Contrasting views of Ray Wigdal, the foster father of an eight-year-old girl who died Sunday night and ten other children who are now in protective custody, have emerged, as his whereabouts remain unknown.
Early Chinese media reports on the situation indicated that Wigdal, a US citizen, may have been in China for as long as 30 years and speaks fluent Mandarin. One of the volunteers who assisted with caring for the 11 children whom he had adopted described him as being "nearly 60."
Wigdal has little apparent social media activity online, but his Facebook page identifies him as having "Worked at God," implying a religious calling, and having attended Cedarville University in Ohio, which describes itself as "an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist university." Several online church circulars refer to blessings to be sent to Wigdal, who was identified as a missionary in China.
Inquiries by the Beijinger indicate that Wigdal is a familiar face around Beijing's expat communities centered in Lido and Shunyi, as he and the children spent much of their time in public places such as Pinnacle Plaza and the Lido Hotel. Residents of the downtown Qijayuan Diplomatic Compound say they were frequent visitors to the playgrounds and fields there as well.
Although few report a close relationship with the man, many have had casual encounters with him and the children. Reports have him alternately doting and harsh, while the kids are described in far-ranging terms from happy and playful to hungry and unkempt.
This much appears clear: Widgal for the past 10 years has been providing foster care to an increasingly large number of children, moving frequently and often staying in two-bedroom accommodations in Beijing.
Wigdal appears to have spent most of his time taking care of the children and did not have a regular job – news reports indicate that he relied on donations and charity to pay life expenses and corrective surgeries for the children. A number of Chinese and expatriate volunteers assisted him with their care.
One comment left on an earlier report in this story presented a picture of a caring father. "I met [Wigdal] a few years ago in Christmas Day at the Old Goose and Duck with all 13 of his foster kids. He brought them there for a Turkey Dinner and the guy did not consume any alcohol. He doted on the kids and taught them how to play Foosball, Shuffleboard, shoot pool and throw darts," said thebeijinger.com commenter.
"From my recollection, he clearly cared for those kids. It's inconceivable to me that he abused those kids in any way unless he lost his mind or something," the commenter added. "Ray was devoted to those kids."
However, many witnesses contacted by the Beijinger indicated that Wigdal was short-tempered with the children in public.
"I remember he was short with them, but man, a dozen kids – who wouldn't be short?" said on expat parent. "I got the impression that his heart was in the right place but like many priests or nuns I've known, not the most patient ... [What Widgal] was doing was tough work and not glamorous or fun at all."
Another source added that the kids would often turn up at Jenny’s supermarket in Shunyi to ask for expired bread. “A few times when they had sold out all the bread, Ray got really mad and started yelling at the staff demanding they gave the children bread or something else,” said the source.
Widgal's almost entirely text-free website rayschildren.org displays 10 years of images and portrays a father carring for his infant foster children. Group shots are numerous and the kids' lives appear to be filled with trips to the Great Wall and other tourist attractions, as well as playing in familiar Beijing locations such as Pinnacle Plaza, the Lido, ISB and Qiajiayuan.
From the pictures one can see that birthdays were celebrated regularly with cakes and gifts and the children are pictured smiling and doing typical child activities like riding bikes and doing homework. At other times they are taking baths and undergoing medical checkups.
Many of the pictures show the children’s pre-surgical cleft palates and post-surgical care and feeding; Wigdal is often bedside at the hospital, bottle feeding the children, hugging or kissing them.
Numerous people who saw Wigdal and the children at the Pinnacle Plaza Starbucks reported that the kids looked well. "[They] didn't look abused/malnourished/unkempt. Always doing homework etc. in Starbucks," one of several Twitter posts read.
However, others say the children were frequently begging and seemed to cower in the face of their guardian.
One person who claims to have seen the children at Pinnacle Plaza nearly every day says the kids’ situation had worsened over the past year.
The last the witness saw them, in September, she asked the children where Widgal was. “They were terrified to speak; and the older boy kept telling them in Mandarin to stop answering my questions and was clearly nervous.”
The source said that many in the community shared similar concerns about the children, as they were seen asking for food or money around Pinnacle Plaza. Several of the kids inexplicably claimed to be students at a nearby international school, which the source could verify was not true (previous news reports indicate the students were all home schooled and had received no formal education beyond that).
Some who have had encounters with the children suspect that Wigdal had ceased to be able to offer adequate care to the children as his flock of foster children grew beyond his means.
“This is probably a ‘good guy gone bad; something happened along the way," says one witness. "Deep inside I hoped he was just a nice guy looking after 10 children out of love and compassion." However, seeing the condition of the children was enough to compell her to contact authorities about the case.
