Our History

Our History
 Philip Hayden's love for the people of China was demonstrated in a quote he kept in his dresser drawer, which said,
"The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief."
(T.S. Elliot) In 1991, American teacher Philip Hayden went to China and began volunteering his spare time to help China's orphans. Philip Hayden's love for these orphans had a huge impact on his teammates, Tim and Pam Baker, who joined him in volunteering. The Bakers soon took in their first orphaned baby, Esther, who they later adopted.
While on a trip to northeast China with Tim, Phil died unexpectedly as a result of a rare heart defect. He was only 28 years old. Phil's death and the adoption of Esther had a profound impact on the Bakers. They couldn't help thinking about the orphans who slept to the right and left of Esther who were still in the orphanage. The Bakers knew they could not adopt them all, but they wanted to help them as Phil had. This desire to help led them to establish the foundation in his memory in 1995.
Though PHF's original purpose was to assist local orphanages by donating needed items and helping to arrange surgeries and treatment for at-risk orphans, this limited their effectiveness. In 1999, they moved to a foster home model with the opening of Luke's House, directed by Mike and Elisa Haller. Since then, the primary work of the Philip Hayden Foundation has been the establishment of our children's villages in mainland China where we take in at-risk and special needs orphans. By 2006, Langfang Children's Village has expanded to five homes and a preschool.
In 2002, PHF began searching for land in hopes of opening a new children's village. The vision for this new children's village was to create an all-purpose facility that would have foster homes plus an on-site clinic, school, & recreation building. The land, donated by the government of the Tianjin Economic Development Zone, now holds our Inn of Eight Happinesses, two homes, the clinic, and our main office. Located just ten minutes away from Langfang Children's Village, Shepherd's Field Children's Village welcomed its first children in August 2006 and was at capacity by February 2007. We still need to add three additional homes, a manufacturing building, and a recreational building, but once finished, it will be the largest facility of its type in all of mainland China and home to approximately 125 children. Along with our remaining three homes at Langfang Children's Village, we will have room for more than 225 children.
At the beginning of 2007, we had more than one hundred children. Ninety-five percent of our kids have a physical disability or serious medical condition which often led to their abandonment. Our philosophy is to take in these so-called "broken" children and transform their hopelessness into beautiful stories of redemption and love. In their time with us, we love and care for them, provide them surgeries to correct their medical conditions, and work to find loving families to adopt them. We do this through our four steps to providing hope program.
The primary work of PHF is the establishment of our children's villages in Mainland China, where we take in at-risk and special-needs orphans, love them, provide them surgeries to correct their special needs conditions, and work to find loving families to adopt them. Approximately 95% of the orphans in our care are special needs children, most of whom were abandoned by their parents because they were born "broken". Our philosophy is to take in these so-called "broken" children and transform their hopelessness into beautiful stories of redemption and love. We do this through our four steps to providing hope program.

Step 1: Intervention
Often it is the local orphanages themselves who ask us to intervene and take a child into our care that they are not equipped to handle. Other times, children are left at our gate. Many of these children are in poor conditions when they first come to us, so the hospital is their first stop until their health stabilizes.

Step 2: Foster Care
Once the child comes into our care, our children's villages become the child's new home until they are adopted. The children are loved, cared for and treated like part of a family. Our homes are designed to model a normal family environment as much as possible. Each child grows up in a freestanding home, with a backyard and play equipment. The children are cared for by nannies (ayi) at the ratio of two to three children per nanny. We have full-time doctors and nurses to care for their medical needs, and full-time school to provide for their educational needs.

Step 3: Surgery

Part of the way we help special needs children is by providing them the surgical treatment needed to correct their special needs conditions, transforming them from so-called "broken" children into normal, healthy children. In addition to increased self-esteem, correcting special needs conditions greatly increases the chance that these children will be adopted. Since 1996, we have provided about 2,600 operations to correct special needs conditions for orphans.

Step 4: Adoption
Although PHF is not an adoption agency, we work with many adoption agencies to find homes for our orphans. We have helped over 600 families adopt from China, and have had many of "our children" adopted into families in North America, Europe, New Zealand and China. In addition to working with orphans, we foster good will by encouraging teams from around the world to visit our children's village where they can engage the people and culture of China.