Speaking of their employment situation, there are always loopholes in the system. Though the policy stipulates that at 1.5% of positions in a state-owned company should be given to disabled people, few companies are, if any, willing to take in the mentally disabled. A covert agreement is reached between companies and parents of the mentally disabled that their kids can be registered as an employee but cannot work there. So the parents get a promised welfare for their children while the company gets off a policy burden.

31, Da Shizuo Hutong
Driving along a maze of zigzagging lanes, the 810 Bus led its passengers into Da Shizuo Hutong, a tranquil pathway stitching Beihai Park to the west with Jingshan Park to the east. The Hutong, now a place of interest, was packed with visitors, and brand-new scarlet manpower three-wheeled carts, thanks to the Olympic Games.

Deep into the Hutong sits Beijing Huiling Community Centre for Mentally Disabled (shortly as Beijing Huiling). It was a traditional courtyard with a taste of simplicity and antiquity. A middle-aged man chatting around something was obviously expecting us. Wei Zhang, as he called himself, told us that he was a volunteer at Huiling and that Ms Weina Meng was arriving soon. A couple of minutes later Ms Meng showed up. “I’m not late, am I?” she mocked with a charming beam. One of her disabled friends served us some tea.

Back to 1986 Guangzhou Zhiling Special School, Beijing Huiling’s predecessor, was founded as the first private school of its kind in China. Then in April 2000 Beijing Huiling was officially registered. For the past 22 years, Ms Meng has been struggling to form a correct public understanding of mental disability, and to earn equal chances for this group of people in social life. Job opportunity is such a chance to fight for in the first place.

Quota is Not the Answer to the Question
NPOmedia: As far as you know, how many intellectually disabled people are there in China? And how about their employment situation?

Meng: There are official statistics to track. Even in a most conservative estimate, the mentally disabled people amount to 1% of our population. That is over ten million.

Speaking of their employment situation, there are always loopholes in the system. Though the policy stipulates that at 1.5% of positions in a state-owned company should be given to disabled people, few companies are, if any, willing to take in the mentally disabled. A covert agreement is reached between companies and parents of the mentally disabled that their kids can be registered as an employee but cannot work there. So the parents get a promised welfare for their children while the company gets off a policy burden.

However, this seemingly concord may backfire, which undermines the efforts to encourage the kids back into society.

Change Your Mind before Changing Their Life
NPOmedia: What are the factors that keep down the employment of mentally disabled people?

Meng: The government’s working standard for mentally disabled people is to a large degree flawed. Its definition of employment narrowed down to working in factories looks pale and off the mark given the unique condition of mentally disabled people. With that, the policies tend to channel major resources to NGOs registered under the Ministry of Civil Affairs. However, the overly highlighted focus on hardware condition to gauge an NGO is hampering the effort to boost working rate of the mentally disabled. For NGOs like Huiling, which play a none-the-less significant role in gathering and helping mentally disabled people, government funding is all but an illusion. In this sense, a reshuffle of resource distribution is in demand to balance towards private NGOs.

Another deterrence is the parents’ favour of social welfare but indifference to the kids’ mental demands. Look at the kids in our courtyard. They are happy about what they are doing. They fulfil themselves by doing something, rather than being boxed in an alien world.

The third factor that plays a negative role is their difference from ordinary people and inadequate communication with the public. The consequence is their image broadly held as a group of people highly dependent, unsociable, and incomprehensible. A public image like this is awful enough to freak out any company.

Open Community is the Key
NPOmedia: What is your experience in increasing the employment of mentally disabled people?

Meng: First, we hope the government, the parents and the whole society could have a new look at mentally disabled people, respecting their needs as human existence.

Specifically in practice, Huiling turned to a community model. The courtyard we rent charges high. But considering its facility and functionality, it’s worth the money. The kids learn English, drawing, handicraft, cooking ,performing and any other skill they may pick up. More important than the skill they learn is the pride they take in being themselves.

Location is the priority factor in choosing our workplace. For example, Beijing Huiling and Xi’an Huiling are both located in tourist spot. We choose this courtyard because it provides a platform for the kids to understand Beijing’s food and folk culture, and to serve tourists with what they learn here. Our service such as reception and performance is faring well. We had several groups of visitors just a couple of days ago.

At the close of the interview, Wei Zhang showed us around their painting room, handicraft room and office room. The paintings and handiwork out of the kids’ hands look as pure and simple as their creators. “All the works are for sale. Half of the income will go to our kids as a reward for their hard work,” explained Zhang.

Influence the influential—a media rule that could also govern non-profit industry—entices to media’s appeal while delivering charitable value. With that, media workers echo warmly, empowering the voice of eco-protection.

Massfication and participation—the standard that rules Green Earth Volunteers’s (GEV in short hereinafter) eco-tour—brings joy to its joiners while stirring their nerves to environmental protection.

8:30am, Jul.14, 2002—Qiqi, the only man-raised Yangtze River dolphin worldwide—stopped its breath. Its pass-away broke two little hearts. Hanchen Wang and Niuniu, two GEV kids watching and caring for Qiqi since they were three years old, had been friends with Qiqi over the past five years.

From 1997 to 2002, GEV had never shifted their eyes from Qiqi. Their focus on endangered species persisted, spreading from animals to the environment they live in, especially China’s major rivers.
Their efforts gained weight in public. More importantly Green Earth’s unusual experience in cooperating with the media and then with the mass provides a textbook case for other NGOs to follow suit.

