INTERNATIONAL Orphan Aid Ireland, the group set up last month in response to the Return to the Dying Rooms television documentary, has been invited by the Chinese ambassador to visit orphanages in China.
Ms Fan Huijan made the invitation during an introductory meeting this week with the organisation's directors, Ms Sally Keaveney and Ms Karen Murphy.
Ms Keaveney said they express their concerns about the conditions in some of the country's orphanages shown in the Channel 4 documentary which will be broadcast on RTE tonight.
She said Ms Fan thanked Irish people for their concerns about the abandoned children.
"She gave us an invitation to come and visit any orphanages that we wanted to in China and told us who to contact about visas," said Ms Keaveney.
"Ms Fan said that what we saw on the documentary were isolated incidents in a country with 40,000 orphanages and she stressed that it wasn't government policy in China for people to abandon their children."
Ms Keaveney's group has so far been pledged around £100,000 for its Friends of Chinese Orphans project which will fund care units for abandoned new born babies and toddlers.
It hopes eventually to get an adoption agreement between Ireland and China and to help Irish couples deal with the Chinese adoption authorities in Beijing.
"We have created good relations with the ambassador and we've opened the lines of communication and we will keep them open. Hopefully we will be able to get in there soon and help these children," said Ms Keaveney.
International Orphan Aid Ireland's telephone lines will be open tonight from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. for anyone who wants to pledge money. The phone number is (01) 278 1234.