China Philanthropy

Links that Make you Go Hmm for the Week Ending March 9

2012-03-10T08:39:21+08:00

In honor of Women’s Day on Thursday, a few links on those who hold up half of the sky (and then back to our regularly scheduled programming).

Women in China: Two recent New York Times articles highlighted the progress of women in Chinese society. Since the induction of the Communist party, women have increasingly gained power at home and in the work force. These articles are somewhat pie in the sky, but still show a positive progression. Read them here and here.

Left-behind women: Last year there were 47 million left-behind women in China’s countryside. As their husbands go to cities for work, these women face the burden of carrying for children and the elderly alone, while also maintaining farms and homes. This China Daily article tells the story of one woman who is struggling to keep everything together.

Weibo’s new donation page: China’s microblogging site has set up a charity platform to help nonprofits fundraise. Currently in beta, each organization gets a page with information about their work and a meter showing what percentage of their overall goal has been raised. Donors get do-gooder points next to a heart on their username.

Biking coming full circle in Beijing: An interview with Shannon Bufton, an Australian bicycle enthusiast who promotes cycling in China’s capital. Interesting point, “In the old Beijing, bicycles and tricycles would go around the hutongs and ring a bell and people would know that was the flower-seller or someone was there to sharpen your knife. The idea that all you need is a bicycle or a tricycle and then you can service a population or provide a craft is a very sustainable way of thinking.”

A change of weather: China is planning to expand its cloud seeding to cover a wider area to alleviate natural disasters such as the ongoing drought in Yunnan province. According to the article, about 70 percent of China’s natural disasters are caused by weather. Read more on China’s environmental problems at the Seeing Red in China blog.

The Anti-Domestic Violence Network: An interview with co-founder Feng Yuan

2012-03-01T01:29:07+08:00

Originally from remote Sichuan province, Feng Yuan worked as a journalist for 20 years striving to be a voice for gender equality. In 2000, she cofounded the Anti-Domestic Violence Network (ADVN). With a focus on engaging and educating people across disciplines, ADVN works to change the Chinese public’s view of domestic violence (DV), while advocating for stronger laws to protect victims. Based in Beijing, ADVN’s interdisciplinary platform has been used in 28 provinces.

Q. DV in China seems to be epidemic. How do Chinese view the issue?
A. We did a survey on the prevalence of DV and found about one-third of families experience it. When we say DV it’s not limited to just physical.

One woman who was interviewed explained how her partner abused her physically and mentally. The interviewer asked, ‘Do you think this is DV?’ She said no. This example shows that many people suffer from abuse but they don’t see it as DV because in the traditional Chinese vocabulary there is no such word. The gender system [and DV] is not just based on physical or economic strength. It depends on mentalities, social networks, public opinion, social norms and its structure and policies.

Q. How did ADVN start?
A. In 1998, a group of around 10 women started to discuss how we could address the gender based violence issue in china. At that time we thought DV against women was a good entry point. We started a pilot project on how to build multi-sector partnerships to deal with the issue and how to do capacity building with different professionals like police officers, medical professionals, journalists, lawyers and judges, community workers and mediators.

Q. With what perspective does ADVN come at the issue of DV?
A. We believe we can only deal with this as a power issue. DV is from a disparity of power, an unequal relationship between men and women. With that understanding we can help women and also help the perpetrators to get out of the trap of the old gender issues.

Every person involved in our projects gets gender training. We think that is a better way to ensure that they have the proper attitude to work with this issue.

Q. What legal implications are there for DV in China and how has ADVN advocated for change?
A. In 2001, DV became a concept in marriage law; however, it is very abstract. The government’s handling is much better than before because at least there is a law to prohibit DV, but still progress is behind the demand and the service is far from sufficient.

From 2003 to 2009 we submitted two legislation drafts to deputies of the National People’s Congress to push for a specific law on the prevention and punishment of DV. The abstract principles in the current Marriage Law are not enough to handle the issue properly. In our drafts of the law, we drew a comprehensive structure for the legal responsibilities and mandates for different state departments as well as related organizations.

We also started publishing training manuals on how to deal with this issue for different professions such as judicial mediators, journalists, medical professionals and community workers. For journalists we created guidelines on how to cover the DV and other gender violence issues—how to not hurt the victim a second time, how to deal with the privacy issue, etc.

Q. What reactions have you had to your training?
A. At the beginning, many people were resistant. They said we were taking it too seriously. After the training many people realized it really is a problem.