Yongchen Wang, a reporter to China National Radio, launched Green Earth Volunteers, which is oriented to “Approaching nature, Knowing nature and Making friends with nature”(slogan as it is). Its volunteers cover mainly journalists and environmental scientists.

For the past decade, GEV has grown into a group that absorbs all walks of life, including media workers, environmental workers, government workers, corporate workers, teachers, students and veterans. Over 50,000 people have been engaged in GEV’s activities with incalculably more influenced by related coverage.

GEV Journalists—Influence the Influential
GEV initiated a project named GEV Journalist Salon in the summer of 2001. The salon, held once a month, proceeded to 2002 when GEV struck a cooperation deal with China Youth Daily (a government mouthpiece) and Green Island (a counterpart NGO). Later the salon progressed as a platform where journalists learned knowledge, exchanged information and discussed problems all around environment. Together they became the central force that propelled China’s environmental coverage.

GEV has kept rounding up news released at the country’s major media every day since February, 2005. All the news is published on River Daily, a website of its own. So far, over 500 readers have been registered subscribers, in addition to a number of link exchanges with relevant websites at home and abroad. In 2006, GEV contracted Sanlian Bookstore, one of China’s influential publishers, on publishing Survey from China’s Environmental Journalists each year. 12 of the hottest environment-related issues are selected for journalists to investigate. Every journalist could pick one and write a report on it. The yearly survey has become a must-read material for environmental activists and researchers in China.

Looking back on the development of GEV, we may find that influence the influential—a media rule that governs non-profit industry as well—entices to media’s appeal while delivering charitable value. With that, media workers echo warmly, empowering the voice of eco-protection.

Public Participation—Learn by Experience
In 2006, GEV started a Ten-year River Track programme aimed at watching and documenting changes of rivers in West China, as well as their associations with neighbouring residents. With the help of TV network, radio, newspaper and internet, the public could be rendered the rights to know and act upon the protection, development and usage of the rivers. The waters in the list included Muge Lake, Yalong River, Lancang River, Jinsha River and Nu River. Now hydropower development of Jinsha River is high on Yongchen Wang and other volunteers’ watching agenda.

In March, 2007, GEV co-organised a regular outing project with Global Village of Beijing and Friends of Nature, two counterpart NGOs. Joiners were guided along the rivers around Beijing, gauging the water quality, and recognising plants and animals living nearby. Getaway as it may be, the tour served as the best lesson to motivate people’s actions on eco-protection. As expected, the project worked out. “The tour has gained popularity. About thirty or fifty applicants would join us. Some have become our ‘key players’. Experts would give necessary explanations to the questions raised by our joiners during the trip,” introduced Lili Dou, coordinator of the project.

Professional + Amateur = Massification is the formula when GEV design and implements its strategy, with which a wider range of subjects would be influenced.

Cooperation—Unity is Force
GEV is a faithful believer in cooperation with other NGOs in and out of China. Set it 26℃ is a campaign kicked off by GEV hand in hand with several other NGOs such as Global Village of Beijing and Friends of Nature. The summer campaign, reaching across the country, was to urge people to set the temperature of their air-conditions above 26℃, a benchmark that makes a difference to energy saving and environmental protection efforts. With the echoes going increasingly robust, 26℃ was eventually written into the law as a national standard in 2007.

More events such as No Driving Day and Green Consumption (leading the public to cut uses of disposable products and to consider the manufacturer’s eco-qualification when choosing its products) were also held in collaboration between GEV and its NGO partners.

Apart from cooperation with other NGOs, GEV has earned official support from China Environmental Culture Promotion Association (CECPA) affiliated to the Ministry of Environment.

The Ten-year River Track and Survey from China’s Environmental Journalists projects had CECPA behind the scene. As recently as 2008, the regular tour project around Beijing’s rivers is financed by America’s Waterkeeper Alliance.

The profound social impact of GEV’s public activities has made it possible that environmental NGOs could have their say in shaping national policy decision.

“For years we’ve been researching on our practice, which has become precious experience,” said Guo full of hope, “We realize the experience should be known to more people. So in collaboration with Narada Foundation, we’ll build a migrant school. There we’ll experiment on our experience. If it works, we’ll introduce our practice countrywide. The scheme has already been on agenda. I believe the future of migrant schools lies in professional and non-profit service, rather than donating to build more of them. Professional practice enables the migrant children to get the same level of education as urban children while, non-profit service would earn constant public attention to this problem.”

Stiffling heat triggered, rather than ruined,Guo Bin’s narration of the history and future of Beijing True Love Education Service Institute (shortly, BTLESI). His clear thought brought me to the fact that wisdom, on top of enthusiasm, erects non-profit career as a cause.

Since 1980s, millions of rural migrant workers flooded into cities, with the number climbing up to 150 million from the original two million. Tentative at first, migrant workers have long lived under the government’s tacit permission as part of urban society. Now they can reunite with their family in the city. More noteworthy are the children that immigrate with their parents into cities, now reported as many as 20 million. Against the backdrop of economic reforms, education is also brought to the table as a priority issue; however, the tightly-knit relation between schooling and permanent residence policy is dragging the foot of education popularisation, especially for rural workers’ children.

Back to 1990s, some organisations, including the government, took the first step to seek a way out. Some of them looked to public schools. But the heavy schooling fees or so called “sponsor charge” kept the kids at bay, which stimulated the rise of migrant schools. Featured by low cost those schools met the children’s need to some extent. But problems remain big.

