Ann Kedl (Childcare Director, Co-Founder) and Hanna Bei recently enjoyed some time together!  Hanna is thriving in her healing home while her complicated medical issues are still being addressed in Shanghai.  Ann works feverishly every day (talking with doctors, taking kids to appointments, researching, teaching our staff, etc.) to be sure our many Baobei children are getting the best medical attention available to them.  She certainly has earned her title with these precious children as no one is a better health care advocate for them than their “Auntie” Ann!!!

Isn’t Garfield the cat who says, “I hate Mondays!”?  Although he wasn’t showing it, maybe Baby Joseph was saying the same thing this week Monday when he had to get all prepared for his morning procedure.  The nurse was shaving his head, and Jessica and Joseph’s ayi were washing it so he would be all ready to get a brain drain- really!  (Dr. Bao was taking some fluid off his brain to reduce pressure and prepare him for his future shunt surgery.)  Jospeh was perfectly calm during his preparation.  He is still so young (1.5 months) but thriving in the excellent care of his ayi and the SCMC staff.  He is on the 5th floor if you would like to visit this week.

For our Baobei community, the last few weeks have been bittersweet.  While we continue to seek and help children in need of life saving medical care we are missing a vital part of our Baobei family here in Shanghai.  Emily Chan, known to all of us as “Ting Ting” finally received the engagement visa she and her fiancé had been pursuing for over 15 months and with that moved on to begin a new life in the USA.
Ting Ting was a founding member of Baobei and brought with her a wealth of knowledge on everything from orphan policy to pediatric neurology.  We had many months to prepare ourselves for this transition, but still feel the loss as we go through our first “post-Ting Ting” days.
We are so fortunate to have two new Medical Managers in place to take up where Ting Ting left off. Lily Rong and Jessica Ling will be our Medical Management team at Shanghai Children’s and are already working closely with the doctors and nurses providing care for the Baobei babies in the hospital.
Transitions are sometimes challenging, but we feel fortunate to have worked with and learned from someone as gifted at Ting Ting over the past year. We are still in daily contact with her by every means of communication possible and she will maintain a strong presence in our organization no matter what continent she is on .   .   .  but we will miss her smile.
Good Luck to you TT!

Baobei’s dear friend, our neurosurgeon, Dr Bao made such a heartfelt speech at our UCLA-SCMC celebration * fundraiser dinner. For the people who didn’t get to be at the dinner that night, I think I will share what he shared. The title of his speech is called “Reach Out Your Hands”.

Dear ladies & gentlemen, good evening!

I am so honored to be invited to this special and meaningful dinner. And I am very excited to be able to stand here to share a few words with you.

First of all I would like to give thanks to Dr Lazareff and his medical team from UCLA, who spared time from their busy schedule and came all the way here to provide unconditional help. Their arrival has also given us the opportunity to get together and celebrate. Here I can see many familiar faces, and some new faces – so glad to see you all here!

I would also like to thank our Baobei Foundation, who arranged this very meaningful dinner event. “Baobei” means “precious and lovely babies”. However, it has deeper additional meaning to me. My parents have three children. My elder brother is named “Bao Dong”. “Dong” in Chinese means “east”. My name is “Bao Nan” and “Nan” in Chinese means “South”. My younger sister is “Bao xi” (”xi” means “west”). My parents were hoping to have another baby and they wanted to name him/her with the meaning of “north”. It was a pity as they were too old to have another child then. But Baobei made my parents’ dream come true because “Bei” also means “north” in Chinese. So every time when I was asked if “Baobei foundation” is my foundation because I happened to have the last name “Bao”, I told them “It is my sister instead”.

