Zu Wen Receives Scholarship

This is Xu Wen (Amenda is her English name). She is one of the two students who have received a Blessing Hands scholarship for half of her tuition at Guangxi Normal University. She is studying to be a teacher. She doesn't get any support from her parents with her tuition and needs help to stay in school. A committee under Malan Cai's leadership selected the two scholarship recipients.

Xu Wen wrote a lovely thank you letter thanking all the Blessing Hands members for their support.

Nine Mile Primary School (Jiu Li)

The last school we visited was not in Yangshuo County but in the Zhuang Minority area.
We arrived at Nine Mile School while the children were on their midday break from 12:00 to 2:00. The whole school turned out to get a look at us strangers. The kids loved posing for pictures and seeing the results.

This is a very rural school way out in the country of Muming County. We came to tour the school and give aid from Blessing Hands so the school could pay off a debt for school books for 28 children. We added more money to the requested amount to allow the children to buy school supplies. The English teacher and Principal Zeng hosted us on short notice by graciously giving us bottled water.

The Presentation of a Red Envelope Gift

We presented a red envelope with $175 in it for the needs of 28 children in the school. Each child's name was called, and you should have heard them cheer as they ran back into the school enclosure. It was a muddy day so they all had boots on. They were delightful children interested in us strange foreigners. We were probably big news around there for several days since not many Americans had ventured that far to Nine Mile School. Gifts are often given in red envelopes in China especially on formal occasions. We had to make one from paper the principal had, since we forgot to bring our red envelopes with us.

School Gate with Morehead Tour Members

These are the children at Nine Mile Primary School who received money from Blessing Hands to pay for their books and supplies. Only 18 of the 28 children served are shown here, since it was the noon lunch/nap break and many had gone home.

The four Morehead folks who visited the school with me are on the back row. Left to right you will see me, Jeff Fannin, Thelma T. Oney, Danny Fannin, and Megan Frey. They each gave a hundred Yuan ($12.50) on the spot to help the children when they saw how needy the school was and knew that I was a little short of the needed amount. Megan is a student at Morehead State University and really responded to the children's love. She would be a natural teacher. Jeff Fannin has adopted Chinese twin girls from the Wuming area, and he could see what the life of his daughters would have been like if they had not been abandoned in China and adopted into his family. He wants to help the school get a playground. Danny Fannin is Jeff's brother. Thelma T. Oney has a heart for children and wanted to help also.

Zeng Xun Cheng Receives $175 for the Children

The principal and I signed a receipt for the money given for the 28 children who needed money for books and supplies for this semester. Nine Mile Primary School is in a very rural area that serves the Zhuang minority. There are 8 teachers and 81 students there. Principal Zeng Xun Cheng was a classmate of one of my friends, Lu Hanbin, who came to be a visiting scholar at Morehead State University in our town. Lu took us to the school and introduced us to Mr. Zeng. It is truly nine miles from anywhere. We hope to continue to fund the children's books in the fall. The government now pays tuition for all children under 15 in the Western part of China, so tuition support is no longer needed for these children.

Qu Ling Zhu's Progress

Some of you might be wondering about Qu Ling Zhu. She is back in school, and I hope to see her when I visit on March 24th. Her teacher, Andy Liang, reports that her face is still swollen. I have been assured that this is normal considering the surgery and treatment that she is receiving. She has been taken to Guilin for a follow up check up, and she is scheduled for another operation in 6 months that will be cosmetic surgery to help her appearance. Right now she is wearing a hat until her hair grows out.

I am looking forward to visiting with several of the Blessing Hands students while I am in Yangshuo on a Sister City's trip to dedicate the 93 wheelchairs that the people of Morehead are giving to handicapped citizens of Yangshuo. The government officials will take us to visit many of the schools where Blessing Hands Children are studying, and I will get to meet the childen in person. I also hope to get lots of pictures to post on this site. While I am in Yangshuo, I will also be arranging for a eyeglass clinic in August that will benefit all the citizens of Yangshuo, especially the school children.

