China

Global Ministries will help to rebuild their home soon through the Henan Province Housing Project

There are rural areas within the Henan Province in China which have been tragically affected by HIV/AIDS.  In the mid-1990s a pharmaceutical firm, with the local government's consent, collected blood samples from the local population.  For families whose annual income was about $80 the opportunity to make $5 for donating blood was a huge attraction.  The adult population participated in large numbers.  The pharmaceutical company, however, held down their costs by reusing needles many times.  The result was a mushrooming population of HIV/AIDS cases throughout this region of poor farmers.  The victims were the middle generation.  Some of the children who were born to these victims were also infected with HIV/AIDS.  Both healthy and sick children lost parents and the elderly lost their children and their means of support in old age.  This tragedy has destroyed families and has weakened an already tenuous economy.

Global Ministries has been working with the Zhecheng Succor Society to alleviate some of the impacts of HIV/AIDS in the Henan Province in China.  One of the needs is for medical care for those who are suffering from HIV/AIDS and others who have been impacted by the disease.  Yingchun, a fourteen-year-old girl is one recent beneficiary of this program.  Yingchun (means "Welcome Spring") Zhai was born with a heart disease in 1993.  Her condition, if untreated, would shorten her life by half.  Yingchun lives with her grandparents, her parents, and her sister in a four-room mud house.  Her heart disease left her unable to go to school or to play with other children for all of her 14 years of life.

In the summer of 2007, with Global Ministries' support, Yingchun was transferred to Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital (originally established by missionaries from the Christian Church [Disciples of Christ] seventy years ago) to receive treatment in the city of Nanjing.  Yingchun presented the surgeons with unique challenges.  X-rays revealed some surprises:  Yingchun's heart was on her right side and liver was on her left side and all the other major organs were similarly reversed from their normal positions. 

The chief heart surgeon of the hospital, Dr. Dongjin Wang, was able to adapt the surgery for Yingchuan and her heart was repaired.  On Monday, October 29, 2007, Yingchun was released from the hospital and has gone home to begin life anew.  It may be autumn in China, but it is a "welcome spring" for Yingchun!

Even with a deeply discounted price for the surgery, given Global Ministries close relationship with the Drum Tower Hospital, Yingchun's surgery required $14,000 - totally unaffordable for a poor farming family in China.  Global Ministries provided this emergency support for Yingchun's case.

Contributions are invited to help provide medical assistance for the people of the HIV/AIDS affected communities in Henan Province, including special cases such as that of Yingchun.  

• $50 can provide childhood immunizations for four children.
• $100 can provide medicines to help alleviate the symptoms of HIV/AIDS for four people for several months.
• $3000 can go a long way to provide surgery for someone in need.