A Nanjing charity providing end-of-life care for babies and young children has taken the unusual step of choosing to crowdfund its latest initiative aimed at improving quality of care for society’s most under privileged.
The Nanjinger supports a number of local charities in their noble work. The Rainbow Centre is but one. Therein, no one pretends it will one day be alright. Since, in this case, it won’t. Most of the children living in the Rainbow Centre are born with pain. Abandoned by their biological parents, they have ichthyosis, bullous epidermolysis, hydrocephalus, severe cerebral palsy, to name but a few. That which they have common is that most are incurable, unless a miracle occurs.
Since its inception in 2014, the Rainbow Centre has been providing soothing and hospice care for, typically, babies through 3 or 4 year olds. The warm embrace of parents is substituted by the care of surrogate mothers, often volunteers, caring for the souls who often have only a few months to live. To date, 32 children have passed away amid their love and care.
Hence, the fundraising drive. All too reliant upon the help of volunteers, the aim is to raise sufficient funds for the centre to pay for professional staff and equipment to last the centre through a year of operation.
In total, the crowdfunding aims to raise ¥399,800. In China, that sounds like it may be an auspicious figure. Not so.
In the name of transparency, the charity is clear about where the money is going. ¥1,000 per month to provide activities for the children; ¥4,650 per month as salary for a social worker to provide psychological counselling for critically-ill children and their families; ¥18,000 per month for a professional nurse to provide treatment, reducing the pain of children, controlling various symptoms and improving their quality of end of life; and finally, a one-off ¥50,000 to provide training for professional medical staff that can promote the development of hospice care.
At time of writing, almost ¥9,000 has been raised on the crowdfunding platform that seamlessly integrates with WeChat. Therein, see the time, amount and donor of the last two contributions (typically ¥10-50). Readers of The Nanjinger interested to do so may access the platform via the QR code below:
It is also worth noting that the last 3 days (7-9 September) have also been “Tencent 99 Public Welfare Day”, whereby every year, for these 3 days, Tencent (owner of WeChat) also makes a contribution (unspecified) for every donation on the crowdfunding platform.