Thanks to Baobei Foundation for allowing me to have another “younger sister”. What’s more important, Charity like Baobei Foundation can give new lives to many orphaned children with hydrocephalus and spinal bifida, which will cause intelligence delay, loss of bladder/bowel control, loss of mobility if without surgery in time. Providing the right surgery in time can prevent such from happening and help the children have normal lives. However, neurosurgery itself has risk. Nerves can be damaged during surgery if not performed carefully and correctly. I believe that Shanghai Children’s Medical Center has the experienced surgeons, state-of-art facility and equipments. We provide hundreds of surgeries for spinal bifida and hydrocephalus every year and has been rated the best hospital for such surgery in China. Therefore, I am hoping that your help will enable these orphaned children to receive the best medical care from our hospital, and that they will start their new lives like anyone else sooner! (lillie shows up)

Lillie was my patient. She had brain cyst and hydrocephalus before. She had her first surgery done locally but it failed, so she was transferred to SCMC last year. When she first got here, she was scared by almost everything like a frightened kitty, crying a lot. Thanks to her healing home parents, who stepped in to giver her tender love and care. She has gone through 3 surgeries. She’s now a healthy, lively and beautiful little girl. Everyone who sees her loves her immediately, including me and my family. Therefore, I hope this is a good example to motivate you to help more children, to be like Lillie!

Once again, thanks to everyone!

Bao Nan

Dr. Jorge Lazareff was born and raised in Argentina where he also went to medical school. Before coming to work at UCLA Medical Center as the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, he spent time working in both Mexico and South Africa. Now a dual American and Argentine citizen, he has used his passion for helping children worldwide to establish a non-profit organization called Global Neuro Rescue (GNR). GNR was created to help children of developing nations born with congenital diseases of the brain and spinal cord. Dr. Lazareff and his team have traveled to several countries to provide neurosurgery to underprivileged children, often times orphans, including countries such as Romania, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, China, Nicaragua and Nigeria. The purpose of GNR is to work along side the local surgeons in the child’s country to share the techniques that allow for the effective treatment of different congenital malformations. Since 2002, Dr. Lazareff and his team have operated on more than 100 children and examined nearly four times that number of children.
Dr. Lazareff himself is newly and happily married to Dr. Barbara van de Wiele who works along side him both at UCLA and abroad on the GNR trips as an anesthesiologist. Dr. Lazareff is one of the most intriguing individuals you will ever meet and not only to his tiny patients seem to bond with him instantly, but each person who meets him is easily attracted to his charm and warmth

Dr Nan Bao is the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery in Shanghai Children’s Medical Center. He studied at Shanghai 2nd Medical School, which is also known as the medical college of Jiaotong University today. He later worked as a fellow at Schneider Medical Children’s Hospital of Isreal, and had also spent some time in the US exchanging experience at different hospitals, including UCLA. Dr Bao and his neurosurgery team performed 200 - 300 surgeries a year on hydrocephalus and spinal bifida at SCMC.

Dr Bao is also an old friend to Baobei and has volunteered his weekend many times to visit orphanages in China and provided pro-bono service. His support to Baobei is what makes our work successful. He’s like a father to our children. He loves them very much and treats each baobei child like his own. He is also like a teacher to us, who shares with us knowledge all the time. He also pays great attention to follow up each child’s healing process after they are discharged, because he always believes that surgery is only the beginning and healing makes it complete. Although Dr Bao might sometimes look serious when he’s busy, deep down, he’s sweet, humorous and fun! We’ve been enjoying working with him!

As Baobei is a new foundation, an important part of our work is raising awareness of who we are and what we do.  The more the word spreads, the more people get involved and the more money is raised, which enables us to fund more surgeries for even more little babies.  Just what we’re aiming for.

The first Lifeline Health Fair was held at the beginning of September in Shanghai and Baobei had a booth at which volunteers, dressed in the beautiful new Baobei T-shirts, were on hand to explain our mission to interested passers by, of which there were plenty!  As well as the t-shirts, the new Baobei pendants went like hot-cakes, with all proceeds going to fund the surgeries of the Baobei babies in the UCLA medical mission which starts this week. We learnt a lot from the great day at the Health Fair, and had a wonderful time too.  Can’t wait for the next one! If you missed our T-shirt or pendants, you can still contact us for purchase - info@baobeifoundation.org.

