them to work in Kindergartens.
We have recently employed two teachers who are resident in The Sunbeam Village. Their role is to help the children with homework, to help them further their academic studies, and help with IT training. They will also evaluate the children individually and help to advise them for their future
One of our little girls who is only six years old was diagnosed with leukemia a few months ago and is currently being treated in The Zhong Shan University Hospital Fushu No.1, Guangzhou. She is undergoing her second phase of treatment. Overall she has been tolerating the treatment well and remains very cheerful most of the time. Unfortunately at the moment she is very susceptible to infection and has to be isolated from the other children in the ward.
In August 2003 we held an exhibition and sale of black and white pictures taken in Baiwan at The China Tee Club in Central. This was followed with a fund- raising cocktail event and auction of the black and white pictures in the same venue in November 2003. It was a successful evening, including live music and lucky draws. Nury Vittachi was our MC for the evening.
We are currently endeavoring to set up an education fund to enable our older children to move on to further education, i.e. vocational training, agricultural colleges and tertiary education institutes.
As we have no funding from the Hong Kong or Chinese governments we rely on corporate and private donations, fund raising events and individual child sponsorship to fund the project.
All of our Board members and committee members are volunteers, so every dollar raised goes directly to the children.
Life in The Sunbeam Children's Village is progressing well. Our Resident Director Ms. Wong Ming Fong has been there for over a year now and has implemented many good changes. We currently have 18 staff working there.
We have 80 children residing in our village. Most of our children attend primary or secondary schools in Baiwan and four children attend a secondary school in Qingyuan where they are boarders. Da Vinci House in Island School sponsors these students. We also have three of our older boys doing vocational training in Qingyuan.
Thanks to the generosity of Round Table 10 our IT room is up and running and all of the children are having IT lessons and are enjoying it very much. We also have a large screen in the activity room purchased at the same time as the IT equipment, where the children love to watch TV and videos. Round Table 10 donated the money for the screen and The Residents of Manhattan Apartments funded the VCR.
The Peak Pre-School (a branch of The Woodland Group of Pre-Schools) held a cookie/bake sale and donated the money to Sunbeam. We have purchased new books for our library with this lovely donation.
Kellet Primary School has made beautiful murals to decorate the activity room. The lovely pockets that they made previously are now hanging at the end of the children's beds to hold their possessions.
The Residents of Manhattan Apartments have for the third year running made Angel cards for the children in Baiwan. The children are always excited and appreciative when they receive these cards and the money donated with the cards is improving
our activity room.
In early December we had two fund raising concerts entitled `A Celebration of Light' in conjunction with The City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong and The Swedish Voices Chamber choir, who came over from Sweden especially for the concerts, which were spectacular and exciting. The concerts were held in St. John's Cathedral and raised approximately $370,000. Mrs. Inger Strom and a group of ladies from SWEA worked very hard to supply Swedish delicacies & mulled wine for refreshments after the events. The CLARES of St. John's paid for the rental of The Cathedral and The Li hall. We are very grateful to them.
We now have our own transport in the form of a van; this was funded by H & M Hennes and Mauritz (Far East) Ltd. and is a big asset to our Village.
Our child sponsorship programme is moving ahead and many of our children are now being sponsored by well-wishers from Hong Kong and overseas. This enables us to provide the day-to-day running costs for The Sunbeam Village. However we still need many more sponsors to allow us to admit more deserving children to our home as we have the facilities to accommodate forty more children.
Our annual newsletter will be circulated in the autumn 2003
The Sunbeam Children's Village was opened in May 1999.
Soon after the opening ceremony children were admitted in stages. Initially 19 dormitory students went to live during the weekdays in The Sunbeam Village. These children live too far away from the school that they attend to return home each day. They were previously living in appalling and unsanitary conditions, and fending for themselves.
There are now 80 children from 5 to 17 years of age living and thriving in the facility. Two thirds of our children do not have parents or are from single parent families who are unable to look after them.
The Sunbeam Children's Village provides free and hygienic residential care for the children We are ensuring that our children receive an education. They are also being provided with health care. Our children are growing up in a caring nurturing environment.
Twelve of our children have now moved on to secondary education, sponsored by well-wishers from Hong andKong money raised by Island School students in Hong Kong.
We have recently installed playground equipment for our younger children & exercise bars for our older children. The Woodlands Pre School Group donated the money for this project. We plan to let children in the local community enjoy the playground as well.
We have also up-graded the children's activity room, families from The Manhattan Apartment Building Hong Kong donated the money for this.
A water purification system has been installed as the quality of water in the area is very poor. The funding has been provided by H & M Hennes & Mauritz (F.E.) Ltd.
The Sunbeam Village has been rewired to comply with safety requiremants and improve general efficiency in our building. The CWM/Nethersole Fund and Round Table No.10 have generously donated money to assist with this project.
Our IT room is open and ready for use. Instruction started on October 12, 2002.The funding has been provided by Round Table No.10 with sourcing and IT expertise from KH Chiu
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