I found a link to a story in the Wall Street Journal this morning that should convince every parent out there that anything is possible for parents with a will and determination to make the world better for their children.

Ma Chen has a daughter with autism. But she doesn’t live in the US, she lives in China. To put this in context, you need to remember two important things:

1. China has severe restrictions on the number of children a couple can have and that sons are valued over daughters

and

2. Chinese culture looks at children with disabilities as a sign that the parents did not lea a virtuous life, leading them to hide away people who had any sort of disability.

Because people are loathe to discuss any sort of problem or disability, there’s not a lot of information readily available for parents of kids with special needs. Ma Chen took her child everywhere to find out what was wrong, and finally got a diagnosis of autism. She searched the internet and found there are two schools for autistic children in all of China.

Let’s do some quick math. The autism spectrum disorder rate in the US is about 1/166. Let’s take a more conservative figure for China, and assume one child in 500 might have an autism spectrum disorder. With 1.3 Billion people in China, (July 2007 estimates) this means there should be 2,643,703 people with autism spectrum disorders in China. And the China Disabled Persons Federation estimates only 104,000 children have autism, so we can add denial to the list of problems Ma Chen faces. And we complain about lack of services in this Country! Two schools to serve 104,000 admitted cases of autism, but a figure that may include as many as 2.6 million people. It’s almost incomprehensible.

Ma Chen, a 35 year old mom, got together with friends and raised $200,000, opened three more schools and hired experts. This also meant she and her husband sold almost everything they owned to make this happen. Tuition is $200 a month, a huge amount when the average income in the area is $2,400 a year. There are low student to teacher ratios required to teach Autistic children, and the kids are making progress.

Ma Chen’s next step is to raise more more money to buy a farm so the children will have a place to work after they leave school. You can only imagine that supported workplace environments and sheltered workshops are something you don’t see every day in China, especially if the Government is loathe to recognize disorders exist. This would not only give the students a place to go, but could help contribute to the finances of the school in turn, making it easier to keep them open. As it is, the schools are losing about $10,000 a year, a huge amount in China.

This story moved me. It’s not unlike Sally Smith starting the Lab School in Washington, DC based on her child’s learning problems, and revolutionizing the instruction of learning disabled children in this Country. Ma Chen faces huge barriers, yet she is doing what she needs to do not only to help her child, but the children of others in similar circumstances. They don’t take no for an answer. They find a way to work things out and make the world different every day. They do what they have to do, and more to make a difference, one small step at a time.

Every time you feel like you are being victimized by the system, or can’t figure out what to do next, think about Ma Chen and the barriers she faces every day. And start to think about ways around the barriers, not how unfair the barriers are. Life can be unfair, but the people who win in the end are the people who don’t let the barriers low them down for long. They do for themselves, rather than waiting for the system to change for them.

As a side note, I am going to approach a friend to see if there’s a way to get a donation to Ma Chen to help in her effort. If you would be interested in helping, even with a small donation of $5, I know we can make a huge difference. Please comment on this post if you would be interested in helping, and I will investigate how we could help Ma Chen with her project.

by Whitney Hoffman

[tags]parents, parenting, kids, children, Autism, China, strategy, strategies, schools, education, risks, courage, possibilities[/tags]
Photo of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, graciously provided by [douglas japonicus], through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved