Fr. Xi’s, Vincentian Home Care project serves as model of care so diverse it covers all areas of rural China, from the dusty plains to the quite mountains and from the bustling cities to the diminishing villages, the project covers an area of some 200 square kilometres of rural China, supporting some 300 elderly who otherwise lack support.
Reviewing its development over the past year, it is clear that expansion isn’t a problem, in fact almost the opposite is true. The challenge is how to slow down or control the rate of expansion in line with developing transportation, devolving management and sustaining financial structures in line with the increasing numbers of home visits.
With more than 300 elderly cared for by project, the organization understands these problems well, and are actively seeking to develop more autonomous management groups within the existing organisation. Already there exist three mostly independent groups formed around the Julu City area, and with a further two gradually developing. This is encouraging for us at BRICKS, as small group autonomy reflects one of our primary goals in working with Vincentian Fraternal Family.
The success of this model and the project’s future trajectory over the coming few years will be visible in the bi-annual conference the organisation holds in Xingtai – brining the projects organisers and volunteers together for a series of talks and discussions on how best to move forward – the next of which should be in the coming few weeks. We’ll keep you up to date on any developments as they happen.
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Tags: Appeal, China
