Mildred Dibden - Fanling Babies Home

Fanling Babies Home - Hong Kong Children's Home - Hong Kong Orphanage - Hong Kong Adoptees

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Miss Mildred Dibden was born in 1905 into a large Edwardian family, but due to a family disaster, was brought up by a family friend.

She came to a personal faith in God in her early twenties. Despite her artistic talent and desire to be an art teacher, Miss Dibden laid aside those ambitions instead for a life dedicated to serving God and helping the poor and destitute. Thus, she applied to the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society and spent two years in missionary training.

In 1931, the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society sent her to Hong Kong where she contracted severe malaria and was obliged to return home. She almost didn't survive. The disease always haunted her.

Although her first time in Hong Kong was cut short, Mildred Dibden was struck by the plight of hundreds of babies abandoned through poverty and superstition. She knew then that her real mission in life was to return to Hong Kong to care for those abandoned babies.

Through the encouragement and initial financial support of Dr. and Mrs. Clift, who operated a medical mission in Kowloon, Miss Dibden returned to Hong Kong in 1936 to take in and provide a home for abandoned babies. Various residences served as housing for her growing flock of babies from Nathan Road to Cheung Chau.

On November 11, 1936, she established Fanling Babies' Home. Miss Dibden had no organisation behind her and no fixed income. Supported by giving from Hong Kong and abroad, she relied on "the goodness of God and the kindness of men."

For four years during WWII when Japan invaded Hong Kong, Mildred Dibden and her helpers suffered violence, starvation, dysentery and recurrent malaria. But they refused to abandon the babies.

Eventually, for a number of reasons, Miss Dibden left the Fanling Home and in 1952 founded a second home, Shatin Babies' Home, run on the same principles with the emphasis on family. To the children, she was "Mama."

In the 1960's, Miss Dibden then brought her work in Hong Kong to an end. After some 50 children were adopted into Christian families abroad, Mildred Dibden then returned to England with the remaining charges.

In 1987, Miss Mildred Dibden passed away. While Miss Dibden is gone, she is not forgotten as her compassionate and dedicated work has touched so many.

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M. Dibden's Hibiscus Watercolor

1905 - Mildred Dibden born in England, 1 of 9 children

1929 - Attended BCMS training for two years

1931 - BCMS sent Mildred Dibden to Hong Kong

1936 - Mildred Dibden started Fanling Babies Home

1940 - Babies moved to Fanling estate on Main Street

1952 - Mildred Dibden started Shatin Babies Home

1966 - Dibden & remaining charges moved to England

1975 - Miss Dibden retires to Tunbridge Wells

1984 - Miss Dibden passes away in England