Dimensions
163 x 234 x 30mm
In the fall of 1998, Jenny Bowen hardly fit the profile of the starry-eyed, 20-something social entrepreneur: she was well into her 50's, married with two grown children, and established in her film career. But even though her life felt firmly rooted, this was also the year that she was seized with a humanitarian calling that completely changed the world as she knew it. Two years after reading an article about the thousands of neglected girls suffering in Chinese orphanages, Jenny and her husband adopted a little girl from China and brought her home to Los Angeles, not out of a need to build a family but rather out of a need to save a life. After watching her adopted daughter play in the grass with her friends one lazy afternoon, thriving in an environment where she knew she was loved, Jenny was overcome with a desire to help all of the girls that she could not bring home. It was this desire that served as the catalyst to start the powerful, life-changing Half the Sky Foundation, an organization committed to transforming social welfare in China, one orphanage at a time.
In WISH YOU HAPPY FOREVER, Jenny Bowen delves into the challenges that come with launching an international organization off the ground, from external bureaucracy to internal disagreements amongst various board members with clashing visions. She writes about how persistence is needed when the going gets tough. And she shares the moments of triumph after long periods of struggle: in 2006, through the Blue Sky plan, the Chinese government invested $300 million to build 300 model orphanages. And in 2011, Half the Sky implemented The Rainbow Program, a groundbreaking initiative to reach every orphaned child by training caregivers all over the country.
Currently, Jenny Bowen is the only Westerner working with the Chinese government on social reform in orphanages, and we, as readers, get to follow her into the closed off board rooms where impactful decisions are made. Thanks to Bowen's relentless perseverance and unwavering commitment to this cause, Half the Sky's goal to bring caring adults into the lives of each of China's orphaned children comes ever closer.
