Disabled Children Chained in China

“Is it a welfare home or child abuse home?” one user of Weibo, China’s answer   to Twitter, wrote under the name Kevin-JK356.

Referring to the orphanage’s staff, he added: “Dig them out and make them   spend the rest of their lives like this!”

Another angry ‘netizen’, Fengse Wangxiang, wrote: “Can this place be called a   welfare house? It should be called a violent house.”

“Following the online reaction, authorities launched an investigation into   allegations of misconduct at the orphanage which was reportedly home to 21   children, 19 of whom were physically or mentally disabled, and staffed by   “four elderly women, who had received no training or care provision.”   According to a report in the state-controlled Xinhua new agency, local   officials admitted “nurses had used chains to confine the two boys, both of   whom suffer mental illness”.

Xinhua said nurses had resorted to using chains “to prevent the boys from   defecating uncontrollably and hurting other children”.

In a statement released this week Cangnan county’s Communist Party committee   said it had placed the orphanage’s director under investigation and was   looking into the “possible misconduct” of staff.

The committee vowed to “launch a major clean-up of the orphanage’s sanitation   [and] improve living and studying conditions”. Health checks had been   arranged for all of the home’s children, the statement added.

Cangnan authorities said they had started “a thorough inspection of all   welfare institutes in the county, strengthening supervision and preventing   such thing from happening again.”

China Daily says “The photos depicted 2-year old Guo Qun tethered to the back of an old wooden chair by a strip of cloth around his neck. Next to him 8-year old Guo Cheng’s right foot was tied to the same chair by an iron chain.

The photos were taken by a volunteer during a visit to the welfare house in June.

In comments that have shocked the public, authorities said staff of Cangnan County Social Welfare Institute tied up the boys due to safety concerns and claimed they were not being punished.

“Although the president of the welfare house was suspended, the staff were not as they didn’t do it with intent,” said Wu Jiaxing from Cangnan’s civil affairs bureau. “Children (of the welfare house) are only restrained when they have a twitch or a propensity to violence — they’re free for the rest of time.”

According to Wu, both the boys were born with defects and that is why they ended up in the welfare institute.

“Guo Qun is suffering from congenital deafmutism and he has epilepsy, that’s why staff has to fix him (with a strip of cloth) when he relieves himself — he’s incontinent,” said Wu. “Guo Cheng has schizophrenia and he’s capable of violence.”

However, the photos of the boys in chains were taken during mealtime and both boys were locked up while eating. Zhejiang province’s local newspaper Modern Gold News quoted an anonymous staff who admitting they tied up the children. The anonymous staff member said the last time she saw the children restrained was on June 29, it was raining outside but Guo Qun and Guo Cheng kept running out to play— they wetted their clothing three times prompting the staff to lock them up to stop them going outside.

Cangnan County Social Welfare Institute houses 21 orphans, 19 of them were born with defects. The average age is 9-years old.

“They (the staff) just lack knowledge on child caring,” said Wu. He said there are only four carers taking care of 21 children and most of the workers are over 60. “They’re all retired local housewives.”

Yang Lei, who founded a local day care center in Shanghai, said the “tie up” was widely used in institutes and nursing homes across China and it’s less scary than the general public would imagine.

“Associated institutes should hire professionals to keep track of patients’ medical history before resorting to tying them up, things such as how often do they have epilepsy and the level of schizophrenia should be kept on record,” said Yang. She said the purpose of “tie up” was to prevent children hurting themselves and others.

“Another thing is that around 70 to 80 percent of a welfare institute’s total operating revenue should go to labor costs to make sure it runs properly for this kind of orphanage,” Yang said.

Wu said even if the plan of hiring professional health care staff was put into place, a county-level welfare house could have difficulty attracting qualified staff. Wu also said the welfare house was not going through any financial woes when the “tie up” case happened as “21 children get 180,000 yuan in nursing costs every year from local government apart from the full payment for the workers.” The monthly salary of each worker is 730 yuan.

Tu Xiaoju, a lawyer specializing in legal aid in Beijing’s Changping district, said Cangnan County Social Welfare Institute would not be charged with child abuse as there is no legal provision involving child welfare houses under China’s current legal system.

The welfare house promised to transfer all of its 21 children to another local institute next weekend.”

See the 147 million orphan lie in a comment by Orphan World Relief in the China Daily article. There are not 147 to 210 million children in orphanages.