Page 23 - Sphere No.24 (Mar 2009)

Sphere 21
Zhao Haoxiang, two-and-a-half months old with long
eyelashes and chubby cheeks, is oblivious to the fate that al-
most befell him. From the minute he was born, took his first
deep breath and screamed to the high heavens, his family knew
something was wrong.
“He just didn’t cry the same. You could hear sounds of escap-
ing air,” said Zhang Dehe, 54, his grandfather. The baby was
diagnosed with a cleft palate and suddenly his place in the fam-
ily became uncertain.
“His mother wanted to give him away,” said Chen Zhanfang,
56, his grandmother. “She cried for days. Where can we find
money to cure him,” she said. “How can he find a wife later on?”
Haoxiang is one of an estimated tens of thousands of babies
in China who are born each year with cleft lips or palates, con-
ditions in which the two sides of the lip, palate, or sometimes
the soft inner cartilage of the nose, is not joined. Almost all
of them will require corrective surgery in order to assimilate
fully into society, but with the operations costing between
RMB6,000 and RMB7,000 for the simplest procedures, to tens
of thousands of RMB for multiple, long-term treatment, many
of China’s poor do not have the financial means to care for their
children. As a result, some families will abandon these babies.
Haoxiang was luckier. His grandparents stood by their only
grandson, but they knew that life with a cleft lip would be difficult.
There is one man with a cleft lip in their Hebei village and many
of the villagers don’t know his real name; they only refer to him as
huaide, broken. “From now on we have to work hard, save money,
we thought. Even if it takes us four or five years,” Ms Chen said.
Then, a few months ago, the family couldn’t believe their
luck. Haoxiang’s father heard about Project New Life, a charity
that offered completely free cleft lip treatment for the needy.
The family qualified. Mr Zhang and his son work as welders in
Beijing, while the women tend the small piece of land they re-
ceived after being relocated as the result of a local dam project.
The four working adults of the family made about RMB10,000
a year, Mr Zhang estimated.
Project New Life brought baby Haoxiang and his grand-
parents to Capital Medical University’s Beijing Stomatologi-
cal Hospital and paid for their round trip transportation, ac-
commodation and food costs. Now, crying as his grandmother
rocked him in her arms while a nurse administered an IV in his
ankle, baby Haoxiang is waiting for his surgery.
Another of the project’s many heart-warming stories belongs
to Zhang Shengyong, who back in 1998 was found abandoned
under a bridge in a remote village in Henan province. He was
just a few months old and his face was badly deformed, but
his foster parents, themselves suffering from poor health, de-
“This programme is primarily for children who are
stricken with this disease and their families. These
children suffer emotional pain sometimes beyond
any physical pain they experience, even though it is
not a life-threatening illness. The greater purpose of
this programme is to help patients regain dignity and
confidence, and be able to live happily and contribute
to society. Care is the most important social perspec-
tive. To me, the significance of promoting a culture
of giving is to help society recognise that even a small
star shines in the darkness. If everyone pitches in
and invests a little of ourselves and our resources, the
multiplying effect will be great. More government
policy support and better implementation will also
contribute to more satisfactory results. By working
together, we can bring about positive change.”
HWL Chairman Li Ka-shing
Chairman Li Ka-shing
with children and
parents who have
been helped by
Project New Life.