China / Society

Q&A: Orphanage owner shares thoughts after fire

(chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2013-01-07 13:47

Reporter: How much money can you make every month? How much money do the children cost you?

Yuan: I'm illiterate and don't know exactly how much I can earn. But I spend all the money that I earn on them. In addition, I had to ask for some help from others and the government. They would have died if I hadn't adopted them because they are disabled and no one wanted them.

Reporter: Did you go through an official process of adoption or did you just bring children home when you felt they were poor?

Yuan: They are all disabled. Nobody wanted them. They would have died if I hadn't adopted them.

Reporter: Were you willing to send them to a welfare home?

Yuan: They were in a welfare home for several days. I'm in a mess.

Yuan: I preferred to do this gradually. I wanted to choose relatively good welfare homes for them.   

Reporter: It is said that you were profiting by adopting these children.

Yuan: Shoot me dead if I'm a trafficker.

Reporter: Why didn't you send some of them to the government welfare home?

Yuan: They hadn't established one in the past (in Lancao county).

Reporter: What was your hardest time since you started the orphanage?

Yuan: One year when we were starving, then I sent them to Kaifeng city where they could live better.

Reporter: What were the authorities' attitudes to your adoptions? Have they communicated with you?

Yuan: They were helpful.

Reporter: How?

Yuan: They offered them living allowances and registered their hukou, residential permits.

Reporter: How many of them have hukou here?

Yuan: More than 20.

Reporter: Are the allowances enough?

Yuan: Absolutely not. The children cost a lot, including milk powder and diapers. The government has offered allowances in recent years.

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