For 25 years, Grandma Zhang has adopted 26 abandoned children, three of whom have died. "The longest I've raised a child for over 20 years, and they are now living independently; the shortest was just three or four days before someone took them away." Some of these children are named Lu Yan, others are named Lu Cong. Grandma Zhang gave them these names because she found them by the roadside.
Grandma Zhang's home is in the suburbs of Qilin District in Qujing City. Her parents passed away early, and she started living with her brother and sister-in-law at the age of seven. The misfortunes of her childhood made it impossible for her to ignore abandoned children. Having experienced two marriages, she has one son and one daughter. Although her children do not fully agree with what Grandma Zhang does, they give her about four or five thousand yuan each year. All five of her elder brother's children have become successful, and her nephews and nieces send her rice every year. However, relying solely on support from her children, Grandma Zhang can no longer solve her financial difficulties, especially when the children get sick. At the same time, Grandma Zhang feels unable to provide the children with a good life — without a household registration and money, their education becomes a big problem: "If they stay with me, they won't have a bright future." Under the persuasion of her family and volunteer Mr. Liu, Grandma Zhang decided to send the children to an orphanage for their future: "I hope they can live a better life."
A caregiver hired by volunteer Mr. Liu clears the phlegm from Xiao Qingming.
In this small house, 26 children have lived at different times.
At the age of 63, Grandma Zhang is called a "living bodhisattva" by her neighbors. She currently lives with five children in a low, earthen-wooden structure house on Xiguan Street in Qilin District, Qujing City. Without turning on the lights during the day, it is completely dark inside. There are few electrical appliances, and six people sleep together on a large communal bed.
Because Grandma Zhang's "adoption" does not follow the adoption procedures, none of these five children have a household registration.
At Grandma Zhang's home, the reporter also saw two other little boys who likely suffer from cleft lip and palate based on their appearance. It is introduced that Grandma Zhang's home also has a 12-year-old girl who is already in school. Originally, she had been accepted by the Children's Welfare Institute but went on a hunger strike in protest and refused to go.
Before Xiao Qingming turned one month old, a well-off niece of Grandma Zhang took him to a hospital in Kunming for a check-up. The doctor inferred that his parents might be drug addicts. He has now been diagnosed with congenital brain disease and pneumonia, and since June 26th, he has been running a high fever and suffering from diarrhea. To confirm whether he has concurrent meningitis, the doctor suggested performing a bone marrow puncture to extract cerebrospinal fluid for testing.
According to the staff of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Qujing City, there are currently more than 5,000 registered abandoned infants in Qujing, "and there should be many more unregistered orphans adopted by kind-hearted people."
Therefore, the staff of the Civil Affairs Bureau expressed that if citizens find abandoned children, it would be best to report it to the police or take the child to a children's welfare institution.
Xiao Qingming's pneumonia has infected another four-month-old infant. According to Grandma Zhang, this infant was healthy and was sent to her by someone she knew a few days after birth. "I've never met his parents. The person who brought him said his parents were poor migrants who were also sick, and they begged me to help raise the child. They promised to come back for the child someday and even said they would thank me." Grandma Zhang currently has no money to take this infant to the hospital, so she can only take him to a small clinic on the street for intravenous drips.
Xiao Qingming is now nine months old but looks like a three-month-old baby. His name was given by Grandma Zhang. Last October, a "fallen woman" holding Xiao Qingming, who was less than a month old, found Grandma Zhang and asked her to adopt the child. Although Grandma Zhang no longer had the ability to adopt another abandoned infant, she once again relented in the face of such a young life.
Leaders of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Qujing City have already told the reporter that they will make efforts to resolve this issue, and the local police station has already visited her home to investigate the situation.
On the other hand, none of the counties under the jurisdiction of Qujing City have well-equipped children's welfare institutes. The relatively better-conditioned Qujing City Children's Welfare Institute can accommodate at most 300 children, and approximately 50 children already live there. At the same time, this staff member also mentioned that even if abandoned infants are sent to the children's welfare institute, education and medical care remain shortcomings in the work of the institute. However, perhaps the situation of private "adoption" might be worse, as the incomplete "adoption" procedures leave the children without a household registration, making their future education, employment, and marriage problematic.
Where will the abandoned infants end up?
Reported and photographed by reporter Guo Shuyu.
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