Qinzhou Grant

Blessing Hands is now expanding into another area of China besides Yangshuo. We will now be giving 100 students tuition help in the area of Qinzhou, Guangxi, China. Qinzhou is a port city near Viet Nam and seven hours by bus from Yangshuo. I taught teachers there for four weeks in a summer English camp in 2004. I became fond of my students there and wanted to help their schools and students with tuition help as well as those in Yangshuo. My good friend Anna Liu was in charge of that English camp and is now a visiting scholar in Morehead, KY where I live. She was able to advise me on setting up this expanded outreach and help me present a grant proposal to FFCF. I am looking forward to working with her for the good of the children in her area for many years to come.

Qinzhou is a small city by Chinese standards being about the size Ashland, Kentucky. It has a teacher's college nearby. Qinzhou No. One Middle School is one of the best middle schools in the city. They have 6,500 students in lower and upper middle school. Their school is like a college campus, since most of the students are boarding students who come from the outlying countryside. The students above the age of 15, who need tuition help, number about four in a classroom of 70. You can see how they fit in all those students in the photo above. The picture shows a physics class at Putao Middle School near Qinzhou.

The student's homeroom teachers will select the students who show promise in areas of responsibility, effort, leadership, and scholarship. Around Qinzhou there are 60 higher middle schools like Putao that also have children who cannot afford tuitions. Yearly tuition in US dollars, not including boarding expenses, runs $150 in the city schools and $140 in the country middle schools. These farmers might make $400 a year from their leased land, so they have to borrow money to support their children in the higher grades. For $75 a semester a child's life can be changed.

Blessing Hands proposes to help 100 children in the Qinzhou area during the 2006-07 school year. $8,500 of the FFCF grant is set aside for the fall semester. The grant will also include some extras like school supplies and maybe book bags. Anna Liu hopes to gather local support to provide the children with used clothes and other needs. If you are interested in contributing to the Qinzhou project, your donation can be matched by FFCF, and you will receive a tax deduction. Send donations to Founding Family Charitable Foundation, 1004 Rodney Drive, Nashville, Tennessee, 37205-1018. You can even donate by Paypal at http://foundingfamily.org/. That would be especially easy for people in other nations to use.

Qinzhou Grant

This is Anna Yunna Liu who is going to be in charge of the Qinzhou grant for Blessing Hands.
She is the head of the English Department at her Higher Middle school. She has many teachers under her care and has presented the Blessing Hands proposal to the Education Department's superintendant over her area of China.

The superintendent is very enthusiastic about working with Blessing Hands for tuition support for the children over 15 who do not receive government tuition. Anna helped to write and present the grant application to FFCT and will have their support to fund 100 children from the Qinzhou area schools. This grant will aid students from the countryside and Qinzhou No. One Middle School where Anna works. Anna is currently a visiting scholar at Morehead State University in my hometown. She will return to Qinzhou in June and take up her duties again at her school, while also administering the Blessing Hands grant.

Unexpected Good News

Unexpected Good News


I have recently found out that China has announced that countryside children under 15 will have free tuition from now on. This is great news. All of our primary Blessing Hands Children will now receive free tuition from the government, but we will still be supplementing their textbooks at $10 a child and providing special help in Yao minority areas where children need food and clothing in order to stay in boarding school.

I am offering money back to any spring semester supporters who were only interested in younger students. Otherwise I will apply the tuition help to older poor high school students in Yangshuo and Qinzhou, China. This new tuition policy of the Chinese government only applies to countryside children.  Big city children will still have to pay tuition as before. Blessing Hands will now turn to the needs of countryside children in Yangshuo and Qinzhou who are over the age for lower middle school and will receive no tuition help from the government under the new policy.  There are five higher Middle schools in Yangshuo and some of those students will still need tuition help.  At 15 many of them are tempted to drop out and go to work to support their families, since they no longer receive any help from the government. The Qinzhou area has many higher middle schools in both the country and the city areas.

