God’s design for family prevails

Those recently gathered for the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., saw a documentary—Children of Shanghai—which offers moving accounts of Chinese children placed with local families after being abandoned and placed in orphanages.

Despite initially having severe cognitive, social, and physical delays, the love and security of a permanent family allowed each one of these children to transform and thrive. From a sought-after computer coder, to a musician, to a Special Olympic gold medal winner, these now-grown adults share what it was like to leave institutionalized care and become part of a loving family.

But families haven’t always had an opportunity to thrive in China.

China is an ancient culture that has long valued family and children. But in 1980, concerned over the rate of population growth, the Chinese government enacted the controversial one-child policy. With few exceptions, parents were legally restricted from having more than one child and faced fines and other penalties if they failed to comply. Due to the cultural preference for sons, this policy led to the unfortunate abandonment of many girls and children with disabilities.

By 1998, nearly 2 million children were in institutionalized care in China.

Research has clearly shown that institutionalization—living in orphanages or residential homes—has a harmful impact on a child’s well-being. From physical growth to cognitive abilities, children in these circumstances suffer from severe developmental delays. These consequences are compounded if a child is born with a disability. In contrast, families are the context in which children prosper.

Thankfully, China’s official one-child rule ended in 2016, but scores of children’s lives had already been drastically and detrimentally affected—which is why I initially moved with my wife and six children to China 18 years prior.

After spending time as a professional footballer, I became a social worker for the British government and oversaw foster care and adoption. Working to reform childcare services, my focus was on child-caregiver attachment and the benefits of children having a permanent family. In 1998, the United Kingdom Department for International Development funded me in providing a positive alternative to China’s residential care model by promoting family-based care—where children who were abandoned and living in institutions were placed into local, loving families within their community.

I started Care for Children and began a close relationship with the Chinese government to pilot a family care project in Shanghai. We aimed to transition 300 children from orphanages into families within the community in three years. We trained and empowered the local government’s social workers to place children into families. This created a sustainable and scalable model, which enabled rapid replication and growth. We exceeded our goal, and over 500 formerly institutionalized children in Shanghai were living in families by 2002—a success that caught the attention of the government officials in Beijing.

A year later, Care for Children relocated to Beijing to begin a nationwide reform project, starting with 15 provinces throughout China. By 2007, the program expanded throughout 27 provinces and is now sustainably led by the Chinese government.

Since our work began, over a million children have been moved out of orphanages into family-based care in China.

Family care has even been written into Chinese legislation. In 2014, it was identified as a better option than institutionalization and is now the standard across the country. Our efforts in China have led other countries in Asia to ask for help in reforming their own child welfare systems, and this life-changing work continues to expand.

Many wonder if taking a child out of a well-funded orphanage and placing them in an impoverished community is truly in the child’s best interest. I can attest that it is. One day, I traveled to check on a little boy who was placed in a family in a rural community. The van I traveled in was owned by the orphanage, and when he saw it, he assumed I was there to take him back. The little guy came up to me with a stick of bamboo in his hands and told me all these stories about being known and loved by his family and his community—and how that didn’t happen at the orphanage. With his bamboo, he was willing to fight to stay with his family, because that was where he belonged.

And it was. We all want to be loved and to belong. This desire transcends age and cultural or national boundaries.

China’s one-child policy restricted God’s design for families, but in His sovereignty, that same policy actually helped create a deep desire within so many families to want to care for vulnerable children across the country.

In showing Children of Shanghai to the influential audience at the Prayer Breakfast, my hope is that Christians will embrace the lessons learned in China in the way they seek to pray for and support orphaned and vulnerable children around the world. As for China specifically, there is no better way to support families there than to pray for them.

Despite the devastating impact of the one-child policy in China, God’s design for family shines through.