"Where was this child found?"

This essay has generated a number of private responses from families with children from Fuling. Some have defended the staff, testifying of the care and love that the children received in the Fuling orphanage. I, of course, have made no judgment of the care received by Fuling children, and believe it is probably very good.

Others assert some preconceived bias on my part, and judge my essay to be part of a smear campaign against the Fuling director. This, of course, is inaccurate. Although I found my time in Fuling in 2003 pleasant, I did find the director to be largely interested in pursuing financial avenues with the adoptive families. Her main desire, which she repeated often, was to procure enough funding to complete a new multi-million dollar facility. I have nothing against this director, although I do feel she sometimes takes advantage of adopting families. But I have met many directors with less desire to help their children, so harbor no ill-will to her in particular.

One family recently returning from Fuling did relate a conversation she had with the Fuling orphanage staff. This family was informed that 53 children had been transferred from Youyang to Fuling (three children less than the 56 that Youyang stated). Those 53 children had already had files in process for adoption, so of course their Youyang orphanage names were preserved. Those children also have, I believe, accurate finding data. The disposition of the missing three children is unknown.

The core question asked by this essay is why, if the Youyang orphanage was reporting frequent findings of children up to May 2006, has no child been reported being found there since then. Why have no children from Youyang been transferred to the Fuling orphanage? And why has the finding rates at Fuling's orphanage gate changed so dramatically? I don't know what incentive the Fuling orphanage would have for not accurately reporting the finding data, but until someone can explain these statistical anomalies, I would exercise caution.
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In previous essays, I have asserted that orphanage directors are under significant financial pressure to maintain a steady flow of healthy, young children to adopt out internationally in order to finance the growing overhead expenses from large facilities and an ever-increasing number of Special Needs children. This pressure resulted in the Hunan scandal, as well as lesser-known situations.

Another probable episode to add to the growing list of questionable procurement practices involves the Fuling and Youyang orphanages in Chongqing Municipality. Prior to February 2004, there were three orphanages involved in International Adoption in Chongqing Municipality – Chongqing City, Fuling District, and Dianjiang District orphanages. In February 2004, Chongqing City orphanage’s geographical boundaries were broken up into many smaller district orphanages -- including Xiushan, Qianjiang, Youyang, and Wanzhou, among others. In total nine new orphanages were opened, all of them in areas that previously were within Chongqing City orphanage’s boundaries.

This redistricting is taking place all over China and is not unusual in itself. What makes this story interesting is that 15 months after the Youyang orphanage began adopting internationally, it was suddenly shut down and the children were transferred to Fuling.

Perhaps part of this story is the falling abandonment rates in Fuling. In 2003, over 550 children were processed for international adoption from the Fuling District orphanage. This number declined sharply in 2004, when only 268 children were submitted. It eroded further in 2005, when only 155 children were processed for international adoption. Clearly the Fuling orphanage was experiencing a substantial cut in their financial resources.

Officially, adopting families were given to understand that the Youyang orphanage was not providing adequate care to the children and that they were moved for their own protection. Others were told that the numbers of children being found in Youyang was not sufficient to justify a district facility, and that Youyang was closed for financial reasons. None of these reasons, however, stands up to analysis.

The Youyang orphanage was located in a mental hospital in downtown Youyang County. It had two babyrooms, one large main room, and a smaller side-room. Ten caregivers were in charge of caring for the children. From February 2004 until May 2006, the Youyang orphanage adopted 110 children internationally, more than many other orphanages in the international adoption program. With little overhead, it would seem that the adoption fees ($330,000) would have been more than sufficient to keep Youyang’s program viable.

Just after Chinese New Year in 2006, representatives from the CCAA Office in Chongqing paid a visit to the Youyang facility. This was the first time any officials had made the 6-hour trip from Chongqing to Youyang, located at the eastern-most border of Chongqing Municipality. Following a tour of the facility, the representatives expressed appreciation of the care the children were being given and praised the general appearance of the facility. The Youyang staff was proud of these glowing reviews.

Three months later, in early May 2006, the CCAA field-office paid another visit, but this time they were critical of the staff and the care. The orphanage staff was stunned, given that nothing had materially changed in their facility in the intervening three months.

Four days later, in the early morning, ten vans pulled into the square in front of the Youyang County orphanage. The vans and personel were from the Fuling orphanage. While many of the Youyang staff slept, they began to load the 56 children into the vans. A serious altercation ensued, and the caregivers stood weeping as the children were taken away. All of the staff watched stunned as the vans drove down the road and headed to Fuling.

One might logically wonder why the children were brought to Fuling, when Youyang was originally in the Chongqing orphanage’s jurisdiction. Why was the Youyang orphanage closed? One can readily see that it had nothing to do with the number of children being found in Youyang, or the viability of the program. What role did Fuling's falling abandonment numbers play in the decision? Other questions come to mind when one looks at the abandonment patterns in Fuling.

Beginning in June 2006, and continuing in August, the finding ads for 56 children were published (28 each month). Each ad read almost identically: “A girl of estimated age was found at the main gate of the Fuling orphanage. Nothing was found with her.” For the entire year previous to assuming control of Youyang County (March 2005 to February 2006), Fuling reported 114 children abandoned, with 56 (50%) of them reportedly found at the orphanage gate. From May 2006 through December 2006 however, Fuling reported 87 children abandoned, 85 (98%) of whom were reportedly found at the orphanage gate. It would seem that the abandonment patterns in Fuling have changed dramatically since assuming control of the Youyang County foundlings.

Which begs the question: Is the Fuling orphanage consistently misrepresenting the finding information of many of the children adopted to Western families? And what of the children found since May 2006? In a county that reported on average 10 children a month, why has there not been a single child recorded by Fuling as having been found in Youyang County, given that police records in Youyang continue to report findings? Given the evidence, it seems likely that the children found in Youyang County are being brought to Fuling, and the orphanage is simply indicating that these children were “found at the gate of the orphanage”.

I could be misinterpreting the data. Perhaps no children found in the Youyang County area since the orphanage was shut down have had their paperwork submitted to the CCAA for international adoption. Perhaps abandonment patterns in Fuling happened to shift so dramatically at the exact time that the children from Youyang County were transferred. But the evidence strongly suggests this is not the case. The evidence clearly shows that although foundlings continue to be brought from Youyang to Fuling, these children are simply being “found at the gate of the orphanage.”

But if the children from Youyang County are being reported “found” at the Fuling orphanage gate, the parents of these children deserve to know the true information about their children. I have little interest in the internal politics of Chongqing municipality. But if the Fuling orphanage is fabricating abandonment information, that is a serious cause for concern. These children are not being found in some area of Fuling -- they are probably being found hundreds of miles away; born in a completely different city! This has serious implications for the life-histories of these children.

Fuling families would do well to question the orphanage staff during the adoption process to determine whether their children were truthfully found in Fuling, or if they were in fact found elsewhere. Fuling's director, as well as the directors of all of China's orphanages, has a responsibility to truthfully identify where these children were found.

Most do.

The director of the Fuling orphanage owes the families that much also.