When 9-year-old Chengcheng bid farewell to the Baoji Street Children Relief and Protection Centre in February 2005, his guardians were sure of the parentless boy's readiness to face a new life.

　　Nobody knew for certain where Chengcheng was from or who his parents were.

　　He was found on a street corner in Baoji in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province in early 2001, and was sent to the newly established centre, co-sponsored by the Baoji Civil Affairs Bureau and the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). MSF is an international non-governmental organization committed to humanitarian emergency relief efforts.

　　"I was reluctant to let him go, but we have to find a proper arrangement for the boy," says Lu Xiaohua, a special educator at the centre. "He was homeless. And, our centre can only serve as a temporary harbour for children."

　　In fact, says Lu, the Baoji centre is designed to prepare street kids for challenges in life rather than finding them a home. That's why the staff had no doubt that Chengcheng, after four years at the centre, would be able to adapt to a new setting.

　　Therapeutic community

　　Chengcheng is one of 350-plus children who have been sheltered at the Baoji centre since its launch in 2001. MSF chose Baoji, a three-hour drive to the west of Xi'an, Shaanxi's capital, to base its first facility for street children because the railway hub in Northwest China seemed to be a "resort" for waifs in the region.

　　Some 56.7 per cent of the kids received by the centre are from neighbouring Gansu and Shanxi provinces and the Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions, some having travelled thousands of miles before arriving at the site.

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