“There are around 300 migrant schools in Beiijng, with only 60 or some officially granted,” said Guo, “Most of the rest are struggling desperately against inadequate teachers, unbalanced sheet, potentially illegal status, and frequent move from one location to another….Whatever their motivation, they should be respected for the efforts to boost education equality.”

Teachers are a common concern. Not all migrant schools have enough charisma to lure qualified teachers. Addressing such embarrassment is the commitment of BTLESI. Training its teachers, volunteers and students with scientific education ideas and newest information resources, and tuning the public into the process and result of the practice, the institute tries to grab a collective force to solve the children’s education problem.

“For years we’ve been researching on our practice, which has become precious experience,” said Guo full of hope, “We realize the experience should be known to more people. So in collaboration with Narada Foundation, we’ll build a migrant school. There we’ll experiment on our experience. If it works, we’ll introduce our practice countrywide. The scheme has already been on agenda. I believe the future of migrant schools lies in professional and non-profit service, rather than donating to build more of them. Professional practice enables the migrant children to get the same level of education as urban children while, non-profit service would earn constant public attention to this problem.”

White Paper on Education of Rural Migrant Workers’ Children, a book that sorts out the previous research on this subject and discusses the past, present and future of migrant children’s education, is the summer project for BTLESI. The paper is aimed at the public, hopefully to awake wider awareness of the issue; after all, education is a matter of all responsible citizens.

Methodologically a Volunteer Training Manuel is under way. Volunteers are the backbone of any non-profit organisation. Brimming with passion but inadequate in skills and experience, they often pay effort twice as much as is needed. Written by veteran teachers, volunteers and relevant experts, the book provides a guideline for volunteers to understand migrant schools, to communicate with the children, to organise activities, to cooperate with other teachers, and if need be, to visit their parents.

“Education concerns the hope of a nation. If 80% of its people are kept off education, the nation is heading towards the tomb. So I hope everyone of us could be part of this great cause,” prayed Guo in the end.

More significantly, rural workers are armed with the power to have their say in cultural and other social issues. They are no longer receivers of ideas that elite class impose on them; when they are tied into one string, they are producers and spreaders of their own culture. The top-down pattern has been taken on by a more equal one. The spiritual strength given to rural workers is another tool of protecting their benefits.

This is a story about a guy that was born being a peasant but became a college student and later a teacher and–most surprisingly—a street singer. All the performance with which he tried to impress the public returned nothing but hunger and poverty. After throwing himself to building sites, he picked up friendship with other rural workmates. A pop star among the rural workers around, he enjoyed respect and recognition. Suddenly an inspiration hit him that his songs, together with those of his rural friends, could bring more than just fun. So the idea was turned into reality—an unprecedented band exclusively of rural workers. The once “insane” vagabond rose as a celebrity, receiving hand-shakings from China’s top brass, interviews from the press, and invitations from colleges and universities. Yet he remained humble, blazing his own trial to preserve rural workers’ rights.

Songs for Rural Workers’ Voice
The Rural Workers’ Band was founded in May 1, 2002 with initially only ten members from all industries. As their footprints spread into more areas, their band swelled. Apart from live performance, they released copyright albums. They have produced two albums up to date. By erecting “Rural Workmates’ Family”, they stretched their hands to legal consultation, education and rights protection service. To address the education problem of rural workers’ offspring, they set up Tongxin (‘Heart-tying’ in English) Experimental School. As recently as May 2008, their Art Museum of Rural Workers was unveiled open to the public in an attempt to give a panorama of the history, life as well as contributions of China’s rural workers.

The originally feeble band does not merely survive; it thrives. The explanation to its steadfast growth lies essentially in what the harmonious society calls for—respect and return. Rural workers lay the footstones of China’s spectacular skyscrapers, subways, and other infrastructures; however, what they gain is way less than what they pay. To fill the gap, public awareness should be evoked. But how? “We hope that songs and other forms of performance would do the job,” responded Sun upon it, “our ultimate goal is to arouse people’s sympathy and respect for rural workers. This is the first step towards a harmonious society.” With this doctrine, their songs are mainly reflective of social reality. For instance, Song for the Children of Migrant Workers’ Families cries out the children’s appeal to equal education opportunity, while another song “Give Back Our Defaulted Wage” depicts a grinding course of claiming overdue wage.

Songs speak louder than words. Rural workers are encouraged to unite and the public are more perceptual to the inequality the workers are suffering. In this sense, the band is a bridge that connects the two ends.

Songs in Rural Workers’ Voice
Originality and voluntariness are what the band is born of. The songs were composed and performed by themselves. They are crude by art’s standard. But it is the naturalness that makes them more tangible to the audience. They are the affordable and apprehensible art for rural workers. Unlike the commercial performing markets, they are derived from life that the audience are familiar with, which waters the droughty land of rural workers’ art needs.

More significantly, rural workers are armed with the power to have their say in cultural and other social issues. They are no longer receivers of ideas that elite class impose on them; when they are tied into one string, they are producers and spreaders of their own culture. The top-down pattern has been taken on by a more equal one. The spiritual strength given to rural workers is another tool of protecting their benefits.

Helping You is Helping Me
Every member in the band has talent, be it singing, dancing, or cross talk. And every live show requires a strict procedure—works collection, creation, correction, rehearsal and final performance—and they are all crafted by the members. Despite the hard work, no one even asks for rewards. Its charitable nature captured the attention of influential NGOs like Oxfam Hong Kong. Today, most of the fund is financed by Oxfam, with the rest from social donations and rural workers themselves. Therefore, their sacrifice helps themselves.

