Annabelle's Wish ... Providing Love and Basic Necessities for China Orphans

Annabelle's Wish is a non-profit agency that provides love and basic necessities to help the children in orphanages in China. Let me tell you all about this agency, with which I have been doing volunteer work for years.

EXACTLY WHAT DOES ANNABELLE'S WISH DO?

It's been more than TEN years since the Butler family began their work in China toward improving the lives of the many abandoned children in China who live day-to-day in orphanage homes. They are often asked to explain what it is-EXACTLY-that we do at Annabelle's Wish. And in attempting to answer this question, Jeannie Butler, the founder of Annabelle's Wish, must look back at all our accomplishments and start from the very beginning.

How The Orphan Crisis Began... this is Jeannie's story of Annabelle's Wish.

One of the first things I want everyone to understand about the Orphan Crisis in China is HOW and WHY it came about. I want people to understand this for one reason: so often I hear remarks that the Chinese people are "cruel" and "inhumane," and these are simply not things which I have found.

First, one must realize that China has an enormous land mass, is a Communist country and extreme poverty is the norm there rather than the exception. Next, one must take into account the GOVERNMENT MANDATE of "One Child ONLY." What this means is that a couple may have ONLY one child. Period. Third is a fact that many people don't know: China has no Social Security program for retirement. Boiled down, this simply means that a male child is expected to care for his parents in their old age. If a couple has no male child, they have little hope of being cared for in their old age, as daughters are expected to leave their families to be with their husband's family. In essence, then, having a healthy male child is in and of itself a sort of "retirement plan." Which is how the crisis began.