HCC advertised the playgroup to adoptive parents in the New England area by sending an e-mail to the Families with Children from China (FCC) list.

The participants are generally female and while most of them are in preschool, first or second grade, some of the children are preadolescents.

Welch, the adoptive parent of a 12-year-old participant, says there is a need for a support group specific to adolescent girls.

“Nobody is taking on this front of the cohort, and [older adopted children] are facing really fundamental issues—issues of identity,” says Welch.

Cooney says HCC is looking into the development of such a network for older children from China.

Since its December founding, HCC’s e-mail list has grown to about 100 people.

HCC is also looking to develop an inter-collegiate relationship with chapters at other schools. Apart from having three other local chapters at high schools in Connecticut—the home state of Dalio—Cooney said a Yale chapter is also in the works.

There is also an interest in starting branches at University of Tennessee and University of Chicago, according to Dalio.

Dalio says this expansion is in line with one of his original goals of establishing China care—teaching Chinese culture to Americans.

“One of my goals is to be that bridge, and to let people on both sides know how amazing the people on the other side are,” says Dalio.

BUILDING THE BRIDGE

Dalio says he first fell in love with Chinese culture in 1995 while spending a year abroad in China.

But it wasn’t until he was looking for an Eagle Scout project at home, that Dalio learned about adoption problems surrounding Chinese orphans. Dalio eventually founded China Care in the summer of 2000.

When starting his organization, Dalio says he received support from his father, Raymond, a Harvard Business School graduate, and Gu Zeqing, now director of China Care.

Madam Gu, as Dalio calls her, helped Dalio set up the Chinese side of the organization, introducing him to the China Charity Federation, orphanages in Tianjin and Shanxi and children’s hospitals in Beijing.