Ping An Medical Foster Care Home

Have you ever met an angel? The scriptures tell us to "not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2." I have met a true angel. Her name is Teresa Woo. She is really another "Mother Teresa" who serves the orphans of China. The children she has ministered to call her " Huang Mama".
This is her story.......

In China, many orphans are born deformed or with congenital diseases. With government orphanages bursting at the seams, there are simply not enough funds to provide medical treatment to these children in need. One expatriate couple set up a small medical foster home in Tianjin in an attempt to fill the void. They took sick children from orphanages, raised donations, and arranged for medical treatment, bringing hope to hopeless situations. Their volunteers included the wives of two Amway China employees, who shared the children’s plight with Amway China.  When it became clear that the Tianjin foster home was limited by its size and location, Amway China stepped in, and Ping-An Medical Foster Home was born in Beijing. Meaning “peace and safety,” Ping-An is a brick house with eight little beds inside. The babies come from public orphanages, stay while medical treatment is sought, and are cared for before and after surgery. Following recovering, they are returned to the orphanages, with their chances of adoption increased exponentially.

Established by and funded by private donations from the expat community, the Ping An Medical Foster Home has grown from one room in an apartment to two properties in Beijing. A full time staff provides round-the-clock care for an ever-increasing number of babies, many of them orphans born with cleft palates or spina bifida. Teresa Woo, one of the co-founders, takes on the hard cases and works directly with hospitals and fundraisers to ensure each child receives the best medical care possible. She prides herself on being able to provide pre- and post-op care on a small scale, making the environment as close to a real home as possible.

 “These children, some of whom face life threatening medical conditions, have little chance of being adopted without having surgeries and other medical attention.” said Mr. Karygiannis. “The trained caregivers at the foster home care for the youngsters while they are in Beijing receiving medical care.”

The Ping An Medical Foster Home was established in 2003, co-founded by Eulalla Lee Andreasen and Teresa Woo. It provides surgical treatment and medical attention to Chinese orphans who were either born with various of handicaps or suffering from considerable health deficiencies. To date, has helped restore the lives of two hundred orphans from state-run orphanages throughout China. The foster home arranges for surgeries, rehabilitation therapy and other medical attention for the children. When they are healthy again, the children return to the orphanages with the great majority of them subsequently being adopted overseas.

“The children are my blessing. I am grateful to them for giving me the opportunity to help youngsters who need to know the joy and love of being part of a family.” said Ms. Teresa Woo, Co-Founder of the Ping An Medical Foster Home.

The Chinese state-run orphanages contact Ms. Woo when orphans, born with physical mild to serious health conditions require medical attention. The children are brought to Beijing where they are cared for at the foster home before and after their medical procedures.

“Every child deserves a whole life and the love of a family. This is motivation and purpose of the Ping An Medical Foster Home.” Ms. Woo stated. In Chinese, the name Ping An means “safe and peaceful.”

Teresa and her husband, the head of an American company's Beijing office, are from Hong Kong with Canadian citizenship, and they are among many, many Chinese who dispel the cruel and unfair stereotype that the race does not care for its children.

In the past few years, she has scoured the orphanages of northern China for children with disabilities, and taken them to PingAn, a medical foster home she has set up in Beijing, and then overseen their operations and recuperation. She is funded by voluntary donations and foreign businesses and, I suspect, herself.

Then, once these children are repaired, the holes in their hearts sewn up, spines straightened, bowels reconstructed, they return to their orphanages to await, if they are lucky, adoption.

Ping An takes in orphans who are stricken with serious illnesses and disabilities, arranges and pays for their medical care and surgeries if necessary, and provides pre- and post-surgery rehab care until they are fit enough to return to their original orphanages. The more fortunate orphans might find themselves in foster families, many of which are Ms. Woo's friends and/or regular volunteers.

"Most of our kids are abandoned for medical reasons," says Ms. Woo, whose organization is funded by private donations. "At first, we helped them get the surgery but they were going back to places that couldn't necessarily care for them, so I decided to house them in a place where they could get the kind of care they needed to recuperate. I can only have eight kids at a time because it's a family environment. I didn't want to open another orphanage.

American Adoptive  Mom of past Ping An Foster Child: " Teresa Woo, the woman who runs Ping An medical foster home, came to the hotel for a final good-bye. I knew this day would come; I had tried to prepare myself for it, but it was difficult. We had purchased some gifts from Wisconsin to give to her and the ayis at Ping An to remember us by. Li Baba was there along with one of the ayi's from Ping An. We all went out for lunch at McDonalds and let the girls play on the indoor playground. Then back to the hotel. It was hard to watch the tears come - Xin Li got very quiet and solemn. We were all teary-eyed. How could I adequately say thank you to this woman. She saved the lives of my two daughters. She was their link to the medical treatment and surgeries that they needed to survive. She nursed them to health and ensured they had medications. She invested her life into their lives. She loved them and was their Mama until I was able to come. The emotions were overwhelming. To me, this was the big moment. For Teresa to "give" Xin Li to me and then to say good-bye. It was an Ecclesiastes moment."

Ping An Medical Foster Home aids Chinese orphans born with mild to serious physical handicaps who require medical attention that Beijing orphanages cannot provide. Since its establishment in August 2003, Ping An has helped over 200 children with diseases or disabilities. After Ping An care, most of the orphans are adopted by loving families.

Ray and I will be visiting Ping An Medical Foster Care Home when we travel to China to bring our son home. We are collecting donations and supplies to bring to the foster care home! Will you join us in helping these precious little ones?