ASIA/CHINA - The story of Paolo Dongdong: from an orphanage of Chinese nuns to the Paris Paralympic Games

Ningjinxian (Agenzia Fides) - From an orphanage of Catholic nuns in the Chinese province of Hebei to the Paris Paralympic Games. This is the surprising story of Dongdong Paolo Camanni, a young Paralympic judo athlete who represents Italy at the Paris 2024 Games.

Sister Wang Qingfen is a nun of the Congregation of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, in the diocese of Zhaoxian (Ningjin), Hebei province, mainland China. Twenty years ago, she and the sisters of the House of Dawn took in their arms a two-year-old boy who suffered from bilateral retinoblastoma (a serious eye disease that occurs in the first years of life) and was abandoned on the street. Twenty years later, the sisters of the House of Dawn have also expressed their best wishes on social media to “their” Dongdong, who was leaving Italy to take part in the Paralympic Games in Paris.

Dongdong is the name that the nuns gave 20 years ago to the child they had rescued. Thanks to them and to the knowledge of an Italian journalist, Dongdong later met his adoptive family in Italy. In this country, he began a journey that led him to become a young Paralympic judo champion, winner of gold medals at the EPYG (European Para Youth Games) and a world bronze medal in 2022 in Baku.

Dongdong is one of more than six hundred abandoned disabled children who found affection, a home and a good life thanks to the vigilant charity of the sisters of the Congregation of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and their work in the field of assistance to the weak and sick. The House of Dawn children's home, run by nuns, was founded by Ramon Wang Chonglin, bishop of the Zhaoxian diocese (Ningjin), in the late 1980s. At that time, disabled children were often found abandoned at railway stations or near hospitals. Bishop Wang bought a house, called the Sisters of St. Teresa and asked them if they would be mothers to these children, helping them to escape their unfortunate condition. Among the 600 children they took in, 40% suffered from polio. With tenacious work, the sisters have helped them to live, to know Jesus, to study, to work, to start a family.

Today, The House of Dawn is divided into three parts: the Care Center (in Biancun village), the Rehabilitation Station (in Gaoyi County) and the Functional Rehabilitation Center (in Ningjin County). For 38 years, the sisters have dedicated their best youth to healing the wounds, both physical and internal, of disabled children and young people. To raise the funds needed to continue their work, the sisters invent original initiatives with great creativity (such as a marathon organized to collect donations).

To journalists who once asked her about her life and the life of the House of Dawn, Sister Wang Qingfen replied: “We feel honored that the Lord has given us this gift, to our Congregation and to each one of us... This place has seen so many miracles happen for the love of the Lord, which have benefited the whole society and so many people of good will.” (NZ) (Agenzia Fides, 4/9/2024)

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