Yifan's visiting Boston Children's Hospital      (3/2010) 3/13/2010 Update Dear HMS-CSSA members, Here is an update about Yifan, a Chinese girl coming to Boston for critical medical treatment (http://help-yifan.org). Yifan and her mother are expected to arrive Boston on March 17 Wednesday night. YAN Zhipeng, a volunteer from our HMS community, will provide temporary housing for Yifan and her mother. A number of other local organizations and individuals have also volunteered to help from different aspects. The primary communication channel among volunteers in pan-Boston area will be through "Help Yifan Volunteer" Google group mailing list (http://groups.google.com/group/help-yifan-volunteer). After coordinating with other volunteer groups, the primary responsibility of our HMS-CSSA is to provide English-Chinese translational assistance and medical consultation for Yifan and her family. Occasionally, brief babysitting (e.g. a few hours) may be needed when her mother can not be with her. Yifan's initial medical evaluation will start immediately after their arrival (presumably March 18 or 19) and is expected to last for about one week. More medical treatment will follow, pending on the results of initial evaluation. Therefore, we are calling for your assistance and involvement. If you are willing to be a volunteer to help this little girl, please send your name, email, and phone number to cssa@hms-cssa.org. In the subject line, please write "help Yifan volunteer" and specify the type of assistance you would like to participate, e.g. translation, medical consultation, babysitting. After we receive your email, we will inform you how to sign up for specific date/hours when you will be available. Currently, we are looking for translation volunteers who can help Yifan and her mother from March 18/19 to March 19 during their initial visit to Children's Hospital. If you could communicate with your doctor, you will be able to help them as well. With the input from members of our Chinese community at Harvard Medical School and affiliated hospitals, we believe that Yifan and her family will not feel that they are left alone. We are with them. Thank you. HMS-CSSA ================================ Dear members of HMS CSSA, You may already hear the story about a 4-year old girl called Yi-Fan Pan, who currently lives Beijing and has some very serious pulmonary medical conditions (http://www.help-yifan.org). With extensive helps from peoples around the world, Yi-Fan and her mother will come to Children's Hospital Boston for medical treatments in the coming weeks. Some of you have already contacted HMS CSSA about possible ways that you may help. Currently, we are working with other groups at Boston area to find the best way to provide help to Yi-Fan and her family. Please make sure that you have signed up on our mailing list at www.hms-cssa.org so that you won't miss any important update. As Yi-Fan and her mother's travel plan has not been finalized, we could not provide a detailed schedule calling for help with specific time and job description. Upon our discussion with other groups in Boston, it appears that one of the most effective ways for us to help will include translation service, especially during the hospital visit. If Yi-Fan and her mother will live close to Children's Hospital, temporary daycare from our community (e.g. a few hours) may be needed occasionally when Yi-Fan will be at home alone. In addition, a Facebook group has been set up for helping Yi-Fan, which you can find and join in the link below. http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=641274498&k=42D55ZSR4T6G6BD1YEZUU3U2S6BAYU6CQVIS&oid=353226774786 Please let me know should you have any questions. At HMS CSSA, we are looking forward to working with you to help Yi-Fan and her family in the coming days. Best regards, HMS CSSA ------------------------ Qingsong liu, Ph.D