As to what rural workers mostly hunger for, Sun replied, “they have massive needs in employment, welfare, medical insurance, adult education and their children’s education. However, they are most short of mental satisfaction. Songs, as we perceive, are the best pills.” As he introduced, the band currently organizes 40 to 50 concerts every year, but due to the mobility and liquidity of rural workers, their performers vary now and then. Even so, whenever a show is to initiate, there are always enough candidates to choose from because the workers know they are helping themselves when serving others.

The future of the band? Just as is claimed in their song We Shall Overcome,

“We are holding hands in hands, shoulders in shoulders
We are going ahead in solidarity.
….
O, deep in my heart
I do believe that
We shall overcome some day”

Hand in hand, they shall go on and on….

Despite the registration barricades for NGO, many of them find their own way of survival. So competition is intensive for financial and material donations. “To convince people or the government to back your project and your organisation, you have to treat them like customers. Without influence and trust, you are rejected from donations. So running an NPO requires marketing, mass communication and promotion as well,” so did Ta put his theory.

Arrows swiftly moving around the screen, Ta Linfu (‘Child of Grassland’ in Mongolian), founder of Chinahope, was demoing all the images, videos as well as prizes of honour they collected over the past five years. He thoroughly understood the importance of marketing for an NPO. “To serve better you have to gather as much resource as possible, of course, based on a good brand image,” Ta asserted.

Chinahope was founded by Ta Linfu in 2003 intended to be a non-profit organisation calling on tour drivers to engage with environmental protection and education aids as they travel. Its members now cover across the country with its number skyrocketing from less than ten to over a hundred thousand. About 50,000 people and 30,000 vehicles have been involved in its organised activities during the last five years. Its glorious history includes two desert control centres respectively in Inner Mongolia and He Bei Province, one forest. Since 2003, major events concerning book donations have been launched among tour drivers, leaving their footprints in poor western areas. Totally more than 10,000 books have been contributed to over 30 schools in Gansu and Sichuan Province; an innumerable amount of commodity and stationery has been delivered to scores of schools in He Bei Province and Inner-Mongolia; and financial aids have been given directly to over 300 poor students in He Bei Province.

Marketing—A Weapon to Win Battles

“During the period our public service ads were broadcasted through bus-on-line, we gained steadfast progress in the volume of our volunteers and donations,” said Ta, “such is the case that underscore the critical role of marketing and branding in the development of China’s NPOs, especially given the monopolistic environment of China’s donation market.”

Despite the registration barricades for NGO, many of them find their own way of survival. So competition is intensive for financial and material donations. “To convince people or the government to back your project and your organisation, you have to treat them like customers. Without influence and trust, you are rejected from donations. So running an NPO requires marketing, mass communication and promotion as well,” so did Ta put his theory.

Mr Ta is a straight talker, keeping no experience to himself. In his mind, non-profit career calls for trust and cooperation among different organisations. “We have our own media partners,” added Ta, “including China Philanthropy Times, Cheyoo (an automobile newspaper), Travel TV, etc. There we have our columns. Our video clips were broadcasted through CCTV News Channel for a considerable period. And we are currently making a channel of our own. All these promotional resources have strengthened our voice.”

Thanks to its social network and media power, Chinahope is supported in various forms by Beijing Donation Acceptance Administration Centre. For the same reason, Beijing TV ardently proposed collaboration with Chinahope in donations to quake-affected areas.

Marketing—A Key to Win Hearts

The last decade has witnessed a boom of media industry; yet its unharnessed growth has not made any remarkable difference for businesses. The cost of advertisements shoots up, but their effectiveness goes all the way down the slope: corporate branding has hit the wall.

An alternative channel to maintain image, charitable events have gone into big companies’ sight. Johnson&Johnson, Microsoft, Coco Cola and some local companies began to take action. As a special PR activity, charity marketing brings favourable results to three parties: NPOs get their fund, businesses promote their brand and the public get the product while supporting charity.

In fact, the idea of ‘charity marketing’ has already been markedly highlighted on Chinahope’s website. “We take it very seriously,” said Ta, “we’ll plan some campaigns that reflect the company’s needs as long as they go with our tones. For example, if a company sets up a new 4S outlet somewhere, we may probably designate that place to host our event. To return the favour of sponsoring our event, we’ll communicate the company to the public via the media we’re familiar with.

“Cynics say NPOs are just like being used by businesses in this way. But I disagree,” Mr Ta insisted, “motivation scepticism drives real business into endless coma. Just because NPOs should not be enslaved by money doesn’t mean they should stay clear of rational business operation. Marketing is a must-learn lesson for NPOs. For charitable ideas and projects are their products and supporters their consumers.”

“For years we’ve been researching on our practice, which has become precious experience,” said Guo full of hope, “We realize the experience should be known to more people. So in collaboration with Narada Foundation, we’ll build a migrant school. There we’ll experiment on our experience. If it works, we’ll introduce our practice countrywide. The scheme has already been on agenda. I believe the future of migrant schools lies in professional and non-profit service, rather than donating to build more of them. Professional practice enables the migrant children to get the same level of education as urban children while, non-profit service would earn constant public attention to this problem.”

