Thursday, November 15, 2012

Photos from our Trip to the Shenzhen Social Welfare Institute

Just a few quick photos from yesterday.  We didn't get as many pictures as I'd have liked but I did shoot a lot of video and hope some of it will be good.  These three photos are of the sign in front of the orphanage, of Jillian giving suckers to her classmates, of two of her teachers and with her foster family.  As for her foster family. they have two more boys who were in school and the little girl in the photo is new to the family (Jillian's "replacement").  They live several flights up in a small two bedroom apartment.  It was neat to see that they were very attached emotionally to Jillian, with the father even stepping away for a moment to compose himself. 
 
The classroom looked a lot like a very small preschool classroom and we were even able to get get the envelope with some of her schoolwork (all drawings) in it.  In China, kids don't start first grade until after they have turned seven so Jillian probably would have moved to first grade very soon.
 

2 comments:

Fannie said...

I've been looking at a file for a little girl that is in Shenzhen. She is four and has a right foot deformity. What was your overall impression of the Shenzhen SWI? Did you get to go through all of it or just a few rooms?

Palmer said...

I have some perceptions that I've written up about the SWI school and foster care, but I'm not sure I want to post them to the general public. (Not because they are negative. Just haven't decided if it's appropriate to go into much detail here.) We did not get to see the orphanage facility itself. Anyway, if you send me your email address, I can share those thoughts with you. Mine is palmermuntz [at] hotmail.com.