Great News

Great News

A grant of $25,000 has be given to Blessing hands for the spring and fall semesters of 2006. Founding Family Charitable Foundation located in Nashville, Tennessee is partnering with us. They are also offering to match any funds sent to their address by Blessing Hands donors. I am quoting their letter below so that I will tell it exactly right.

“Also, beyond the initial $25,000: We will match another set of funds you receive from your donors, who know your work and want to help, up to $12,500. That is, if you can get contributions for up to $12,500,we will match $12,500 for another $25,000, making a grand total of $50,000. This needs to be from other donors, and does not include your personal contributions, or your family members' contributions,to the work. It does not have to be new donors, however; existing donors can be informed of the matching funds, and if they write their checks to Founding Family Foundation, and mail to 1004 Rodney Dr, Nashville, TN 37205-1018, we will match their funds. …. For instance, if you have a donor who writes a check to Founding Family Foundation for $250, we will send them an acknowledgement/ appreciation letter for tax reporting purposes noting their contribution of $250, then we will write a check to Blessing Hands for $500. This applies to any donations received through December 31, 2006. Incidentally, they should probably put a sticky note on their check, or tell us in an attached note, that their contribution is for Blessing Hands. We all have a mutual love for China and its people, and we are excited to be able to work with you and benefit from your knowledge and experience.”

You can read more about the mission statement of Founding Family Charitable Foundation at www.foundingfamily.org. They give grants to people who want to adopt Chinese children and cannot afford the fees. They also want to help children all over the world. Blessing Hands is blessed to be partnered with them.

You can see Sara Rummage (center) and Nina Ottinger listening to the presentation Anna Liu and I prepared for FFCF. Anna had prepared a powerpoint presentation about Chinese schools for an eariler meeting, and it was easy to merge her information with pictures from Yangshuo and Qinzhou. Anna is the head English teacher at Number One Middle School in Qinzhou, China. She administered a summer English camp I taught in in 2004. She and I prepared the Qinzhou proposal together, and her school and the rural middle schools around Qinzhou will receive some of the grant for the poor countryside children there. Blessing Hands is already growing beyond one area of China. Someday we hope to be in Taiwan and Honduras helping children there.

Foundation Presentation

In this picture you can see Nina Ottinger's lovely Chinese daughter. John Rummage had joined the group by the time this picture was taken. He is married to Sara and is their chief fundraiser. He worked for other foundations before starting the Founding Family Charitable Foundation. The foundation has offered to help Blessing Hands with a brochure to explain our mission, and my son, Ross Cutts, has offered to help us with a web page. I also intend to get incorporated in Kentucky in the near future. Incorporation as a charity is also in our plans. 

Proposals presented

Sara Rummage, Nina Ottinger, and Helen Derryberry are listening to our Blessing Hands proposals. Helen is my old college roomate from my days at David Lipscomb College in Nashville. It was Helen who forwarded Blessing Hands information to Sara Rummage. Sara wrote and asked me questions about Blessing Hands which I delightedly answered.

Only later did I realize that she was from a foundation and had a reason to be asking questions in such detail. When she told me her board was meeting and would consider funding Blessing Hands, I said to myself, "What board is she talking about. " I looked at the information at the end of her e-mail, and only then did I find that she was from Founding Family Charitable Foundation (FFCF). I was going to see my father in two weeks and would pass through Nashville, so I made arrangements to stop by and give them our proposals for helping the children in Yangshuo and Qinzhou with tuition.

I taught middle school teachers in a summer English camp in Qinzhou in 2004 for four weeks. Many of the teachers there give from their meager salaries to help the countryside children at their schools who need money for tuition. The children there need tuition help in the higher grades just like they do in Yangshuo. Ann Liu, who was the director of that summer camp, came to Morehead State University to be a visiting scholar in the fall of 2005. I asked her to help me include the countryside children of Qinzhou, Guangxi, China in the proposal as well as the Yangshuo children. Her wisdom, knowledge, and friendship was invaluable in drawing up the Founding Family proposal. 