Stiffling heat triggered, rather than ruined,Guo Bin’s narration of the history and future of Beijing True Love Education Service Institute (shortly, BTLESI). His clear thought brought me to the fact that wisdom, on top of enthusiasm, erects non-profit career as a cause.
Since 1980s, millions of rural migrant workers flooded into cities, with the number climbing up to 150 million from the original two million. Tentative at first, migrant workers have long lived under the government’s tacit permission as part of urban society. Now they can reunite with their family in the city. More noteworthy are the children that immigrate with their parents into cities, now reported as many as 20 million. Against the backdrop of economic reforms, education is also brought to the table as a priority issue; however, the tightly-knit relation between schooling and permanent residence policy is dragging the foot of education popularisation, especially for rural workers’ children.

Back to 1990s, some organisations, including the government, took the first step to seek a way out. Some of them looked to public schools. But the heavy schooling fees or so called “sponsor charge” kept the kids at bay, which stimulated the rise of migrant schools. Featured by low cost those schools met the children’s need to some extent. But problems remain big.

“There are around 300 migrant schools in Beiijng, with only 60 or some officially granted,” said Guo, “Most of the rest are struggling desperately against inadequate teachers, unbalanced sheet, potentially illegal status, and frequent move from one location to another….Whatever their motivation, they should be respected for the efforts to boost education equality.”

Teachers are a common concern. Not all migrant schools have enough charisma to lure qualified teachers. Addressing such embarrassment is the commitment of BTLESI. Training its teachers, volunteers and students with scientific education ideas and newest information resources, and tuning the public into the process and result of the practice, the institute tries to grab a collective force to solve the children’s education problem.

“For years we’ve been researching on our practice, which has become precious experience,” said Guo full of hope, “We realize the experience should be known to more people. So in collaboration with Narada Foundation, we’ll build a migrant school. There we’ll experiment on our experience. If it works, we’ll introduce our practice countrywide. The scheme has already been on agenda. I believe the future of migrant schools lies in professional and non-profit service, rather than donating to build more of them. Professional practice enables the migrant children to get the same level of education as urban children while, non-profit service would earn constant public attention to this problem.”

White Paper on Education of Rural Migrant Workers’ Children, a book that sorts out the previous research on this subject and discusses the past, present and future of migrant children’s education, is the summer project for BTLESI. The paper is aimed at the public, hopefully to awake wider awareness of the issue; after all, education is a matter of all responsible citizens.

Methodologically a Volunteer Training Manuel is under way. Volunteers are the backbone of any non-profit organisation. Brimming with passion but inadequate in skills and experience, they often pay effort twice as much as is needed. Written by veteran teachers, volunteers and relevant experts, the book provides a guideline for volunteers to understand migrant schools, to communicate with the children, to organise activities, to cooperate with other teachers, and if need be, to visit their parents.

“Education concerns the hope of a nation. If 80% of its people are kept off education, the nation is heading towards the tomb. So I hope everyone of us could be part of this great cause,” prayed Guo in the end.

Since volunteer culture and volunteer training mechanism have not taken root in China, the ambition always hits the wall to put all volunteers in the right place. A more reliable model lies in the concept of “civic society” where government indirectly rules the society.

Upon Huizeren online hang three slogans: “Equality for all, and all due respect for diversity”, “Your help for others is for yourself as it digs out another side of you”, “Let your life change that of others”. All these resounding mottos come down to one word—humanism. In this context, “humanism” can be outlined as centring around people based on their mental and occupational needs to improve service efficiency. The biggest discovery of my visit to Huizeren is its human-centred principle.

Zhai Yan，an easy-going volunteer trainer, is the executive director of Huizeren. During the interview her silver tones, clear-cut logics and far-stretched vision gripped me tight inside.

Huizeren has a clear priority task—structuring a complete volunteer training system, or in other words, extending training service of all kind to NPO members and volunteers. Actually, such organisations are rare in China and as far as current statistics show, there are no courses on civic education at any education institution. “Teach yourself before teaching others because no one is expert from the beginning,” Zhai put it this way.

In 2003 when SARS waged the dreadful war against the country, Huizeren was set up against the tide. Unlike its NPO counterparts, Huizeren did not hassle with directly confronting the disease. Instead, it adhered to its own judgement—volunteer training and research into NPO mechanism in China.

Despite ups and downs and pressure from all aspects, Huizeren has worked out a seamless system of training courses composed of three layers—“volunteer service concept and basic skills” for volunteers, “volunteer administration and project management” for mid-level managers and “leadership and organisation administration” for top brass. These three courses are so intertwined that they wield separate cells within the organisation into an organic circle. For example, managers that attend volunteer administration courses may affect and teach their volunteer staff (There are over 200 professional volunteer trainers, most of them from colleges and NPOs).

Huizeren has positioned three core services—training, mechanism construction, research and publicity. Guided by such orientations, Huizeren is now clearer about what it is supposed to do at crisis. The best evidence is the recent Wenchuan Earthquake when Huizeren did not rush to forefront but directed its attention to what capabilities were needed in the rescue as well as reconstruction process. By doing that, they insisted, different NPOs could appear where they were most needed. “Currently few organisations can remain sober and independent to supervise the rescue and put forth valuable proposals. They don’t know what their role really is,” said Zhai.

