The Beijinger 2011 Charity Super Quiz Grand Total

We're delighted to belatedly tell you what your great efforts at The Beijinger 2011 Charity Super Quiz raised. The grand total was a whopping RMB 28,042. Well done to everyone involved. We'd like to thank everyone who came out and attended the event. We'd like to thank the quizmasters (and Tuba John) for helping and Chocolate for hosting. Most of all, though, we'd like to thank the Holt Ping An Medical Foster Home for the good work they are doing with the money that you all raised.

The Holt Ping An Medical Foster Home, which provides care for orphans with disabilities, as been newly rechristened to signal its joint venture with the Holt International Adoption Agency. Since 2003, Ping An has helped raise money for orphans with congenital heart problems, facial deformities, etc. Due to the higher success rates of surgery for cleft lip and cleft palate problems, those are the more common treatments that Ping An deals with. Beyond improving the children's quality of life, the ultimate purpose of these surgeries is to improve their chances of adoption.

We recently visited Ping An at their base in an apartment in the south of Beijing. Their staff of six live-in ayis ensure round-the-clock care for a maximum of seven kids at any one time. At the time of our visit, there was only one kid staying at Ping An. Wan Le Guo, an 8-month-old girl from Jiangxi province, had just had surgery to correct a cleft palate but was recovering well. Before the operation, she was unable to make sounds. After the procedure, she called one of the staff "mama."

The RMB 28,042 raised by The Beijinger Charity Super Quiz will go towards paying for future treatments. To give you a clue as to how the organization will use the funds: cleft lip surgery costs RMB 10,000 and a cleft palate operation costs RMB 9,000-10,000 (many kids need both cleft lip and cleft palate operations). Heart surgeries often cost over RMB 20,000. Ping An promises to keep us posted on who the money has helped.

Right, give yourself a pat on the back and then get on with the serious business of cramming for the 2012 Charity Super Quiz. To prepare yourself properly, we advise that you acquaint yourself with the quizzing styles of this year's participating quizmasters (listed below). And of course, we'd like to thank them all individually: Karl from Paddy O’Shea’s, Jim and Anthony from The Kro’s Nest, Tom from the Black Sun, Josh from Lush, Pat from the Green Cap, Liz at The Stumble Inn, Graham of the Irish Volunteer, Julian from Tim’s Texas Bar-B-Q, Alex from The Brick, and Jonny from The Bookworm.

Monday
The Bookworm

Tuesday
Tim's Texas BBQ
The Black Sun
The Stumble Inn
The Irish Volunteer

Wednesday
The Brick
Paddy O'Shea's
Lush

Thursday
Kro's Nest
The Green Cap

Photo: Judy Zhou