Project HOPE in Beijing

June 3, 2008

The Beijing Children's Hospital is world reknown for its services, from specialties to size. Over 7000 children are seen in its outpatient clinics each day. Its inpatient census of children treated for cancer now numbers 150.

Visiting Gaucher Patients
The little girl, age 7, was a charmer. She had come to the Hospital with her mother for Cerezyme treatment. She has Gaucher's Disease and is now in her fourth year of replacement therapy. She had the biggest brown eyes, not missing a thing, as she described her days at school.

Gaucher's Disease is a metabolic disorder which, if undiscovered and untreated, leads to death. Its patients lack an enzyme, required for normal handling of proteins. Its absence causes massive enlargement of the liver and spleen. Its replacement (intravenous infusion every two weeks) with Cerezyme, a Genzyme product, leads to a normal childhood.

The 13 year old boy came with his dad. He had been under treatment for five years and was doing well. He, and the little girl, are among the 130 children now participating in this Project HOPE/Genzyme program, overseen by a group of worldwide experts in this disease. Through the generosity of Genzyme, the medicine is provided to the patients at no cost. HOPE, in turn, has responsibility for training the physicians who administer it. Children, from throughout China, are alive today, because of this nearly ten-year old partnership between HOPE and Genzyme.

HOPE Service Honored in Beijing
The last of the three (Wuhan, Shanghai and Beijing) recognitions of HOPE's 25 years in China and our 50 years around the world took place at a final banquet. It brought together 90-100 government officials, collaborating foundations, donors and friends. It was characterized as a "working dinner," rather than a celebration, because of its proximity to the May 12th tragedy in Sichuan Province.

It was a gathering of friends. Dr. Wang Longde, the recent Executive Vice Minister of Health, is now a member of the Peoples Congress, Chairman of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, Dean of the Beijing University School of Public Health and a longtime supporter of HOPE; he came from earthquake-related meetings to be with us. Dr. Shen Jie, who previously headed HIV/AIDS programs for the Chinese CDC and is now Party Secretary for the CDC, has been to Carter Hall many times. Eve Wen-Jing Lee is a senior leader with the Ford Foundation. They, and their counterparts from the Beijing area, signalled their support of Project HOPE in ways that bode well for our future in China.