Usually on heels of a catastrophe, a spate of new NPOs would spring up, vying to have place in history. However, as Zhai criticised, everything is twofold. When disasters fall, civic consciousness may be evoked in some people, urging them to voluntarily scrape up an NPO-like rescue team, which is by all measures praiseworthy. But such makeshift gatherings would not sustain. The real sustainable model should be tolerant in the first place, acknowledging the existence of other organisations such as those serving the disadvantaged, the marginalized, AIDS carriers, the homosexual, the disabled and the divorced. Without the diversity of volunteer service, citizens are deprived of rights to choose. And this diversity means everything to Huizeren, a training body built on NPO eco-circle: the more NPOs, the more clients. In this sense, the quake crisis is nonetheless a chance for Huizeren.

But the overheated NPO fever is not immune to side effects. The bubble will be pricked once the fever cools down. Therefore, constant passion, rather than fever, determines the lifespan of an NPO. “That’s what Huizeren is obliged to do—studying varieties of cases and then summing up an empirical guideline for all NPOs,” said Zhai with excitement. As she introduced, rescue work is a grinding test of physical and mental strength. At the time of mental disturbance, men tend to blow it up while women would rather keep silent. As most NPOs are struggling to help others, Huizeren is thinking about how to help them.

Since volunteer culture and volunteer training mechanism have not taken root in China, the ambition always hits the wall to put all volunteers in the right place. A more reliable model lies in the concept of “civic society” where government indirectly rules the society. In this society, enterprises are the first option; they roll out products based on market rules. People that cannot afford market products could appeal to non-profit organisations. Government only plays a coordinator role between profit and non-profit sectors by issuing policies and organising procurement.

If we compare Huizeren to an enterprise in the profit sector, it provides raw materials for the consumer product suppliers (in this analogy NPOs). Its performance is heavyweight to both NPOs and the public. It is the “hero behind the scene”.

The hero now has its long-term plan—three-year “Western V” projects and a five-year inter-provincial project. “Western V” projects, renewed every three years, are aimed at helping citizens in poor areas, especially West China, set up their own NPOs. The inter-provincial project, with duration of five years, is launched to back programmes of training poverty-relieving volunteers across five provinces.

It was nearly six o’clock at the close of the interview. Yet Zhai Yan, given no time to think of supper, had to hurry on to a conference discussing Huizeren’s training service in the 2008 Olympic Games. She’s always been on the run. As she put it in her essay Doing NPO with Faith, “it is our faith or value judgement that decides who we are, and ignites our sense of commitment.”

Why doing NPO? Nothing but driven by faith!

Mid-January 2008—in the “Good luck, Beijing!” International Wheelchair Basketball Friendship Games emerged two vision-impaired journalists from One-plus-one Studio of One-plus-one Cultural Exchange Center. Their presence captured spotlight because their studio is the first radio production team by vision-impaired people that fulfils the whole chain from interview to programming to broadcasting. Its regular programs have now covered over 60 radio stations all around the country.

Gao Shan, chief of the organization, once pointed out in an interview that if blind people could be active part of main social events and make their voice, it would be a good practice for disabled people to be melting to society and to fulfil their value. An NGO established and run by the disabled, One-plus-one has been dedicated to tracking social development, delivering the public’s voice as well as exploring the operation of social benefit enterprises.

Value Fulfilment—Their Mental Needs

Registered in March 2006, One-plus-one is a social benefit organization launched by disabled volunteers, 12 of whom are whole-time staff including nine disabled. They are young and talented: most of them were born in the 1980s, and all of them received higher education.

One-plus-one has been focused on the production and development of audio-programs, providing a service and broadcast platform for all NGOs to boost the communication and practices of the disadvantaged groups in skill training, information exchange and social development and ultimately to enhance their living abilities and fulfil their value.

“Every individual has a deep pool of potentials, and so do the disabled,” said Gao Shan, “they can do amazing things just as normal people and they are desperate to prove that. So that’s what we are trying to do.” He also believed that every bit of effort One-plus-one is making in information delivery and idea innovation is a positive extension to what they call “help-others model”.

In the studio located in South Beijing, your journalist saw the third-generation recording and producing system being adjusted. “The programs we produce are not only service for the disabled, but also the manifest of our thoughts, our dreams. Meanwhile we find pleasure in such service. So everybody is enjoying their work,” introduced one of the staff. The studio has to date produced a couple of programs including life-related newscast and entertainment broadcast for the disabled, and programs for the public to raise social concerns for the disabled.

In a topic selection meeting, your journalist noticed that all the hosts and editors were speaking out their opinions, agreeing and disagreeing with one another. Here ideas crossed over minds amid an easy atmosphere. “Everyone here is a producer, a host. And their proposals are equally expressed and if reasonable, will be put into practice,” said the young host Qing Feng.

Social Benefit Enterprise—The Third Option of NGO

As an inseparable part of One-plus-one Exchange Center, the studio is feeling its way to a rational operation model, which means that it is neither a pure social benefit organization, nor a 100% profit-seeking enterprise, but a combination that makes profit to feed back to society. “Speaking of NGO, people would immediately associate it with ‘non-profit’,” said Gao Shan, “but this is a half-blind look at NGO. As a matter of fact we should judge it by how it makes profit, and where the profit goes down to.”

The projects that One-plus-one carries out are of significance in two respects—integrating technological progress into service on one hand, and provoking the consciousness of the disabled to get back to the mainstream society on the other. The success of social benefit enterprise is sure to push the NGO cause one-step further in terms of funding, technology and influence.

The radio programs of One-plus-one are free of charge for now. However, some other programs still under way, given their entertainment value, will be officially cast into market in future. “Our project is still at the planning stage. So we need financial and technological support from the society. Considering the complexity of the factors that decide the proceedings of the project, we need to figure out a holistic picture and a slow-but-steady development strategy,” explained a project manager.

