Berkeley Woman Wins 2011 Purpose Prize For Work With Chinese Orphans

In the mid-'90s, the New York Times was reporting on a human rights crisis in China. Thousands of Chinese orphans were dying each year in the country's state-run orphanages from deliberate starvation, medical malpractice and staff abuse. The brutal treatment was said to include torture and sexual assault, with "the strong possibility" that orphans, especially girls and mentally and physically handicapped children, were being deliberately left to starve. 

Like many Americans, Jenny Bowen was shocked by the pictures of emaciated Chinese orphans and the accusations being made by the Human Rights Watch group. In fact, Bowen was so moved by the situation that a few hours after picking up her morning paper, her and her husband had decided to adopt a Chinese child. 

They traveled to Guangzhou and returned with 20-month-old Maya, who was suffering from the effects of her institutionalization. Maya couldn’t walk, didn’t speak and was withdrawn. But a year later, with lots of TLC from Bowen and her husband, Maya blossomed into a healthy, happy child.

Bowen decided that there had to be more she could do to right the wrongs happening in Chinese orphanages, so she founded Half the Sky — a foundation that offers five programs to train caregivers and provide "family-like" nurturing and support to Chinese orphans. 

The organization headquartered in Berkeley now has around 1,800 employees working in 51 cities across China, and is the first nationally recognized foreign nongovernmental entity to form a partnership with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which oversees the country’s orphanage system.

On Dec. 1, Bowen will be awarded the 2011 Purpose Prize and $100,000 to continue Half the Sky Foundation's work. 

Bowen, who commutes between China and the U.S., says that there is still "a long way to go" toward her goal of reaching all the abandoned children in China, totaling 800,000. So far, Half the Sky has impacted more than 60,000 Chinese children. It has required persistence and patience, Bowen told the Berkeley Daily Planet. But more than anytihng, Half the Sky's success has been driven by passion and love.

“Every single day for the rest of my life I’ll be able to wake up knowing that good is being done for children — that what I’m doing brings out the best in people,” said Bowen, as quoted on the Purpose Prize website.

Read more about Bowen and Half the Sky here.

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