August 2014
China’s one-child policy often means that parents abandon any child that is not physically perfect. In order to save as many of these children as possible, Tim and Pam Baker, graduates of Bethany College of Missions, formed the Philip Hayden Foundation (PHF) in 1995 to honor the memory of their good friend whose untimely death inspired them to continue his passion for China’s orphans.
Tim and Pam began to assist local orphanages by donating needed items and helping to arrange surgeries and treatment for at-risk orphans. In 1999 they moved to a foster home model focused exclusively on special-needs orphans.
Land was donated to them by the local government in 2002, and they began to build Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village, an all-purpose campus with foster homes, an on-site clinic, a school, and vocational and recreation facilities.
Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village welcomed its first children in August 2006. An additional three homes were recently completed and construction is nearing an end on a school and outreach facilities. Once the vocational center is completed, Shepherd’s Field will be the largest facility of its type in all of mainland China and home to as many as 150 special needs orphans of all ages.
Grady’s Story
Grady came to Shepherd’s Field eight years ago when he was ten years old. His parents abandoned him because he was born with severe scoliosis. Like many special-needs children in China, his family was too poor to help him and there are no government-sponsored socialized programs for them to turn to. So these families will opt to abandon their children and try again to have a healthy son or daughter.
It had only been three days since Grady turned fourteen, but his adoption process had begun almost two years before that. His new parents – the Watsons – had spent that time fulfilling every legal requirement necessary to adopt Grady as their son. At the last moment, their request to adopt Grady was denied because he had turned fourteen a few days before the adoption was to be approved. In China, orphaned children become ineligible for adoption – both domestic and international – at the age of fourteen. After fighting for nearly a year and pursuing every possible appeal, it became clear to the Watsons that their efforts were useless; China would never approve Grady’s adoption.
Sadly, this story is not unique. Every year, thousands of orphaned children across China "age out" of the adoption system when they turn fourteen. Even more tragic are a number of recent studies concluding that of China’s orphan population, an estimated 90 percent have some form of physical or mental disability.
Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village
For the past fifteen years, Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village has given special-needs orphans in China a place to call home. Equipped with a medical clinic, a school, and children’s houses, Shepherd’s Field has provided surgery and medical procedures to over 3,000 children and helped 900 children find their forever families through the miracle of adoption.
A New Chapter
In 2009, Shepherd’s Field broke ground on a 30,000 square foot Vocational Training & Therapy Center designed to address the needs of older orphans like Grady. Complete with dormitories, recreational space, and classrooms suitable for older kids, the facility will be the largest of its kind in all of Mainland China when completed later this year. The vocational training program will equip each child over the age of fourteen with the life skills and job training needed to succeed as independent and productive members of society.
Help Needed
As part of the new construction, a wing devoted entirely to therapy will represent a huge step forward in the treatment and ongoing rehabilitation of the special-needs orphans in the care of Shepherd’s Field. We hope to raise $10,000 to purchase some of the specialized equipment necessary to operate a highly functional, state-of-the-art therapy center. With your help, we can provide these abandoned children with the tools and abilities needed not only to survive, but to thrive!
This will be a place where hope will be given to children who are without. In China’s state-run orphanages, special-needs children who reach the age of fifteen or sixteen are sent to an adult institution where they will spend the rest of their lives without any opportunity to learn how to live, work, care for themselves, or develop healthy relationships. They will be warehoused and hidden away from society. There is no one to care for and treat their special needs, no one to comfort and love them, and no one to tell them that God has a special purpose for their lives. The Vocational Training & Therapy Center at Shepherd’s Field will change all of that by providing life skills, job skills, and therapy to treat each child’s unique special need. It will be a place where lives will be transformed and restored.
Sincerely,
Alec D. Brooks, President
