Moving to mainland China to serve the needy

Mr Chris Yeung Wai-kei and his wife Lydia Mak Yin-fung emigrated to the United States in 1998, where they lived a life of stability and comfort. On a journey to mainland China to visit an orphanage in 2005, they felt the yearnings of the abandoned chidren for family and love. Chris resigned from his job thereafter and the couple took their three young children to settle in Nanning City, Guangxi, to embark on humanitarian work in the service of disabled orphans and children with cerebral palsy.

Initially, the couple worked full time at an orphanage in Guangxi, where they not only looked after the disabled children but also responsible for staff recruitment and procurement. Their entire family relied on an allowance for livelihood. It was not until 2007, when they received donations of material resources from a jewellery workshop, that they thought about helping the disabled learn a skill to increase their working opportunities and live in dignity. Hence, the “Silver Lining Foundation” and “Silver Lining Workshop” were established.

Giving the chidren a home

Chris and Lydia realized that young orphans yearned for a home, however, they grew up in a traditional orphanage and were deprived of parental endorsement and encouragement, most of them ended up lacking self-confidence and expectations of the future. In view of this, the couple set up the first “Silver Lining Caring Center” orphanage in an impoverished community on the mainland and arranged for six orphans to live together in a residential unit. “Foster parents” were assigned to take care of their daily needs and arrange children to attend school. The idea was to let them live in a healthy family environment, receive formal education and experience “parental” love and concern. In 2017, the couple also established another Silver Lining’s orphanage in Myanmar, at an area rife with the problems of civil war and illegal drugs, to become the country’s first orphanage to provide orphans with foster parents and a family-like environment.

In 2009, the couple founded “Silver Lining Rehabilitation Special Education Center” in Nanning – the only free-of-charge rehabilitation centre for impoverished children with cerebral palsy of Guangxi – to ensure they would not miss the “golden hour” for treatment due to the high medical expenses involved.