Announcing YKI's "Thankful Families" Auction!

Some minority children in rural Yunnan

It is a time of year when in some countries, emphasis is put on giving thanks in our family traditions. We thought that it was a great theme as well for our Yunnan Kids International autumn auction. You can find the wonderful items we have for auction at the following link after November 5 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (that's 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time).

http://www.missionfish.org/NPMMF/nphomepage.jsp?NP_ID=15967

We are very excited by some unique items we have to offer, including many from Yunnan, carried back by our very own Yunnan girl, 14 year old Fang Lee last summer (and she did all the shopping!). Please keep in mind that all money raised will go toward several projects to help children in Yunnan. Our current projects include helping to build a playground for children in the Mengzi Orphanage in Southeastern Yunnan, and helping some older girls with tuition and school fees in very rural areas in Yunnan. Details and pictures to follow!

Visit the auction often and happy bidding!!

"Xie Xie" = thank you in Chinese characters

Happenings in Yunnan and a BIG THANK YOU!

Take a look at this darling little boy. We received this photo from Love Without Boundaries (LWB) this week. He is one of the children who will soon be available for sponsorship in Yunnan through the LWB foster care program. Everything is almost in place for this new foster care program to begin in the city of Zhaotong in Yunnan province. Some children in Zhaotong have already been in foster care, and with LWB's assistance, more children will have this opportunity, and overall conditions will be improved. LWB will provide 250 rmb (yuan) per child and the government will provide 150 rmb each month, for a total of 400 rmb per child per month. They hope to have the final contract signed in June, and foster care will start soon after that. This month, LWB facilitators visited Zhaotong and could not say enough good things about the people there. They found the orphanage director and officials to be refreshingly honest and open in their answers to all questions, and Amy Eldridge, director of LWB, said those they met with in Zhaotong are so excited and grateful to be offered assistance with foster care. The director of the Zhaotong SWI said that she feels foster care to be an optimal environment for the children. They have asked LWB to place 26 kids with foster families. The orphanage has accepted 54 children in its care and 11 of these children have been adopted. The SWI is really hoping that by offering excellent quality foster care, that more children can become ready for adoption. They are open to any and all training LWB can offer to improve the lives of these children. LWB was also very fortunate to find a monitor who lives right in Zhaotong who will be visiting all families each month and providing reports for sponsors.

We will let everyone know as soon as the children are listed on the LWB website. Most have minor special needs, a few are perfectly healthy. They are BEAUTIFUL children!!!

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Finally, a BIG THANK YOU to all who bid on the items listed in our YKI "Spring Pig" Auction. Last week, YKI sent a check for $2,000 to Love Without Boundaries, to be used, in part, for the new foster care program in Zhaotong, Yunnan. Some of the funds we raised during the auction, may also cover some of the expense of purchasing physical therapy equipment (special posterior walkers, peanut balls, etc.), for the physical therapy camp that will happen at the Kunming Orphanage this July. As soon as we have more detailed information about the camp in Kunming, we will share it. The important thing to know is that our donation from funds raised during the auction,will absolutely go toward helping children in Yunnan. We cannot thank you enough for joining us in this effort. We so appreciate that Love Without Boundaries has set up their organization to allow for funds from donors to go toward specific projects, if they want this. It will be exciting to see all of the new projects happening in Yunnan, and knowing we are able to take part in making these miracles happen. Stay tuned for more news from and about Yunnan as it unfolds!

OUR "Spring Pig" AUCTION IS UNDERWAY!

Here is the link to the YKI "Spring Pig" Auction.

http://snipurl.com/10gsy

There are some wonderful things for sale - most are from China. All proceeds will be going to Love Without Boundaries for two exciting projects taking place in Yunnan. More details to follow on those projects very soon.

Go take a look at our items and tell your friends and other family members. This is such a fun and easy way to support our efforts to help children in Yunnan. Good luck and Happy Bidding!

YKI "Spring Pig" Auction is coming!

Yunnan Kids International is happy to announce our next auction scheduled for Monday, April 16th, 2007! Named "Spring Pig" to honor this auspicious Year of the Pig, we hope you will visit the auction daily and bid often on some wonderful items we are offering, including MANY items from China, and specifically, from our beloved Yunnan Province.

Happily, we will be donating the auction proceeds to Love Without Boundaries (LWB) for two exciting endeavors they are planning in Yunnan. The first is a physical therapy summer camp, scheduled for July 2007 in KUNMING! LWB has been asked to evaluate many children and they are hoping to send a minimum of four volunteer physical or occupational therapists to work in the camp. We will be helping to purchase therapy equipment for the children who need them. LWB likes to leave one piece of therapy equipment for each foster family as well, so that some of what is shared during the camp experience can be continued.

The second project is an exciting new foster care program in Yunnan. Details will be forthcoming as we learn of them from LWB. For example, where in Yunnan LWB will be asked to work. YKI wants to contribute to the start up costs for this new opportunity to help some kids who will benefit so much by being in the care of a loving family. More to come on this!

Happy Bidding to all!

YKI's projects to date

Wednesday March 28, 2007

Welcome to the Yunnan Kids International (YKI) blog! This blog has been created to give you up to the minute news about happenings with YKI.

YKI was started by some dedicated and earnest parents of Yunnan children who wanted to address the desire to give something back to the province their children are from. We are all volunteers. It has been our dream for a very long time to create YKI. Almost from its inception, YKI has met its goals of giving.

Our first project raised close to $6,000 to help with building a new community center [photo above] in a rural foster care village in an area called Anning, where many children from the Kunming Children's Welfare Institute reside with loving families. We were able to partner with Sunrise Foundation, a highly trusted organization that has worked in Kunming for many years. This was very important to us.

After our first project, we partnered with Love Without Boundaries and raised $300 to send a large batch of winter clothes to be used by babies and toddlers in Kunming. The clothes were used by children living in Anning families or at the Kunming Orphanage. It is our hope to do more partnering with Love Without Boundaries in the future.


This winter, to commemorate a new year, we were able to raise some funds for some children in a far western county - an area called Longchuan. This area is near Myanmar and Laos and many children in this area of need are victims of the AIDS epidemic. Many parents of these children are infected with HIV and some children have also tested positive. YKI strives to partner with organizations we know and trust and for the children of Longchuan, we are pleased to work with Dr. Peggy Gurrad/Altrusa Foundation and Holt International in raising funds for the children in Longchuan. To date, we have sent Altrusa $1,750. This is very close to our initial goal of $2,000. These funds were used to buy much needed new winter clothing. It is our hope to provide more assistance to children in Longchuan in the future. Their needs are dire.


We also were able to send a $300 donation this spring to Robert van Cappellen of the Panbi Foundation. His group has been working in the Kunming Orphanage and elsewhere in Yunnan serving children with special needs for many years. This will pay to sponsor a worker with kids who have various needs. Sometimes, this might mean a worker can stay in the hospital with a child who needs surgery. The photo below was just received of a worker in Kunming with a little boy who is about to have cleft surgery. In the photo, this worker is writing a report on the boy. We hope to send more funding for workers in the future.


We are thrilled to have been able to help out in these different ways in our first year!

Other project news for 2007 is yet to come. An exciting Spring Auction is being planned for April where we will be featuring some lovely and unusual items from Yunnan and other parts of China. We'll keep you all posted! For more information, please visit our website at www.yunnankids.com
If you have specific questions regarding the work of YKI, please write to us directly at: ykidsinternational@yahoo.com
As always, heartfelt thanks for your interest in YKI and for your support and encouragement.