25 years. 100 children. One Extraordinary Woman.

In 2000, Kong Anzhi heard from her cousin that OneSky was training and hiring women as professional caregivers for our pilot Orphanage Program in China’s child welfare institutions. What Anzhi didn’t know when she joined OneSky’s team was that her life would become richer than she’d ever imagined.

As Anzhi celebrated her retirement at the end of 2025, she shared a profound sense of joy and pride with her friends and colleagues. “I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have cared for more than 100 amazing young children over the past 25 years. Every day as a “nanny” at the welfare institution was a chance to learn something, whether from OneSky trainers and mentors or, of course, from the children themselves. I know, unequivocally, that our lives are better because we had one another.” 

Today, when people ask her about highlights from her long career, Anzhi laughs and says, “Oh, we need to start from the beginning!” She recalls her first visit to the welfare institution, where she saw a room full of infants and young children who desperately needed care and attention. “It was a moment of deep sadness, but also great hope that maybe I could make a difference. The other OneSky-trained caregivers and I had learned to support infants and young children at each stage of their growth and to connect with them in ways I hadn’t understood before.” 

“As a young parent, I always had the instincts to hold my children when they cried, feed them when they were hungry, and put them to bed when they were tired. But there is so much more.” The comprehensive OneSky training taught her the essential components of responsive care. “Child-centered play, talking and reading to them, and focusing on their unique interests. And consistency, always consistency.”

One child who remains close to her heart is Peng Peng, who was born with a rare type of spina bifuda. As his primary caregiver at the welfare institution, Anzhi was able to travel with him to OneSky’s China Care Home (CCH) in Shanghai, where our CCH caregivers stayed with him for his pre- and post-operative recovery while he received surgery and medical care from a city hospital. 

On his return to the welfare institution, Anzhi supported him to gain strength after his surgery, continuing the physical therapy that had begun at CCH. “Never forgetting that he also needed to play, connect and explore just like all of the children,” she says. “I still remember his laughter.”

As time went on, Peng Peng thrived and fully recovered from his surgery, and at three years old, he was adopted! “We both cried when he left, but seeing him with his new family was one of my proudest moments.”

Last summer, Peng Peng returned to the institution for the first time with his adoptive parents. “When I saw him, I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was so tall, strong and handsome. I still remember, like it was yesterday, the day I took him to Shanghai for his surgery.”

Then, seeing each other after so many years, Anzhi and Peng Peng cried together again, this time with his parents.

As OneSky celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8th, we honor all the women who have stepped up to fill critical, nurturing roles that transform lives and brighten futures…for everyone.

Happy International Women’s Day!