World Association for Children and Parents Receives a $2.9 Million Grant for China Projects from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

SEATTLE -- The World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP) announced today a $2.9 million five-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. WACAP, a Seattle-based international and domestic adoption and child assistance agency with 24 years of experience world-wide, will use the grant to develop and maintain children's medical intervention and rehabilitation work in the province of Henan, China.

"Children too often face life without access to basic health services. WACAP has been a shining light in the lives of thousands of children with special needs. We are pleased to support WACAP's efforts to provide all children with a happy, healthy childhood," said Bill Gates Sr., co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The grant will fund the continuance of the medical intervention project at the Luoyang Child Welfare Institute and replicate its model of medical intervention and educational services at two other child welfare institutes in the Northern Chinese province.
"The generosity of Bill and Melinda Gates changes the scope and future of WACAP's child assistance work as of today," said WACAP Director Janice Neilson.

The grant's first three years of funding will develop two projects in cooperation with the Henan provincial government. One is the redevelopment and updating of the Kaifeng Rehabilitation Center for Handicapped Children at the Kaifeng Social Welfare Institute, serving cerebral palsy victims and others. The other is the creation of an additional site at the Anyang Child Welfare Institute. Together with Luoyang's outreach and rehabilitation efforts to children in the wider community beyond its doors, these three institutions will form a hub of service, which will include surgical and medical intervention, pediatric rehabilitation, and special education for those children who otherwise would not have access to these services.

Years four and five of the grant will maintain these projects and develop medical imaging for consultation and service delivery between medical facilities in the Northwest and our partners in Henan, China.

WACAP's work world-wide includes child assistance and adoption from China, India, Korea, Romania, Russia, Thailand, Colombia, the Philippines and the United States. Over the past 24 years, WACAP has united over 7,000 children with loving adoptive families. An additional 100,000 children have been provided with nutritional, educational and medical support through WACAP child assistance outreach.

For more about the World Association for Children and Parents visit them on the web.