Qu Ling Zhu

The nurses are getting Ling ready for her operation. Ling was able to have her surgery in Yangshuo. Rather than having her travel to Guilin, the doctor came to her. Her grandmother was able to be with her near home, and other local people supported her during this time of stress. She was very proud of the flowers someone sent her and glad to know that she could take them home with her. She sees that they get water every day.

The doctor was able to reconstruct her face at the same time as he took out the fatty tumor. She will be a changed little girl and can already talk much better. Since it is Chinese New Year, her father was able to return home from where he works, and Ling has plenty of time to recover without missing much school. 

Qu Ling Zhu's operation was a success.

There is good news about Ling's tumor. It was not cancer, but a soft tumor that grews from a nerve. It is a genetic condition, but hopefully the tumor will not come back. I didn't know that she had been operated on three years or more ago. The same doctor came from Guilin to do this operation also, which was a great blessing. He had taken out the most dangerous tumor before and asked her to come back after that operation healed. Of course there was no money, and the other tumor just grew until she could not even speak clearly.

She is able to eat now and is progressing wonderfully. Many people have visited her in the hospital bringing books, flowers, and food. Mr. Xu of the Education Department brought her some money to help with the operation costs, and people here in America have been very generous. The newspapers have picked up the human interest story and spread the news about the friendship of Americans that has made a child in China have a new life. Ling's story truly has developed goodwill between China and America.

Some one even found her mother who had abandoned her when she was five. Communication has been started again between them by telephone, and the mother may visit soon. Ling's father returned from Guangdong where he had gone to work, and he is visiting her daily while he is home.

Girl Scout Troop 561

I spoke at a local Girl Scout troop about the children in China and encouraged them to write letters to children their own age at Puyi Primary School. Kelsey wrote a delightful letter about her pets and going to the beach in the summer. The children there will be fascinated with the idea of a pet and a distant beach. They do know about bike riding and favorite colors, however.

Children all over the world have no trouble finding things in common. I hope that Huang Rao Ming will write her back. He lives with his grandparents after his parents divorced. 

Taylor is a Girl Scout in Troop 561 in Clearfield, KY. I presented a photo show of the schools and children in Yangshuo County, China to the troop last Monday. I asked the troop to write to the Blessing Hands children at Puyi Primary School. Taylor used the American flag sticker that I gave out to make a flag pole with Deng You Cai and herself nearby. She also wrote a letter to him on the other side of her drawing. The scouts had a lot of fun, and the children at Puyi will be thrilled to get a letter from an American child their age.
School is out for the Chinese New Year, but we hope that they will get letters back soon.

This picture came today of the Blessing Hands children at GuanQiao Primary school. Wu Shenmei is in the first row on left. 

Qu Lingzhu's ear

Qu Ling Zhu is waiting for what the doctors will decide to do with her tumor. We are planning on helping her with funds for an operation. It seems that her ear is also involved with the tumor. I wonder what her hearing is in this ear. It looks like a scar at the top of the ear. She has the little brown birthmarks on her chin as well. 

Qu Ling Zhu and her Grandmother

It is Winter Holiday soon in China and the schools will be out for a month for Chinese New Year. Someone is going to take Qu Ling to get medical help for her tumor in Guilin now, since she doesn't have to miss school. Spring semester will start in March.

A reporter has been contacted who will be writing about her progress and has arranged for a discount for her hospital stay. We are hoping for a good outcome and accurate diagnosis. Her grandmother is shown here with Lingzhu. 

Charles' students - Yangdi Dishui Primary School

These children go to Yangdi Dishui Primary School where Charles is their teacher. Starting at the left you can see Tang Mei Ling, Tang Xu Ling, Tang Xiao Yu, Tang Yu Ping, Tang Chang Yu, and Chen Ji Ying in red. The two youngest are in kindergarten. Chinese custom puts the family name first in personal names, so all the Tangs here are probably related somehow.