Harmonious Co-existence—Tackling Arguments in Development Routes

After numerous rounds of rigorous check and assessment, One-plus-one won the contract with London-based Big Lottery Fund on the project named “Engaging China” in May 2006 and later cooperated with BBC-World Service Trust. With efforts from all parties, the project ended up being successful in reaching preset goals at the end of May 2008.

“When the project was taken over, different voices were heard from some NGOs,” said Gao Shan, “we didn’t dispute in public or give a direct response, because we know the development of a civil society needs different voices. And such difference reflects the inevitable outcome of different development routes. The bigger challenges are how to face ourselves, how to face the disabled group, and how to improve our abilities and fulfil our value.”

In fact, the dispute is just a miniature of greater disaccord among NGOs. NGOs are still trapped in fund shortage and have-no-say dilemma albeit in an improved hardware and software environment. Notional split-up, intensified by unrestrained scramble for limited resources, has grown into a great force that rips them apart.

Upon that Gao Shan reckoned, “every NGO has its unique advantage and development orientation. So above all is mutual respect. Differences should be allowed and of course, a reasonable scale of competition will step up the progress of the entire cause….We hope to relieve misunderstandings through communication and discussion.”

Multiple Possibilities—1+1 Has No Definite Answer

“1+1﹥2 if cooperation is counted in; 1+1=1 given mutual integration; or it could be 1+1+1 which stands for further extension within the society,” replied Gao Shan when asked the origin of the name One-plus-one, “Don’t always figure 1+1 equals 2. Just like we hope people would not stick to an old impression of the disabled”

One-plus-one is still youthful, enjoying its glories and dreams as much as it takes on pressure and challenges—just as China’s social benefit cause is going through. In the long march to prosperity, there must be thorns and storms, but every footprint they leave brings them closer to the destination.

Footnote:

Beijing One-plus-one International Exchange Center is a non-profit organization established and registered by two IT professionals with disabilities in March 2006. Its routine operation is run together by disabled and healthy staff. It is now a member of China Association for NGO Cooperation.

Long depressed in the dark of social discrimination, the handicapped people are so vulnerable to cold eyes and scorns, so feared to lose dignity, so curled up to fend off injustice that they forget how to open their hearts to the world that has already opened its arms. Blind pursuit of respect, as is the problem for many blind, has distorted them. As the solution, we need to show them our care, and enlighten them how to gain respect, not to beg or to defy.

As usual, the cinema—branded “Eyes of Heart”—was crowded with old patrons and new faces on Saturday morning. Besides the blind friends from inside central Beijing, journalists from all fields of media joined the party-like movie lecture. Leading media companies, such as CCTV and Sohu.com among others, wrenched the small quadrate yard into spotlight and flashguns. The lecture was hosted by a renowned CCTV compere who had professed to serve as a volunteer, but was still surrounded by fans begging for a signature.

Over the past two years, the cinema has been seeing people in and off every weekend just as it did that day. Later on to the mid-noon when the crowd was dismissed, the cinema was back into tranquility with its staff’s bewildered thoughts.

Not until then could Wang Weili and Zheng Xiaojie, the couple responsible for Beijing Hong Dandan Edu-Culture Communication Centre (shorter as Hong Dandan), afford the time for interview. Deeply rooted in my mind was the meet with Ms. Zheng during the 2 year anniversary of the cinema when I could have offered a hand to the blind who needed help in walking but out of selfishness and timidity I didn’t. The sour remorse doubled my respect for the couple and pushed me to ask my first question: How should an NPO worker treat the weak from the individual-to-individual sense?

“Love and care” was the reply. Yes, the overused cliché rings hollow to some, but to them, it compacts the deepest meaning into one simple phrase—yet how? How could the phrase spearhead the voluntary acts into concord? Simple as it may sound, practicing it is another thing. “There must be a proper manner in practice. The “look-down-on-you” manner, which means treating the weak like children, and lashing out too much care and protection, may lead to reliance or resistance among them,” explained Mr. Wang, “while the “look-up-to-you” attitude that sees ever bit of their progress as a great achievement puts us in the wrong place. Equality is the key.”

Attitude is the first lesson that a volunteer should learn. Undeniably, differences exsist among people. Just as illustrated by Mr. Wang, it is no use turning a blind eye to the differences between healthy and handicapped people. The courage to face the differences is the first step to reduce them.

However, just because the volunteers have set straight their attitude doesn’t mean their relationship with the helped is sure to be favorably addressed. How to help the blind “face themselves”, for example, is a challenge Hong Dandan has to come up against.

Some of the handicapped are averse to admit the disadvantages compared with healthy people, and even revolted by the term “the weak” that is conventionally used to describe them. They believe that they can do whatever healthy people can. Worse than that is the inferiority complex deep down inside their hearts that forces them not to face the reality. As to this problem, Ms Zheng said, “the blind people may not realize that Hong Dandan has its own institution that can not be changed to cater to a certain individual. For example, when they are trained here, they are not given special treatment just because they lost sight. By sticking to our institution and principles, we try to nurture healthy mentality in the blind people.”

But it bears no fruit to lay all the responsibility upon one organization in guiding the handicapped. Then how could an individual help heal the rift between the healthy and the handicapped?

Mutual respect is the footstone of any rapport. But the connotation of “respect” brings out two sides of a coin—dignity and vanity. For any individual, including the handicapped, it has to be recognized that too much competition spirit would erode dignity into vanity.