Our work has gotten very positive responses and many organizations have invited us to do training, but China is so big—the scale we’ve reached is limited. There are still many people who need training. For example, when Kim Lee (an American woman abused by her Chinese husband that brought China’s DV issues to the national and international media) went to the police, they didn’t know how to deal with the issue properly.

Q. Since ADVN started, have you seen a change in how Chinese view DV?
A. Yes and no. Yes in that DV has become more visible so more people are aware of it, and more women dare to speak out and seek help. Even some school children know about it.

Also my answer is no! In China we have such a big population and many women still cannot get out of the violence cycle because they feel they cannot get help and that they cannot be understood. The fear comes for different reasons—not only the fear of losing face. Some fear they’ll break up their marriage. Some fear what will happen to their children if they speak out or what will happen to relationships with their extended family. Some fear it might result in more severe violence. Also social support and services are lacking. Many police and community workers still treat DV as a private mater, a family issue.

Some women even internalize the gender norms—saying that’s life. Maybe I deserve this treatment.

Q. Are there options for women in abusive situations?
A. On paper there are several hundred shelters for women but very few women go to those so-called shelters because they are run by the government and have very unrealistic criteria. For example, they ask for your ID and employer’s certification. Most women only seek help from friends and relatives; however, that is just temporary. Usually friends and friends don’t want to bear the responsibility for breaking a marriage.

The situation is better for urban women. For rural women there is almost no way out. If a rural woman divorces her husband, she has nowhere to stay because her natural family’s house has probably been given to her brother. They cannot usually stay at their husband’s village. She needs that marriage for shelter.

Q. As DV issues are still very prevalent, how will ADVN move forward?
A. We are continuing to push China to have a more comprehensive DV law to prevent and deal with the issue. We are going to collect cases to advocate for a better understanding of how to implement such laws, how the state can be accountable. We will also continue to do capacity building to better help women survivors, including training for people who help survivors. We want to work more with school administrators, teachers, and service deliverers on how to identify the children who are exposed to DV, how to intervene and how to prevent them from becoming perpetrators and victims.

We also want to continue our work with journalists. We think the media is a very powerful mechanism that can help people or enhance traditional gender stereotypes.

For more information: ADVN’s site, Domestic Abuse Pervasive (Global Post), Call for More Legislation.

Teach for China: Bringing educational equality to rural children

2012-02-07T01:12:13+08:00

China’s rural schools have a severe shortage of teachers, resulting in crowded classrooms, sometimes numbering 80 students. Many rural teachers have only completed high school themselves and native English instructors are rare. While the government has a high commitment to raising the quality of rural education, there is a staggering amount of work to do.

That’s where Teach for China (TFC) sees its value. Now in its third year, TFC is the first alternate sourcing teaching program of its kind in China and follows existing models like Teach for America. Its mission is to eliminate the educational inequality in China by enlisting college graduates from prestigious US and Chinese Universities like Harvard, Yale, Peking and Tsinghua.

TFC sends cross-cultural teams to under-resourced primary and middle schools in Yunnan and Guangdong provinces. This school year the program has over 150 teaching fellows who are working to educate students beyond their ABCs.

Breaking the cycle of complacency
High school and college are too expensive for most rural Chinese families. Many parents (who often have lower education levels) are resigned to the fact that their children will probably follow them by becoming farmers or migrant workers after completing middle school.

According to second year fellow Hao Linshuo, “Students receive no wholehearted confidence from their influencers. Even the local teachers don’t believe the kids can really succeed.”

To combat the complacent attitude, fellows like Linshuo and Jarlene Choy, who teach at the same school in Yunnan, work to engage students, their families and teachers.

Linshuo makes home visits to two-thirds of her students and meets with students one on one.

“Talking to them individually takes a lot of time, but I feel like it is worth it,” she said. “They rarely get special or individual attention.”

Song and dance
Linshuo said her student Fugen was one such child. Unofficially diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, he had almost no friends, rarely spoke and was last in the class. Fugen’s mother had given up hope but she told Linshuo her son did enjoy one thing—dancing.

“I thought it might be a connection point with him,” said Linshuo. “I signed him up for a performance at our school art festival and practiced a dance with him.”

In front of nearly 2000 students and faculty, Fugen performed his dance and won first prize in the dancing category. He later wrote an essay about it, saying that he had never before been so confident and he felt that someone actually cared about him. His grades have since improved and he talks more both inside and outside of the classroom. He is also applying to a high school with an art focus.

Linshuo doesn’t expect to change a child’s entire life, but she says, “I can change a short period of his life, which might bring more to his life later on.”

Creative expansion
For TFC fellows, quelling complacency means broadening students’ existing educational opportunities.

“I feel like there is a lot out there that I want to expose them to so they can have bigger goals beyond just what they can see here,” said Jarlene.

In addition to following the regular curriculum, fellows plan extracurricular activities, use songs to teach and host events. They also encourage other local teachers to incorporate creative activities into their lesson plans.

The art of teaching
Jarlene, a first year fellow, admits that mastering the classroom is a challenge. In her class of 59 she says, “A lot of kids have been passed thru but haven't mastered the foundational skills yet.” Additionally, there is no provision for children with learning disabilities and special needs.

Linshuo and Jarlene say they receive a lot of support from TFC, beginning with an intensive training the summer before classes start. Monthly professional development conferences are held every month to further educate and support fellows.

Fellows are held to a high standard and monitored to ensure they adhere to three core values: improving students’ academic achievement, developing critical thinking skills and building a culture of achievement.

Local teachers also attend trainings to provide insight into the rural Chinese education system. “We’re not only learning from them but the local education administrators are also learning from us,” said Linshuo.

Long-term change
Fellows hope more students can accede to higher levels of education, but realize that often results in a rural brain drain as students choose to move to cities permanently. Linshuo wants to encourage her students otherwise.

“I want to build a sense of giving back so they know they’re not just learning to get a good grade but they’re learning to be able to come back in the future and build their own communities.”

Beyond the classroom, developing dialog between local education leaders and TFC fellows is an important part of the organization’s goal to create lasting change in the education system and in the lives of rural children. And while TFC fellowships are only two years, the organization hopes to build lasting partnerships with schools.

TFC also encourages fellows to continue their development as they move into other sectors, helping them find graduate school and internship opportunities. TFC expects past fellows to continue to be lifelong advocates for educational equality in China across industries.

“Teaching as leadership is the core concept—that you’re not just training the fellows to become excellent teachers, you’re training them to become excellent leaders.” said Linshuo

From the individual child to global partnerships, TFC hopes to build a community that brings the dream of equal education closer to all Chinese children.

For more information read A 5 Minute Guide to Rural Education and watch Linshuo's video on her visit to a student's home (Chinese only).

--Georgia

Happy Year of the Dragon!

2012-01-21T03:13:21+08:00
Social Venture Group

Links that Make you Go Hmm for the Week Ending January 13

2012-01-13T02:00:00+08:00

Civil Society Developments in 2011: A look back at some of the most significant developments in China’s civil society, including the end of the term “civil society”.

“Migrant worker” eliminated from official documents: The use of “migrant worker” or nong ming gong is being removed by many local governments in an effort to reduce discrimination against transient laborers. “New-type contract worker" or xin xing he tong gong ren will replace the term.

Shortage in elderly care workers: People’s Daily reports on China’s severe shortage caretakers as the number of elderly people continues to rise. Young migrant workers, rather new-type contract workers, don’t want the jobs.

Weibo proves good fundraising venue: Giving campaigns on Weibo, China’s Twitter, show that large numbers of people are willing to give donations to grassroots requests. One request for clothing was forwarded over 100,000 times. Strangely some people sent dirty clothes, but it’s a strange world and overall this trend is a positive one.

China’s new poverty line: In December, China raised its rural poverty line to RMB 2300 (360 USD), a 92 percent increase from 2009. The new standard adds 100 million people to the 26.9 million who were already deemed impoverished. President Hu Jintao said, "By 2020, our general target is to ensure the nation's impoverished will no longer need to worry about food and clothing. Their access to compulsory education, basic medical care and housing will also be ensured.” For more info see here, here and here.

Experts call for domestic violence law: Domestic violence remains a serious and seldom addressed issue in China with no concrete laws to protect women against abuse. Xinhua reports that experts are calling for legislation that would change this and bring more awareness to the issue, which affects an estimated 24.7 percent of Chinese women.

China’s paper sector to reduce energy consumption: Around 100 of China’s major paper producers signed a proposal to reduce energy use by 18 percent in the next five years. The China Paper Association says energy and resources have already dropped 18 percent in the past five years.

Gates partners with Chinese government: The Bill Gates & Melinda Gates foundation has formed a new partnership with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology aiming to alleviate poverty and hunger through health and agricultural advancements.

City life difficult for many migrant workers: A survey of 2500 young migrant workers found less than 6 percent were well adapted to city life. Over half of those polled said that city dweller’s most unacceptable behavior was looking down them migrant workers. The survey also found that marriages were strained by financial difficulties. Housing costs and paying for education in cities were the top marriage stressors.