Areas Where Your Help is Needed - Yes, nothing is too insignificant

1. Financial - Any financial contributions of any amount is welcome. In the short-term, please transfer any donations to your FIA friend's account and they will take out the equivalent RMB. In the long-term, the BICF will provide us with a bank account so stay tuned for more details

2. Teaching - English / computer / music /  Chinese literature teachers are all wanted and needed. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY. Just a love for children.

3. Other Volunteer Work - The school always needs people to help out. You can volunteer a few hours a week to go and help clean the place, play with the kids, assist with other chores, etc. This will take some of the burden off the 4 full time staff there.

4. Committees - There are several areas of volunteering that we are looking for people to join and take ownership of. These are primarily: Food/diet, Education, Fundraising/Publicity and Finance. You can join any of these committees to bring your ideas and expertise to the table. Time commitment may be a meeting once a month or just over email/phone.

5. Prayer - pr-y for the FIA team's wisdom and G-d's direction, people coming to orphanage, raising awareness, hard cash and help with  fund raising projects!

6. Spread the word - Feel free to let your friends/contacts know about this cause if you think they may have an interest in participating in some way.

Rough Cost Estimate for Basic Needs

The school is constantly finding funds to support itself, and depends a lot on the goodwill of people to keep itself operating. A rough estimate for the cost to run the school adequately (with 70 live in students) per month is around RMB 15,000 - this is for basic operating cost ( i.e. food, heat, electricity etc.). This does not include rent (see below).  For more details you can contact Esther Woo.

Approximate exchange rate 1US$ to RMB7.75, 1 pound sterling to RMB15)

Cost Estimate for Other Needs (Not as urgent as the above, but still needed):

Rent for April to June (due end of March) - RMB15,000

Build kitchen - RMB5,000

Coal (3 months supply) - RMB2,200 (the school does not come within the free heating scheme in Beijing city)

New windows - RMB1,400

Water heaters for summer (needed in April - the heater that has just been put in is a combined heating system plus water heater and therefore won't work in summer) - RMB9,000

Washing machine (currently all the kids do their own washing by hand or by a hand operated machine) - cost to be confirmed

There are other things listed by Mr Shi but these are not as urgent as the above

Note for donors: If you would like to donate some money to specific items, feel free to indicate this, and we will direct the funds towards these items ( e.g. basic needs, new windows, etc.). Our finance committee will try their best to accommodate your request and to make the process easy and transparent for you.

Warmest regards,

Operation Heat 'em Up Task Force 

Group Project Managers:  Sam Weatherford/Judy Cheung/Esther Woo

Treasury:  Dagmar Jurick/Esther Woo/Sam Weatherford

Sponsorship/Fundraising: Esther Woo

Press relations: Calvin Tchiang/Judy Cheung

Education: Anita Lai/Sam Weatherford

School Contact/Visitation Contact: Tania Tang

Donor reports/Photographer: Alvin Ma/Dyann Chao