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AnnuAl report - Love Without Boundaries

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L O V E W I T H O U T B O U N D A R I E S 2 0 1 1 A N N U A L R E P O R T<br />

foster Care<br />

<strong>Love</strong> <strong>Without</strong> <strong>Boundaries</strong> believes that every<br />

child deserves a family of his or her own, and our<br />

commitment to providing quality foster care is stronger<br />

than ever. We are one of the only groups in China who<br />

visit the children in our foster care programs each and<br />

every month. This allows our local managers to really<br />

get to know the children and families and helps us to<br />

better serve the individual needs of each child. LWB<br />

helped 316 orphaned children have their very own<br />

family through foster care this year, and we celebrated<br />

that 62 of those children found permanent homes<br />

through adoption. Several were adopted by the families<br />

who were fostering them!<br />

In 2011 we established new foster care programs with three orphanages in the more rural regions of<br />

China – Liuzhi and Qiandongnan in Guizhou Province and Changzhi in Shanxi Province – bringing our<br />

total number of foster care locations to 18. We also began a new nutrition initiative for all the children in<br />

our program under the age of 24 months, supplying babies with fortified rice cereal to encourage proper<br />

weaning and better oral motor skills. We are grateful to everyone who helped support our foster care<br />

program as we believe it provides lifelong benefits to orphaned children when they can experience love<br />

and security in a family environment.<br />

cleft care<br />

A dream came true for our foundation in 2011. Since our beginning we have had<br />

a passion to help babies abandoned with cleft lip have the best chance possible of<br />

a healthy life. Children with cleft all over the world often struggle with feeding<br />

issues, as they are unable to suck properly due to the opening in their lip and palate.<br />

Specialized cleft bottles, which are soft and easy to squeeze, can help a baby feed<br />

more easily. Unfortunately these specialized bottles have not been available in China.<br />

For over a decade couriers have hand-carried these specialized<br />

bottles to orphanages, but, with so many tiny babies being<br />

abandoned with cleft, the need has always been greater than the<br />

supply – with often tragic results.<br />

Dream<br />

come<br />

true!<br />

In 2011, thanks to the help of Mead Johnson Nutritionals and<br />

the Joint Council on International Children’s Services, LWB<br />

was finally able to source a manufacturer for cleft bottles in<br />

China and place an order for over 12,000 bottles. In addition<br />

we created cleft feeding training materials for orphanages in<br />

both print form and DVD. In the final months of the year, in<br />

combined effort with the China Center for Child Welfare and<br />

Adoption, life-saving bottles and training materials were sent<br />

to every government orphanage in China.<br />

7

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