Some or all of the 11 children were brought to Wigdal over the years from origins unknown. Media reports quoting volunteers said the children had all been abandoned at birth, presumably due to birth defects.
It remains unclear whether Wigdal legally adopted any of the children. Earlier news reports say an Chinese elderly volunteer, identified as "Granny Guo," 76, helped Wigdal take care of his foster kids and had told reporters that she was unaware of Wigdal processing any proper paperwork to formally foster or adopt the children.
Another report added that since most of the children Wigdal had been caring for were abandoned, they lacked any legal Chinese documents such as birth certificates or IDs that would be necessary for proper registration. Without this paperwork, adoption of the children by a foreigner through legal channels would prove even more difficult than the already rigorous procedure.
Authorities now caring for the children are attempting to establish their identities via DNA testing.
In the meantime, the whereabouts of Wigdal remain unclear. He did not visit Phoebe in the hospital during her stay from late November until her death over the weekend, though volunteers say he had sent money to the hospital to help pay for her care, and other Chinese reports say that the he has been in touch with the police and with volunteers that helped him care for the children.
The Beijinger is following up on several leads in the hope of hearing from Wigdal to get his side of the story; if anyone has contact with him please have him contact us at info@thebeijinger.com. All correspondence will be kept confidental.
Images: Rayschildren.org
TBJ, any updates on what's happening with the children involved in this case? Any news about whether Phoebe's body has been released from the hospital?
The kids are still in the place they were brought to, and as of Sunday Phoebe's body has not been released from the hospital.
We will have a fairly big update coming later today on both the kids and Widgal
But speaking of the child welfare system as one big blob is as absurd as any "all Chinese people..." statements, heh.
Very, very true. It's very difficult to speak of generalities in a country with such vast variety. Same as the "all you foreigners..." statements that can be so very amusing. Or not.
I do wish there was research available to see the state of the welfare system here. I know, though, that such information would never be made available to outsiders. This is definitely seen as a "one does not air one's dirty laundry in public" issue.
Wow, very glad to check back and see that my comment is not drowned in a sea of vitriol. Thanks for the reasonable responses. If TBJ gets in touch with me I'm sure I can provide more information about Chinese welfare as a whole. But I think this site may not be geared to such content. I am not sure.
Yes, glad it's been possible to hold a reasonable discussion here! I do know that I'm in no position to speak about this, other than to share the bit of I've heard from friends who used to be involved with orphanages and adoption agencies years ago. Yeah, this site may not be the right medium for a discussion of this topic, but at least the comments here have given me more insight into this area than I had 24 hours ago.
And honestly the welfare institutions I see these days provide later-life care (life skills training, job placement)...
This I find fascinating... In my field (China's public education), there's been a big push in recent years to improve the opportunities for vocational/technical education. I'd be curious to find out how that push in the public education sector has intersected with the child welfare sector, helping orphans who've grown up in the welfare system to make a life for themselves as adults. Do you have any more info about welfare institutions providing help to orphans in developing life skills for their future?
... all intakes at a welfare institution need to submit DNA to a national database as of a few years ago. 'Abandonments' that turn out to be stolen children are not all that uncommon. The database itself has yet to be overly successful, especially as trafficked children usually come from rural areas where a DNA bank is not going to exist for a long time if ever.
Again, fascinating; this I did not know. Do you know how widespread the implementation of this national database is, i.e. what percentage of the country's welfare institutions are actively contributing to/making use of it? I know that may be an impossible question to answer; if the database is that new, there may not have been any research carried out yet to determine its effectiveness.
It certainly did not appear that the children were being kept out of the system, and they had little trouble finding adoptive families.
Laoye and qmmayer, have you had much experience visiting state-run orphanages, outside Beijing, in other provinces?
My experience is primarily outside Beijing, across two provinces in south-central China. I've spent a few months here and there in Beijing and other northerly areas, but while the capital is certainly the capital, it is not currently the most groundbreaking in its child welfare approach. There are some areas that are known for corruption, some known for abuse, some known for caring... Reputations are what they are. But speaking of the child welfare system as one big blob is as absurd as any "all Chinese people..." statements, heh.
Wow, very glad to check back and see that my comment is not drowned in a sea of vitriol. Thanks for the reasonable responses. If TBJ gets in touch with me I'm sure I can provide more information about Chinese welfare as a whole. But I think this site may not be geared to such content. I am not sure.
