SOS orphan village continues to hemorrhage moms

By Li Zhixin

Beijing SOS Children’s Village put out the word last Monday that it is looking for new moms.

The advertisement, posted on the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau’s homepage, marks the seventh time the village has searched for new workers since opening one year ago.

Village organizers initially planned to recruit 15 moms and six assistants when it opened, but it has yet to retain that many eligible parents.

Moms and assistants who marry or have a child have to terminate immediately their work at the village. Zhuixing/CFP Photo

Moms moving on

Fan Pufang (pseudonym), 34, pledged to bring up a generation of children in the village when she joined the staff, but she will be leaving next month.

She was one of the first moms hired by the village when it opened last July.

Having grown up in a single-parent family, Fan said she knows the important role of a mother in the life of a child. Her own experiences growing up led her to apply enthusiastically to the first recruitment drive.

As a mom, Fan hoped to make a difference in the children’s lives.

Her work in the village was to take care of daily life, develop recipes that met the children’s nutritional requirements, record the cost of each child’s living and educate the children according to their needs.

Her colleagues said Fan loved children very much and was a model of professionalism and responsibility. But as more orphans were sent to the village, her workload was bumped from raising two children to five.

Three months ago was the first time she thought about quitting. As she is still single, her elderly mother has been pushing her to get married. However, SOS prevents its moms from marrying while under contract.

“I don’t want to abandon these children, but I have to look after my mother and consider my own future. I am not that young anymore,” she said. 

These same concerns have driven many of Fan’s colleagues to quit.

Four moms left the village during the last year to marry or capitulate to their family’s demands that they leave the village.

“Each new mom loves her job and intends to stick with it, but it can be hard to resist pressure from parents and relatives who can’t understand why they have to stay single. Their relatives criticize them for having physical or psychological problems,” said Jin Linde, head of the village.

“So we can totally understand our employees. If they choose to leave, we will respect their decision,” he said. “We have grown used to it.”