Chao Foundation partners with China Cal to run two programs in Yunnan Province, China focused on treating congenital heart disease.
1) The Yunnan Province Newborn Training Program
This program, initiated in 2012, has a goal of training every obstetrician and obstetrical nurse in all 125 Yunnan county hospitals how to properly examine newborns’ hearts to detect early congenital heart disease, especially critical congenital heart disease of the newborn (CCHD). To train one doctor or nurse costs about $25.
| a. Dr. Li Ya Ni, a cardiology resident at Kunming Medical University, trains rural OB doctors and nurses the proper technique for examining hearts of newborns. |  |
 | b. Ms. Guo Fang Qi is a PhD graduate student in public health at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Ms. Guo is from Harbin, a city in the northeast part of China. She trains OB doctors and nurses how to properly use pulse oximetry to test for abnormal oxygen saturation in newborns. She is also making the evaluation of the training program the subject of her PhD thesis at UCI. |
| c. Ms. Zhang Rui is a native of Dali, China with a college degree in economics. She assists in teaching nurses and doctors and answering their questions. She also arranges logistics of travel and financial issues regarding the program. |  |
The 2015 Yunnan county map below shows where we have completed our training of doctors and nurses on proper newborn cardiac examination, pulse oximetry, and stethoscope auscultation.
You are our partners. We ask you to dig deep into your hearts to help us with the grey colored counties we plan to train next year. Together we can accomplish this urgent mission.
2) Grants for Kids Program
This program provides diagnosis, surgical referrals and financial support for poor Yunnan children who suffer from congenital heart disease. Since we receive matching funds from other foundations, curing one child with heart disease costs donors only about $500.
| a. Chen Shan Shan is from Beijing, China. She is one of the founders of China Cal and now works as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). She is also co-director of the Pediatric Training Program and the director of the Grants for Kids Program. She has been elected to become the next general director (CEO) of China Cal. As director of Grants for Kids, Shan Shan organizes referrals and introduces families to hospitals and surgeons. She also organizes financial support from various foundations in China, Hong Kong and the United States. In 2013, she successfully organized such help for 185 children. |  |
 | b. PC Chow MD is a pediatric cardiologist from Hong Kong Queen Mary Hospital. He works full time at that hospital but has spent all of his vacation time for the past four years volunteering his talent and energy to the children of China Cal. Dr. Chow helps examine and diagnose hundreds of China Cal kids every year. |
Volunteer Opportunities
As fortunate as we are to have the above persons, we cannot do it without additional help. Please take some time to read about ways you can get directly involved as a volunteer as soon as this December!
We are soliciting three types of volunteer assistance:
- We need cardiologists, pediatricians, and nurses, and ultrasound technologists as short-term volunteers. Working knowledge of Mandarin is a plus. We need at least three weeks of your time during the period between December 8 and December 30, 2015 or next summer. We will pay all your living expenses while you are in China, but you will have to support your own round trip airfare to Dali, China.
- We need long-term volunteers (at least three months) who are fluent in Mandarin and who have some health care experience between September 1, 2015 and December 30, 2015 or between April 1, 2016 and October 30, 2016 (or longer). We will support your expenses in China and will reimburse your airfare at the end of your stay with us. You will work as trainers in our Pediatric Training Program.
- We need student externs. We accept college graduates, undergraduates, and even senior high school students to work and study with us. We have externship opportunities between December 8, 2015 and December 30, 2015 and next summer. You will work in both our Pediatric Training Program and our Grants for Kids program. You must speak advanced Chinese and have an interest in a health related field (medicine, nursing, etc.). You will be requested to pay a donation fee of $2500, part of which will cover your living expenses and part of which will be a tax exempt donation which covers the cost of your medical and nursing faculty who will be your mentors during this program. See www.chinacal.org for more details.