To be clearer - I do not know Ray personally or anyone who works with him. I do know people in very similar situations - foreigners illegally taking in many children. I've seen more than one of those children grow up, ending up in jail or begging. Those cute kids who were once great props for fundraising in the states deserve a lot more... And honestly the welfare institutions I see these days provide later-life care (life skills training, job placement) (eight homes with such programs, in three different provinces, so somewhat wide but not totally representative) that put those well-meaning foreigners to shame...
PS: One little detail for the above article, it says the children are having their identities established via DNA testing. In reality, all intakes at a welfare institution need to submit DNA to a national database as of a few years ago. 'Abandonments' that turn out to be stolen children are not all that uncommon. The database itself has yet to be overly successful, especially as trafficked children usually come from rural areas where a DNA bank is not going to exist for a long time if ever. But sometimes there is a glimmer of hope. Too bad these children did not get submitted a decade ago...
Any TBJ reporters pursuing the story independently? Or mainly relying on the news reports released by state media?
We don't have any "reporters" per se that regularly pursue anything but the latest new restaurant or bar opening... but our editorial staff is keeping tabs both on Chinese news reports as well as following up on leads on our own. I am meeting with a social worker involved in the case this afternoon and working via connections to get an interview with Wigdal himself, if he cares to talk to us, about his side of the story.
My -- admittedly limited -- experience as an adoptive parent matches Laoye's. We adopted a girl with a minor heart defect from a Social Welfare Institute around eight years ago. We have visited the SWI three times in total, and there have always been many children with "special needs," ceft palate being one of the more common. It certainly did not appear that the children were being kept out of the system, and they had little trouble finding adoptive families. Obviously, international adoption has its drawbacks, but it would seem like for the most part adoptees would fare better than these kids, who as noted, don't speak Mandarin fluently, lack proper legal status, and don't appear to be getting formal schooling. This sounds like a misguided effort at charity, but to the detriment of the kids.
here's the latest we have, our report from yesterday that outlines a news report that was broadcast late Tuesday:
http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2014/12/10/ray-speaks-cctv-13-airs-phone-intervew-missing-american-foster-parent
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In other portions of the newscast, reporters talked to experts about what is next for the ten other children, who range in age from several months to 17 years old.
Tong Lihua, Director of Beijing Children’s Legal Aid and Research Center, was quoted as saying: “Generally speaking there are three steps to have the children resettled. The first step is to have them sent to a temporary protection center [where they are now]. However, local children protection centers can only provide temporary shelter.
“The second step is, if we can’t find any of the children’s parents, relatives or legal guardians, the children should be sent to state-sponsored children welfare agencies, In legal terms, the state now takes custody of the children, and this can be a long term settlement.
“The third step is that the children welfare agency will look for adoptive parents for the kids after they are sent there.”
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I have worked for a number of years in the children's welfare sector for the Chinese government, originally in collaboration with a foreign nonprofit and then working directly for the bureau itself.
What Ray did was good, at first. In some ways. But in raising the children outside the system, he guaranteed their later failure in life.
I do think he had good intentions at heart, and I think that very firmly. But he made short-sighted decisions based on what made him look good, or worked for him, rather than what worked for the children. When these kids turn 18, what hope do they have, if they were with Ray the whole time?
I'm glad that someone with knowledge of the welfare system here is finally able to contribute. You're absolutely right--I know China's welfare system only from the outside, based on discussions with friends who used to work in the system years ago and from my own observations working inside China's public education system for the past 16 years.
I do absolutely agree that Ray's choices were shortsighted. I have seen a number of other children--not orphans--raised by their parents outside the system. The parents had the best of intentions, but when their children reached 18, they found that they did not fit anywhere, either in the country they belonged to or in the country whose educational system they were using (the result of many of the many small so-called "international schools" that use curriculum from abroad).
There is a right way to do things. Ray was not doing things the right way. Ignore the tragedy of Phoebe - he was being unfair to these kids, and other people in similar situations are the same.
Beijinger Staff - I'd be perfectly willing to expand this into an editorial, if you so desire. :)
Again, I agree that Ray and the grannies were not acting in the wisest way as far as the long-term welfare of the children. Yes, the children are alive and breathing right now, but the manner of the rescue may result in tremendous struggles for the children once they're grown. I wonder if we can track down any of the children who Ray has cared for who are now grown and on their own. The one time I met him, over ten years ago, he had brought a few of the orphans he'd rescued to a Thanksgiving celebration at a mutual friend's home. I think one of boys was around 9 or 10 years old at the time, if I remember correctly, so he would be in his 20s now. Of course I can't remember his name, so I have no idea how to track him down and see how he's doing.
