Volunteered at the Huixin Infant Orphanage, which houses “over 110 children with mental and physical disabilities”. They were such adorable little kids! Very loving but, sadly, a bit starved for affection and attention. We played with them for most of the day, just interacting with them and letting them hold books and reading a little. Most can’t speak, let alone read, but they were happy to just hold the books with us.

What surprised me most was the lack of toys in the room. There were basically none, except for 2 stuffed toys that lay ignored. When I presented one to a kid, he looked at it with disinterest. I’ve never seen a child reject/ignore a toy before, and it was a bit disturbing. I’m not sure whether 1) they’re mentally disabled so possibly not sure what’s going on or 2) they don’t get toys so they don’t know what to do with them. I think it’s a combination of both. It’s worrying though, as all they do is sit in that room all day long

Anyway, apart from playtime, we also did lunch. Their lunch was a mix of mince meat and veggies, stired into soft soupy rice. It actually looked quite good to me 😛 It was the VERY FIRST TIME I have fed a child – seriously! Same with Chris. We were both looking at each other going, “UH OH……….”, haha. I think we must have maternal/paternal instincts somewhere deep down, because we actually fared pretty well and fed 2 kids each.

Did being there with kids (basically the first time in my life I’ve actually interacted with them) make me want my own? Sort of, in a way. If only to pour love and attention into them. It made me realise how much a child needs it to grow in this world. I don’t know how they got into the orphanage, but my guess is that their parents deserted them since they were mentally and/or physically disabled. That is an awful, awful thing to do and it makes my head spin when I think about it.

It’s a shame the kids don’t get more people working there to give them the 1-on-1 care and attention they need. God put everyone on this earth for a reason. So can someone explain to me why there are children that are born, mentally or physically disabled, into a world that does not love them? It was painful to see. I enjoyed my time there though, it’s a real eye-opener to the world and whilst I don’t think we’re making mega differences here, it’s still nice to see that our presence there made them happy. I hope you’ll consider doing the same if there’s an orphanage near your area… 🙂

The kids surrounding Chris

Clutching onto their books, most of which had their pages ripped out 😛

Cute little boy!

The ‘baby care’ area, with infants

Adorable kiddy

Pretty roses outside