Han Shuang, 6, and her friends were preparing for the crafts class to begin when a group of visitors entered. She stood up and walked over.

''Aunty, would you like to come over and see my work,'' she said, taking a visitor by her hand.

Jenny Bowen, one of founders and executive director of the US-based Half Sky Foundation, visits Hefei Social Welfare Institution in East China's Anhui Province.

No visitor would imagine that Han had been a quiet girl when she first came to Hefei Social Welfare Institution in East China's Anhui Province in April last year.

Then she neither moved nor cried. Sitting crosslegged in a small chair, with one foot dangling in the air, she pouted her lips and showed no interest in the teachers, the other children or her new surroundings.

At that time she hardly knew how to paint or draw, or even play games with other children.

But Han was completely transformed after spending a year in the institution.

She smiles and talks a lot more now than she ever did before. She is now particularly enthusiastic in making friends and caring for the younger children in her class. She also shows great interest in classroom activities.

These tremendous differences in Han's life were brought about by a pilot programme which the Half the Sky Foundation launched at the institution in 2000.

The US-based foundation was set up by American families who had adopted Chinese children in 1998. In 1999 the foundation formed a partnership with the China Population Welfare Foundation and the China Social Work Association.

One year later, Half the Sky started its first programmes in China, a Baby Sisters Infant Nurture Centre and Little Sisters Preschool in the Hefei Social Welfare Institution, and a Little Sisters Preschool in the Changzhou Social Welfare Institution in Anhui's neighbouring province of Jiangsu.

To celebrate its fifth anniversary, Half the Sky held a conference in Hefei earlier this month. Over 100 directors, care givers and teachers from social welfare institutions across the country took part in the three-day event.

The foundation aims to enrich the lives and enhance the futures of children living in China's social welfare institutions by providing infant nurturing centres and early childhood education inside orphanage walls, according to Jenny Bowen, executive director of Half the Sky, who was at the conference.

With the expertise of Chinese and US early years educators and the labour of US volunteers and local workers, the programme created and equipped indoor and outdoor spaces and trained new teachers and nannies to work in each institution.

Scientists have long studied the effects of institutional care on children's development.

When basic needs are not met, and individual nurturing is not present, there is a profound negative effect, according to Dana E. Johnson, a member of Board of Directors of Half the Sky, who is an expert on health and developmental issues affecting the institutionalized child and the director of the International Adoption Clinic at the University of Minnesota.

Institutionalized children are very likely to suffer from cognitive deficiencies, growth delay and behavioural problems, Johnson explained.

In addition to having their basic needs met, infants need at least one person they can depend on to care for them and love them, according to Janice N. Cotton, lead nanny trainer of Half the Sky.

Cotton stressed building an attachment with a baby by providing responsive care was one of the nanny's most important tasks.

In the infant centre each nanny was assigned three to five babies and gave each baby warm, attentive and motherly care, which involved physical touch, speaking and singing, and actively anticipating each child's needs and wants.

"Children were so resilient that they started responding to the loving care and attention given to them by the nannies," said Cotton.

In the training section Cotton was pleased to see when the nannies reaching out to the babies, the babies started for the first time to make eye contact, to smile - things children in institutions do not always do.

Kong Anzhi, in her 40s, was a nanny who had worked for the infant nurturing programme in the Hefei Social Welfare Institution for almost three years.

"It was not only a job to get money but also to give myself much satisfaction," Kong said.

"Everyday is filled with surprise and delight as I watch the babies thriving on my loving touch and face-to-face contact."

Preschool programme

As the toddlers reached approximately 18 months, they moved on to another programme - the Little Sisters Preschool. When the time came, nannies and teachers worked very closely together to help the children make the transition.

The preschool programme was like a three-legged stool, according to Carolyn Pope Edwards, a member of Board of Directors of Half the Sky who is a professor in the Department of Psychology and Family and Consumer Science at the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln.

As Edwards explained, the programme was a blend of three philosophies: contemporary Chinese early childhood education methods, the Italian Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education and US principles of teacher education.

Traditional early childhood education in China emphasizes five learning areas: the arts, sciences, languages, social development and health education.

In Chinese educational practice, the teacher emphasizes the teaching of skills and a teacher-planned curriculum.

The Reggio Emilia approach, as one of the most effective ways to promote the well-being of young children, emphasizes artistic expression and a close partnership between teachers and children.

Take art as an example. In the Chinese classroom, children learned to copy specific painting and drawing techniques, using traditional materials, repeating the exercise until they could perfectly imitate the selected design.

In the Reggio Emilia approach, children are encouraged to use a wider variety of materials - not just traditional supplies such as paint or clay, but also non-traditional items, such as rocks, feathers and leaves.

In the curriculum for Little Sisters Preschool, the teacher may demonstrate a particular technique, as in the Chinese method, but also act as a learning partner for the children, encouraging them to experiment with different materials and ways of creating.

Also, the curriculum is a flexible process, in which the learning content emerges from close attention to the children's interests.

The programme offeres an exciting way for the children to become self-confident and independent and to lead successful lives, said Zhao Wen, a programme director.

Zhao also stressed the teachers' training plays a significant role in the programme. Many techniques of teacher's training came from North American practices of teacher education.

"Throwing away the pre-set curriculum was one of the biggest challenges we ever faced," said Xiong Wenzuo, 24, who has worked at the Hefei Social Welfare Institution for about four years.

During the one-month training, teachers learned the innovative philosophy of the preschool programme and new ways of interacting with children - playing with them, talking to them, and observing them.

"The training was actually an eye-opener which made me to look at the children and myself in a new way," Xiong said.

Promising result

After three years of operation, the programmes have been very successful, exclaimed Zhang Yuxia, director of the Hefei Social Welfare Institution.

"We're amazed to find out that children have become outgoing, active and healthy, and above all, they are much happier than before," she said.

These successful stories are also heard in the Changzhou Social Welfare Institution, according to the director Zhang Yunyun.

At the beginning she was once worried if the programme could really work. But three months later, her worries were all gone. "One of the greatest improvements was their language. They became more willing to talk to others," explained Zhang Yunyun.

Now a handful of children from the Little Sisters Preschool have gone on to regular schools in the community.

"Children from institutions used to be the least welcomed students in regular schools because they often suffered from so many cognitive, social and emotional problems by the time they reached school age." said Zhang Yuxia. "But now they all do well academically and socially and are very popular in school."

Johnson and four other experts from the United States recently conducted an evaluation programme. Thirty-four children who had been in the programmes for one and a half years were tested.

The testing report showed that, in addition to changes in growth, children had made progress in their daily living and social skills. Besides, the fact that children who were most delayed gained the most, in Johnson's words, was one of the ideal outcomes of the programmes.

With these promising early results, Half the Sky began to expand its programmes to other orphanages across China. So far, 13 institutions in seven cities. About 2,000 children are now involved.

Last year Half the Sky launched its newest programme - the Big Sisters Programme, which was designed to address the special needs of institutionalized children from the age of 12 who have not benefited from public education and who, consequently, face an uncertain future without intervention.

The foundation planned to create infant nurture and preschool education centres in at least two institutions in each province.

"Each institution would become a model for the rest of the province, and will offer regional training workshops," Bowen said.

Half the Sky encouraged the director, the teachers and nannies to make the programmes their own. "The programme will become more and more individualized and diverse, so different parts of different province will have completely different pro-grammes," said Bowen.

"But the basic idea will be the same - observe the child, learn from the child, learn together, and go on the journey with the child."

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