Chanlynn, a Baobei volunteer’s daughter was planning her birthday party, which is actually today, two weeks ago.  Chanlynn was asked if she would consider to ask her friends to donate money instead of bringing presence as she did last year.  Then a few days later, grandparents came and gave them the money for their birthdays.  So both Chanlynn and her sister took most of their birthday money out and donate to the two of the babies from the UCLA mission. It is such a blessing for their generous hearts.

Juliet, another little Baobei volunteer, did some modeling at school and asked her mother to give the money to the little “baobeis”. She wants them to use the money to get healthy! Isn’t that so sweet?

These are just some of the many examples how volunteers have helped Baobei raise awareness and funds. We are very thankful for all of your support and love to all these precious babies who need help. My favorite quote is “To the world we are one person, but to one person we could mean the world.” I truly believe that every one of us and every bit of our effort can make a huge difference and impact on each of these children who need us.

Every child we helped has a story behind them, it involves many people, from orphanage staff to SCMC medical staff, from volunteers to donors, everyone is part of the children’s stories.

As most of our children, especially the urgent ones, came from Kaifeng orphanage, I particularly want to share the story about this loving man, who serves as a doctor at the orphanage. Every time when a new child enters the orphanage, Dr Zhu is the one to exam them. Even on weekends, he gets called in when such happens. Remember Faith’s story? That happened on a Saturday when Faith was found. Thankfully Dr Zhu was still at work. He was the one who quickly called me and spoke to Faith’s surgeon Dr Wu regarding how to take care of Faith’s exposed bowel, then jumped on the train leaving Kaifeng for Shanghai with Faith.

Dr Zhu has been to Shanghai three times this summer to deliver children in critical medical needs. Every time he arrived in Shanghai early morning, he went straight with the babies to the hospital. He just had a small backpack, mostly baby’s stuff. I recall when he took Faith, his bag was mainly bottles of sterling water, hardly anything for himself. He always returned on the same day as soon as the children were safely settled and we couldn’t even have chance to provide him a decent breakfast or lunch, because he knew the orphanage needs him being around. However, the only thing that can make him stay for a few extra hours is to visit the children who are still receiving healing care in Shanghai. He would gently check on the children’s surgery area and nod his head with a smile. He would hold these babies and kiss them. You can tell he thinks of these children all the time. He loves them dearly from the way he holds them and from his content smile on his face. He’s just like a loving father to these children.

I truly think Dr Zhu is a hero who fights for these children’s slim chance to survive, who gives them fatherly love at the beginning of their lives. On behalf of all these babies he has helped saved, we want to thank you Dr Zhu!

Baobei Foundation is partnering with a healing home called “Nursing Basket” that’s located in Pudong Shanghai. NB is run by a group of Shanghai young mothers who are passionate about giving a loving home for orphans during pre- and post-surgery care. So far we have two Baobei babies under their care.

Yesterday, some staff from SCMC were invited by Baobei to give a training to the NB caregivers. Dr Hu, chief resident from the pediatric surgery department gave a really useful lesson about first-aid, such as what to do when babies get burned, choked and bitten, etc.. Nurse Hong, who has years of working experience in NICU, shared with the caregivers information about daily care, such as skin care, feeding, post-surgery positioning, etc.. Head Nurse Meng from pediatric surgery department was also there. She checked on each child carefully and gave the caregivers tips on how to care for them regarding each one’s specific need. The feedback from the caregivers was great and they asked a lot of questions too, which were all patiently answered. Dr Bao, our neurosurgeon from SCMC also checked on the kids at a previous visit and gave some very good advice. Both the doctors and nurses promised to come back to the healing home on regular basis to help in whatever way they can.

It is always very encouraging to see that so many people in the Shanghai community are showing their love to orphans to raise awareness and to improve the quality of medical care provided to orphans. Our goal is not just the number of the surgeries we can provide. We want to do our best to guarantee the quality of care for each child Baobei decide to take in. With the physical involvement from the hospital staff, local volunteers and the NB shanghai mothers, this goal is becoming possible.