Lao Ye, I'd love to hear more about this in an expanded editorial, with facts on the current situation of China's welfare system. TBJ, is this possible?
Lao Ye, exactly! finally someone says something smart and that makes sense! These children don't have something as basic as their own language to survive in their own country! he did not think of the long-term consequences, not for himself, not for these children.
One more sad example, I read that Phoebe's body is still in the hospital... Will there even an autopsy? Probably that would answer a lot of questions; such as the cause of her death.
I have worked for a number of years in the children's welfare sector for the Chinese government, originally in collaboration with a foreign nonprofit and then working directly for the bureau itself.
What Ray did was good, at first. In some ways. But in raising the children outside the system, he guaranteed their later failure in life. Raising a child in China who is not equipped to live in China - from not getting their temp hukou, an easy process at any children's welfare institution, to not even teaching them fluent Mandarin. A child with their legal status has no hope of ever being legally adopted or fostered, especially as most of them march down on the 14 year cut-off for international and 16 year cut-off for domestic fostering.
I do think he had good intentions at heart, and I think that very firmly. But he made short-sighted decisions based on what made him look good, or worked for him, rather than what worked for the children. When these kids turn 18, what hope do they have, if they were with Ray the whole time? As illegal, unfostered, invisible children? Intake for children with disabilities, from minor to major, is a simple process and no kids get 'turned away' from the years I have personally seen kids dropped off at the gates to an institution. 'britomart' has a few good points, but they are based on an antiquated understanding of the system, from the outside. As someone 100% speaking from the inside, of modern China's child welfare system, I hope my opinion is at least somewhat more weighty...
The shutting down of private institutions is well-known, but that's not based on 'face', at least not any more. In many places it is based on them simply doing things illegally - much like Ray. Taking in abandonments without registering them, failing to maintain proper safety (see the horrible tragedy outside Xiamen for a perfect example - non-foreigner, still done illegally and resulting in the deaths of children), etc.
I am not an apologist. I've seen good people get removed by the government, I've seen good programs shut down. But I've also seen bad people taken care of and bad programs shut down.
There is a right way to do things. Ray was not doing things the right way. Ignore the tragedy of Phoebe - he was being unfair to these kids, and other people in similar situations are the same.
Beijinger Staff - I'd be perfectly willing to expand this into an editorial, if you so desire. :)
... while the kids are described in far-ranging terms from happy and playful to hungry and unkempt.
This wide-ranging description could apply to any of my nephews or friends' kids, depending on what time of day it is, whether they're in a good mood that day, whether they've eaten lunch yet, etc.
Several of the kids inexplicably claimed to be students at a nearby international school, which the source could verify was not true (previous news reports indicate the students were all home schooled and had received no formal education beyond that).
There are a number of small private so-called "international schools" which will accept children regardless of hukou--some video-based, some with semi-qualified teachers... all serving kids who would "fall through the cracks" otherwise. These orphans that Ray was caring for could have never been accepted into the formal public school system without hukou, not to mention the other barrier to admittance: the very real prejudice in the society here against those with physical defects. Without a mom or dad to fight for them every step of the way, kids like these would never be able to take part in China's formal education system.
Some who have had encounters with the children suspect that Wigdal had ceased to be able to offer adequate care to the children as his flock of foster children grew beyond his means.
Yes, well. How do you say no when a granny brings you yet another abandoned baby? Either baby is welcomed into a home with a less-than-adequate budget, or it's back on the trash heap?
Some or all of the 11 children were brought to Wigdal over the years from origins unknown. Media reports quoting volunteers said the children had all been abandoned at birth, presumably due to birth defects.
I imagine this all started when the gov't here started its push years ago to shut down many of the then-numerous private orphanages, since those private institutions were deemed to be a loss of face for the gov't. According to friends who work in that field, the gov't started moving children with birth defects or illnesses out of the state-run orphanages and into the private ones. Then those children would inevitably die, due to the private places receiving the unexpected overload of children in need of critical care. The statistics of the private orphanages then showed the public that those places were unsafe, unsanitary, and should be shut down. Current state-run orphanages have been known to refuse admittance to children with birth defects, since it would damage their statistics and cause a loss of face for the gov't.
Authorities now caring for the children are attempting to establish their identities via DNA testing.
And once their identities are established, then the parents will, with rejoicing flock, to reclaim their lost little ones.
Oh, wait. This isn't a Disney movie.
This just in: Ray Speaks to CCTV 13
http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2014/12/10/ray-speaks-cctv-13-airs-phone-intervew-missing-american-foster-parent
