About Us

The initial work done by Bless China International was located in Xishuangbanna, a town located in the southern part of the Yunnan Province. Dr. Rob Cheeley, a medical doctor, began a cooperative effort with the Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Health in 1994 to train village doctors. Two years later, Dr. Lai Yong Tan of Singapore began working with Dr. Cheeley, and a second site in the capital of Yunnan, Kunming, was opened.

Yunnan Province borders Tibet, Burma, Laos and Vietnam. It is nearly entirely mountainous and has more minority peoples than any other province in China. It is also home to about 45 million people. That is more than the population of Canada. Due to the difficulty of the terrain, the history of military situations along the borders, the decreased education levels among the rural and minority peoples, and slower development of these less accessible regions, poverty in Yunnan is more severe than in most parts of China. The need for an aggressive approach to agricultural, educational, medical, rehabilitative, and other types of community development assistance and training is a primary concern. The government is launching many new projects in these and other areas and is welcoming foreign development organizations to join with them to meet the needs.

Bless China International joins with local governmental entities to accomplish its work in the Yunnan Province. Some of these groups are the local universities and high schools, the Bureau of Health, the Department of Leprosy, the Disabled Federation and the AIDS Prevention Bureau.

Today the work has spread out in the Yunnan Province from Kunming and Xishuangbanna to Dali, DeHong, DeQing, HongHe, Wenshan and Yao An. The areas of focus of the work are Agriculture Extension Training, Child Services, English Teacher Training and Short Term work, Community Development, HIV/AIDS prevention work, Leprosy affected programs, Medical and Dental Training, Medical and Dental Care and Micro Enterprises.