All Family Here

A warm-hearted Frenchman pushes to help Chinese orphans find their way in the world, Mike Peters reports.

'Faguo Baba Faguo Baba Faguo Baba!"

There is a buzz of energy this morning at Bethel China Foundation's orphanage facility in Beijing's southeast suburbs. Guillaume Gauvain, the 34-year-old founder of the non-profit agency, has just come through the front door, and news of the arrival of "French Father" is rippling amid the grade-school age students milling between classes.

The telegraph-style murmurs offer information and confirmation; most of the kids scooting along the hallway can't see Faguo Baba.

They never have, and they never will. And the smiles and giggles that follow him as he strides to his office suggest that's not really important.

If everything you know about orphanages comes from reading Charles Dickens, Bethel can be a slight shock.

"People come expecting a situation that's sad, poor, dirty," Gauvain says, grinning. "Instead it's bubbling, full of life. We have rock-climbing, busy playgrounds, children speaking English, French and Chinese.

"That is our success: happy kids."