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AUSTRALIAN MARIST
CENTRE FOR OVERSEAS
AID |
Guangzhou Huiling
China
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Huiling
is a non-government, non-profit, grass-roots organization founded in
1990 under the leadership of Mrs. Meng
Weina. In order to meet the requests of many parents with children
affected by mental disabilities, Huiling has extended its services to
other parts of China. Homes have been established in Beijing, Xi’an,
Xining, Tianjin, Changsha, Chongqing and Qingyuan, Guangdong province.
Huiling
was born as a simple shelter for mentally disabled persons. Now
it includes various types of service and accepts people with mental
disabilities of any age and social condition. Guangzhou Huiling
looks after more than 200 persons with mental disabilities spread in
various centers and a dozen family homes.
Huiling
means “wisdom” and “soul” and expresses commitment to help persons
with mental disabilities to have a thinking mind and a loving heart.
 
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 Facilities
Family Homes: The
family home is the place where trainees can live a somewhat
normal life, learning individual living skills in order to make the
trainees more able to to take care of themselves. The first Family Home
was established in 2001, and the Family Home Service Department was set
up in 2005. Now, there are thirteen Family Homes for trainees with
mental disabilities.
Adult Care Residential Home
is for adults above 18 with moderate and severe mental disabilities,
aiming to provide training, nursing and accommodation, all in all to
give residents a sence of security while strengthening their life
value. The trainees are taught simple tasks and basic living skills at
home. They are also allowed to visit market, shops and parks in the
vicinity so that they can integrate into the local community.
Specialized services are offered, such as nursing, physiotherapy, music
& art therapy and counseling according to different needs of
the residents.
Integrated Kindergarten
is a full time kindergarten for children between ages 2 and 6
where children with and without mental disabilities have been
integrated into a common environment for the benefit of both groups.
Their are several classes for children, namely English class, painting
and mental arithmetic class. Each class accepts mentally disabled
children to promote the development of integrated education.
Special Primary School
caters for children between 6 and 15 who are moderately and
severely menally disabled. The students use learing materials
especially designed for those with learning disabilities according to
their ages and personalities. The students usually graduate at fifteen,
they are admitted to Youth Training Centre, Youth Sheltered Workshop,
and Adult Care Residential Home to receive different levels of training
after assessment.
 
Left: Special primary school.
Right: Adult care residential home
Youth
Training Centre and
Huiling
Farm were
set up in 2006 for the purpose of providing vocational education,
training and accommodation for persons above the age of 15
with mild and moderate mental disabilities. They will help trainees
develop vocational skills, community independent living skills and work
behaviours.
For
more detail about these programs click
here
to visit the Huiling website services page. Links are at the sidebar to
the left of screen.
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Left:
A Huiling art class. Right: Guangzhou huiling staff
with MMC's Fr Kevin Stewart (2nd from left)
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Farming
Project
This
project aims to let mentally disabled
people participate in farming activities in a natural environment. This
is an
example of helping the underprivileged to stand up on their
own, with
farming work providing a sense of achievement and human value.
Here is a list of objectives:
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The
farm offers a vacations site as well as an education site. While
interacting with mentally disabled persons, helpers and sponsors can
better understand the meaning of their volunteer work. On the other
hand, clients get more interaction opportunities with other
citizens.
Operating
Schedule:
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2010
Year plan:
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To
collaborate and seek advice from an agriculture university or
institution in planting environmentally friendly vegetables and fruit
trees so as to secure crops and produce. To do the same for pasturing
activities.
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Purchasing
farming tools and packaging equipment. The latter will enable the
processing and packaging of the produce.
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Increasing
the living space to cater for more residents by building a 3 storied
house to cater for staff, workers and visiting experts.
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Training
of 4-6 youth with mental disabilities on farming skills so as to enable
them to enter job markets in the future.
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Training
the staff on various aspects such as hospice service, nursing
knowledge, farming skills and farm management techniques
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Improving
the productivity of the farm by further staff training and breaking
down the various farming techniques to suit the ability of the workers.
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Offering
weekly practice sessions for the youth training centre so as to enable
skill transfer.
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The
farm may provide short term accommodation facilities or a work camp
venue for other special school pupils.
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Open
days for parents will be held so that they can actually participate in
various farming activities, thus improving the understanding and
communication abilities amongst pupils and their parents.
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Cooperation
with other similar organisations to hold activities which increase
contact opportunities among citizens and mentally disabled persons, and
in turn promote better understanding and acceptance.
There
are
plans for further expansion in 2011 and 2012.
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