History of New Hope Foundation

Dr Joyce Hill, a family medical practitioner and her husband, Robin, have a desire to help the local Chinese Children’s Welfare Institutes in the work that they do, caring for abandoned babies. The Hills do this by providing personal care and seeking medical treatment for sick babies and those with surgically correctable deformities.

The Hills are Christians and believe that these babies are very special to God.

Their financial support comes from donations from their friends and from their own funds.

The Hills came to China with their two youngest (of seven) children in 1994.

They also adopted a special-needs little girl (pictured), now called Kaitlyn Jayne, born in Tianjin in August 1999.

Robin, a British citizen, worked for a Swedish engineering company as one of their senior managers. Joyce, an Australian citizen, worked with the International SOS medical clinic as a family doctor.

After being in China for four years, Robin resigned from his company after 20 years of service to help his wife set up the foster home.

With permission from the Beijing Children’s Welfare Institute, they began taking children into their home in February 2000 in a small village south-east of Beijing.

In November 2002 the Hills started work on their new New Hope Foundation in Bei Wu, in the Shun Yi district of Beijing. This new home cared for 26 babies at that time.

This was done under the New Hope Foundation Limited which is a registered charity in Hong Kong, which is wholly owned by Robin and Joyce Hill.

In February 2003 the New Hope Foundation Limited began to support Sai Qi Foster Home run by Ms Xu, by raising funds and arranging for medical care for their children. This was handed over to Harvard China Care after approximately 18 months.

In 2004 the Outreach Foster Program was started in conjunction with Love Without Boundaries, this program places babies in local Chinese family homes.

In January 2005 New Hope Foundation Limited opened the Jiaozuo Special Care Unit in Henan Province. This unit was set up to care for up to 12 babies that are severely disabled and are expected to die. The goal is to “To comfort always, to relieve often, and to save sometimes.”

In September 2006 New Hope Foundation Limited opened their second Special Care Unit in Luoyang. This unit was setup to care for up to 45 babies that severely disabled and are expected to die. Again the goal is to “To comfort always, to relieve often, and to save sometimes.”

In October 2006 in the Shun Yi New Hope Foundation a small 9-bed “step up, step down” unit was opened in in conjunction with Love Without Boundaries. This unit, called the “Heartbridge Unit”, is for physically vulnerable infants waiting for surgery or immediately after surgery. During 2007 this was increased to an 18 bed unit.

The Xinyang Special care unit opened in October 2007. This unit cares for up to 18 babies that are severely disabled many of which are not expected to live. The unit is staffed by New Hope Foundation employees with our own medical staff in charge. The babies that come into the unit are comforted and fed, and if they do not survive they pass away in a loving environment. The babies that survive are cared for in the chronic care areas and receive the very best care and physical therapy we can give them.

During 2008 -2009 with the help of Show Hopewe are working with the Chinese government’s Blue Sky Project to upgrade the Luoyang Children’s Welfare Institute’s facilities. This 6-storey, 5,820-square metre Healing Home will care for over 120 babies in 3 groups: palliative care; long term chronic care; and operable babies. The new Home will also have a small operating theater with 10-15 recovery beds, dentist surgery and training area. Due to open June 2009.