About Little Red Scarf (小紅巾)
Project Little Red Scarf – 小紅巾
Children’s Heart Surgery Ministry in Gansu (甘肅 ) Province, China
1. Description of Children Heart Surgery Ministry
1.1 Needs Description
Congenital heart disease is a serious killer in China. It ranks as the third killer disease among children under 5 years old in China. There are about 200,000 such defective newborns each year in China. Only about 60,000 might receive treatment each year.
With over 6,000 such cases each year, Gansu Province is among the highest incidence provinces, and less than 20% receives any treatment. The main reasons for not receiving treatment are:
• Remote area locations
• Inability to pay for the expensive surgery
This inability to quickly act has led to premature death of babies, stunted growth for those who live, and lifelong handicap, which result in major liability to society.
1.2 Our Response to Needs
In response to such dire needs, CCHC initiated the Children Heart Surgery program, under the Love Focus Fund that is administered by CCHC, which is headquartered in New York City. CCHC is a charitable organization registered under IRS as a 501 (c) organization for over 26 years. It started the Love Focus Fund for more than 20 years with the express purpose of providing assistance to Chinese immigrants in North America and China.
Through the Love Focus Fund, CCHC began the ministry of paying for surgeries for different diseased children in China in 2002. It started with a little girl by the name of Kexin Zhou, who received surgery at David & Lucille Packard Children Hospital in Palo Alto, California. Through the support of thousands of people and corporations, CCHC established Children Heart Surgery Fund to help pay for the cost of the surgeries. Though the little girl Kexin Zhou died after the second series of surgeries, CCHC decided to continue helping the congenital heart diseased children from Gangsu Province, where Kexin Zhou originated. The program has grown to the point that Kexin’s mother, Cao Rui, is now serving as the Field Coordinator of this Children Heart Surgery program in China.
1.3 Operating Mode and History
To ensure responsible stewardship in all its ministries, CCHC maintains close ties with the local supporting hospital at Lanzhou. The hospital enjoys world repute as a leading institution in children heart surgery, and CCHC ensures that only the appropriately needy children will be treated. More details on this program’s operations are given below.
1.3.1 Local CCHC Field Support
Ms. Cao Rui, the mother of deceased Kexin Zhou, serves as the local coordinator for this Children Heart Surgery ministry. Her responsibilities include the follow:
• Evaluate the legitimacy and neediness of applicants for congenital heart surgery from Gangsu. She visits each family to fully understand their needs, consult with the expert doctors in the Lanzhou hospital to decide on the neediness and prudency of any surgeries, and cares for the child in question and his/her family because of Cao Rui’s faith in Christ.
• Provide all the coordination and interface between the children’s families and the Lanzhou hospital to ensure a smooth process for the child’s surgery and recovery.
• Follow up with the child and his/her family during the recovery period.
• Review the invoices from the hospital before authorizing payments from Love Focus Fund.
• Provide updated reports to the Love Focus Fund Director of CCHC.
1.3.2 CCHC’s Love Focus Fund Directive
In addition to closely working with the local coordinator of the Children Heart Surgery ministry at Gangsu, the Director of Love Focus Fund also provides the following oversight to the program:
• Raise financial support from various sources to ensure the solvency of this charitable fund.
• Continually monitor the hospital performance to ensure the quality of the surgery to be acceptable
• Evaluate the hospital capabilities to ensure its qualifications in performing the required surgery.
• Periodically visit with the Lanzhou hospital doctors and administrator to ensure that CCHC is receiving the most qualified expertise at reasonable fees.
• Regularly visit with the local coordinator to ensure a prudent and sound process to administer this program.
1.3.3 Lanzhou People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Thoracic-Cardiovascular Surgery Center (蘭州總醫院心血管外科)
Lanzhou Army General Hospital has the most recognized thoracic-cardiovascular center in Northwest China. It has a technical staff of 36, including 8 full professors and assistant professors. 90% of its doctors possess doctoral and master degrees.
The number of thoracic-cardiovascular surgeries has increased by 20% each year over the last few years. Using its modern equipment that is valued at over 10,000,000 RMB, it has performed over 400+ such surgeries each year with a 97% success rate.
The Lanzhou General Hospital will be under contract with CCHC to perform such surgeries at a reduced rate.
The hospital is more than a service provider to CCHC. It is also serving as a partner in compassion with CCHC. Its staff has displayed tremendous capacity of compassion to the children patients. For instance, some of their doctors and staff have offered their overnight bed spaces in the hospital to the children’s parents to sleep at night.
2. Project Collaboration with Ping and Amy Chao Family Foundation
2.1 Project Name
Starting 2009, the project name becomes “Little Red Scarf” (小紅巾 ). This project will be administered by the Love Focus Fund (愛心匯點 ) of CCHC, in collaboration with Ping and Amy Chao Family Foundation ( 趙修平夫婦基金會).
2.2 Website for Posting project information
This project will use website www.eastvillagers.org to post project related information, including timely project status updates, field reporting and promotion. Note that all the posted material will be view-able by the public.
3. Program Management
The “Little Red Scarf” (小紅巾 ) Children’s Heart Surgery program will be administered by the Love Focus Fund of CCHC. Contacts for this program are as follows:
Director of the Love Focus Fund
Ms. Katie Chau.
Associate Executive Director of Chinese Herald Christian Crusades (CCHC)
Chief Editor of Herald Monthly & Delicacy Life
156-03 Horace Harding Expressway
Flushing, NY 11367
USA
Tel: 1-718-359-2030 ext. 1408
Fax: 1-718-359-2502
E-Mail: kachau@cchc.org
Website: www.cchc.org
Local Coordinator at Gansu, China
Ms. Cao Rui
Local Coordinator of Children Heart Surgery Program
Tel: 011-86-135-19485913(C)
Jiayuguan, Gansu
China
Chinese Christian Herald Crusades, Inc.
156-03 Horace Harding Expressway
Flushing, NY 11367
USA
Tel: 1-718-359-2030 ext. 1408
Fax: 1-718-359-2502
www.cchc.org
Ping & Amy Chao Family Foundation
800 High Street, Suite 408
Palo Alto, CA 94301
grants@chaofoundation.org
For project updates, details and related blogs please visit http://www.eastvillagers.org/event.php?event_id=14
