Executive Summary

The Children of Madaifu need hope. Their first steps in life are difficult : their parents are dead or gone and they come from poor families in deprived Chinese provinces. Your support can allow them to stay in their villages, with their relatives and to continue to go to school.

Our organisation has worked in Shaanxi, Gansu and Hubei since 1999, focusing on the most destitute rural areas, with three types of programmes :

  • Orphanage without Walls : we place orphans and abandoned children in a relative’s home. An allowance is given to the foster family to provide for their basic needs and to finance their education.
  • Lead them to independance :  we finance the children’s higher education through a scholarship scheme, or offer them a variety of placements in professional training schools (Shanghai Young Bakers, for example, has already taken in and trained eight of our children in bread-making and cake-baking)
  • Support to schools : asked by the local education authorities, we have, over the years, equipped schools with central heating systems, sports facilities, dormitories and computer rooms; realised repair works after the 2008 earthquake; built a Bathhouse in Shanmen (Gansu), which was opened in June 2010.

It costs an annual average of 2800 yuan to finance each child partaking in the Orphanage without Walls scheme. With a small budget (RMB 600.000 last year), Children of Madaifu has provided for over 250 children under the Orphanage without Walls program and more than 250 in the Tianshui emergency shelter (this programme was terminated in 2010).

More funding would allow us to :

  • Help more children
  • Improve their studying conditions
  • Give grants to those whishing to attend university
  • Establish a medical follow-up programme

The association was founded in 1999 by Marcel Roux, a former vice-president of Doctors without Borders. His chinese name was Madaifu, Ma for Marcel and Daifu for doctor. First named “Datong”, the association was renamed “Children of Mafaifu” to pay tribute to its founder, who died in 2006. Initially registered in Hong-Kong, the association is now registered in France.

As a potential donor, you can rest assured that your generosity will bring direct benefits to the Children of Madaifu. We have been operating in China for almost 10 years, in close partnership with local residents : families, village heads, teachers, schools principals and the Civil Affairs bureau. Our only full time employee, assisted by Chinese and French volunteers, is in constant touch with the families and the children and looks after the local finances. We designed our programs to give maximum help to the beneficiaries and have not made any large investments. More than three quarters of our budget is channelled to meet the direct needs of the children.

Thank you for your support.

© Gilles Sabrié