Bricks participated in the recent Beijing Marathon last October 18. Two runners from Bricks, Aidan Duffy and Joseph Loftus ran the full marathon and half marathon respectively to help purchase 60 orthopedic beds for Senior Home in Xintai, Hebei Province. Bricks thanks all the people who have donated for this project.
Here are some pictures from the Beijing Marathon. Unfortunately, Aidan and Joseph are not in it.
Just one day to go till the Beijing Marathon. Two runners have committed to running in behalf of Bricks in this year’s Beijing Marathon: Aidan Duffy and Joseph Loftus (the director of Bricks). Both are running for the benefit of the Xintai Home for the Elderly ( Brick 8 ). We wish them all the best on Sunday.
Yinning Home has been recently hard up for funding but through your generous donations, Bricks t is supporting 9 senior residents this year. The support that Bricks is giving covers the living expenses of the 9 senior residents. Moreover, the home decided to initiate income generating measures like building their own vegetable garden, raising livestock and poultry to minimize the cost of food in the home and to also give the senior residents an important role in the upkeep of the home. They are also trying their luck with local government agencies with the hopes of helping them improve their facilities and operations. A coal mining company has already pledged support for the home during the harsh winter months.
Yinning Home extends is heart felt gratitude to all the people who have donated to Brick 4.
Bricks recently launched its 8th Brick for the Great Wall Appeal. In line with Brick 8, Bricks has decided to help fund raise for this project through the Beijing Marathon this coming October. For more details on the fundraising effort and on Brick 8, click on the relevant picture links below.
6 months ago, Bricks was approached by the Director of Hou Dong Yu Seniors’ Home in Hebei Province asking to help the home improve its indoor plumbing. Through the help of Bricks’ generous donors, each room now has better sanitation facilities.
Bricks will be announcing two new projects this August. One of our projects is Xintai Home for the Elderly which is run by 4 sisters from the Xintai Diocese. There are 60 residents in the home and they badly need proper orthopedic beds. To know more about the project, click on the picture link below.
Hou Dong Yu is in an idyllic setting nest to a reservoir and is unusually mountainous for Hebei Province. The home is an occasions of quiet and rest for the 14 elderly women and men who live there. Built on a philosophy of mutual support and self help, the home offers a protected environment where the residents can continue to follow the rhythms of the farming life with which whey are familiar, but which they are no longer able to follow on their own.
The “Bricks” project was a very simple one, to introduce indoor toilets to the 4 three-bed units which are the norm for the home. In theory a simple idea and much needed, (the alternative is a common toilet outside the main gate with no water,. In practice the project required a complex adjustment to the plumbing in order to keep within regulations and still provide the residents with practical benefits. Building a septic tank was the most difficult aspect of the project. There is no sewage system in the Houdong yu area and disposing of waste so near to a reservoir required a well designed septic tank. The site is on a hill, and placing a tank low enough to allow gravity to take care of the flow meant digging back into the hill side. The result might not look much, since most of it is underground, but ensures that improving the facilities does not impact negatively on the environment.
A second concern was the provision of suitable toilets. The space available in each room was not sufficient, (adding this facility meant the loss of one bed in each room). Giving the residents privacy and ease of access had to contend with cost and space demands in a limited space. In the end each unit is accessible and has supports so that even those with only some mobility can use the toilets without help.
A complexity, which will resolve itself in time, is that the current residents are not used to indoor plumbing and even though it is difficult, many still prefer the outdoor option. A cold winter, and increased familiarity will take care of this problem! However it does point to the challenge which caring for the elderly poses in poor communities. Basic standards are increasing rapidly, and Residential homes must adapt to the changing expectations of society. But if society change rapidly, individual seniors don’t, it takes sensitivity on behalf of the staff to allow current residents to feel at home, in a Home which must adjust to the times. It looks odd to have some of the residents shuffle out to an outdoor lavatory when they have an indoor one available, but this is the anomaly of a rapidly changing society.
Thank you for your kindness in funding this project. The financial report is being translated and will be posted next month.
