Love for Orphans in China

In 2003 Amy Eldridge, prompted by her daughter’s curiosity about her birthplace, made the long trek from the US to China to visit the orphanage that had cared for her daughter before Eldridge adopted her. “My life changed forever that day,” says Eldridge. “When you see row after row of metal baby cribs and children who are growing up alone, it changes something inside of you.”


Photos Courtesy | Love Without Boundaries

Upon her arrival, the orphanage staff took Eldridge to the crib of a baby who was breathing with difficulty and blue due to a severe heart defect. “I naively asked when his surgery would be,” says Eldridge. She had not realized that there simply was not funding for such a surgery. The realization that without help, this baby would die, impelled Eldridge to act. “I felt my own heart break in two thinking that any child would die an orphan when there are so many people who would love to get involved,” she says. Determined to save the child, she started an email campaign upon her return to the US. Through family, friends, and others moved by the child’s story, Eldridge was able to raise enough money not only for him, but for four children to have heart surgeries.

Since that first struggling baby in the crib, Eldridge went on to help found Love Without Boundaries, which helps 1,500 young children a year. To Eldridge, now executive director, one particular child born with a cleft lip stands out for his perseverance. This baby, she recalls, was eight months old and weighed only eight pounds. Since children with cleft lip cannot feed on a bottle, they generally have more difficulty surviving without the proper surgery and care. Eldridge was moved by the child’s will to survive. “He really showed me that you can’t give up on a child until they draw their last breath,” she says.

From its beginnings as a simple email campaign for a single child, Love Without Boundaries is a testament to the idea that “no dream is too big.” When the organization realized that Chinese public schools do not admit children with birth defects, it decided to bring school to them. It now operates five orphanage schools in China where children can study for the first time.

Six years after its founding, Love Without Boundaries is a completely volunteer-run organization bringing medical care, foster care, nutrition programs, special assistance, and education to orphaned and impoverished children in China. Through such care, many orphans who previously would have been considered unfit have been adopted. For Love Without Boundaries, there is a way around every obstacle.

Love Without Boundaries