In the opera “the blind” co-produced by Hong Dandan and Director Lin Zhaohua, the life of the human race was visualized with that of the blind. It showed concerns for the present and future of humans and more significantly, cares for the blind. However, even such a humanitarian production could invite suspicion of “discriminating the blind”.

Long depressed in the dark of social discrimination, the handicapped people are so vulnerable to cold eyes and scorns, so feared to lose dignity, so curled up to fend off injustice that they forget how to open their hearts to the world that has already opened its arms. Blind pursuit of respect, as is the problem for many blind, has distorted them. As the solution, we need to show them our care, and enlighten them how to gain respect, not to beg or to defy.

So rises the question—has the mass media fulfilled its obligation of educating the handicapped what is respect, and what is dignity? Regrettably no. And that’s why Mr. Wang, a frequent guest at CCTV interview, is still keen on joining in-depth TV talk shows. Diverting the society’s focus to the mentality of special groups may look like a grand vision to an outsider, yet just a basic attitude to an NPO professional.

In a world that information spreads faster and broader than ever before, that a compliment can be easily misinterpreted to a condemnation, that entertainment prevails over enlightenment, do we have the calm to ponder what to do for the blind? That’s a question to be considered for NPOs and especially for the mass media.

Many NPOs are on good terms with people they help, but still many others fail to cope with such relationship. Sometimes their zealous help upsets the helped. All assistance, be it physical or mental, should be built on respect. Giving no account to the feelings of the helped is itself a sign of disrespect, which could be put down to ineffective or even negative communication.

Respect is derived from communication; after all, humans are social animals.

You belong to the world you are living in, which you may not be able to change; but whatever you are, there is a world that belongs to you. And Tongzhou Care Service Center is such a world for the children and for their mother—Chang Meng.

May 10th—the day long-awaited over the past 20 days. Reportedly a rainy day. But the hilarious sunlight that seeped into the bedroom in the early morning was still dizzying. So much so that the many offensively serious, sensitive and searching questions I had prepared were somewhat blurred or erased out of mind for the moment.

Fortunately, I would not be alone, but had two ladies, Liang Yuqing and Han Jinping, in company. When I saw Liang at the subway station, she was painfully elbowing her way forward against the crowd, with a bundle of Readers magazine in hand that she later said was a gift for the children and the staff in the care center.

Minutes later Han arrived.

“Are you ready?” was her hello.

“Well….uh….yeah…” I murmured with a shivering voice. Nervous and anxious, I stepped onto the train.

The train speeded ahead towards Tongzhou District, leaving behind high-rise skyscrapers, jam-packed roads and other dazzling landmarks of modern civilization. Farther away from the bustling world, we were headed closer to the reclusive world that belonged to Tongzhou Care Service Center (TCSC in short). Like many other NPOs, TCSC settled in a far-flung area. So far that the whole journey turned into a harrowing adventure. Trapped in a broad vacant land, we wandered and wondered which way to go. After a weary search for the bus stop with the help of passers-by, we were taken aback by what we pulled through in the bus we’d been praying for. As crammed as a sardine can, the vehicle bumped along like a ship in the storm. For us the earlier unease about the interview had then been replaced with eagerness to reach the destination. Like a light in the tunnel, we caught a sight of the road sign—Nei Junzhuang. No sooner had the bus pulled over than we swept off. As bus disappeared into the dust, we got back to ourselves before realizing that we were in the middle of nowhere—we got lost again! But this time we had no one that could help. Nothing but disturbing silence….

Turning back along a dirt road, we came to a small village and there we had TCSC in sight. Exhaustedly staring at the gate, I began to doubt whether or not I could face up to the hapless but innocent children, when suddenly a beaming face showed up from behind the gate. “Here to see Director Chang Meng?” asked a man of 30-something, “come with me.”

Soon we got to Chang Meng’s office. Chang Meng, chief director of TCSC, was awarded “Top Ten Charity Celebrities in China” for her incessant 23 years of charity services.

“You guys will talk with Ms. Chang,” said Han Jinping to Liang Yuqing and me, “she’s been waiting for you.” Blank-minded, we froze there, as if still unable to sober from the wearing journey.

“Come on, son,” from the office came a gentle voice, “help me check out what’s wrong with the computer and the printer.” Startled at first by the unusual manner of “greeting”, we went speechless and motionless. But her “surprise attack” worked out—our nervousness was melting away. Having noticed our tension, she told Meng Yan, her “little secretary”, to show us around the sprawling center.

Meng Yan, a thin little girl, was in her third year at elementary school. There were a lot of stories about her—all centered around her miserable life. Now she looked healthy and happy. Her name, Meng Yan (“dreaming wild goose” translated from Chinese), an equally poetic name, was bestowed by Chang Meng (“unfading dream” in English). The little girl buoyantly showed us the meeting room and introduced the photos hanging on the wall. Then we went on to the dining room, the laundry room, as well as the dorms for the children and the teachers as she spelled out every detail about the places we visited.

It was Saturday. So some children were brought home. But the rest of them still showcased what the center had been working on. The children had different problems:

One boy suffering from MBD would laugh and say hello and repeatedly shake hands with anyone who looked him in the eye. Another boy of autism was bending over the desk with a content smile. According to his teacher, he got a full score in reciting the multiplication pithy formula. Not far from him, another kid was giggling all the time. Also in the center there were retarded children, handicapped children, and children diagnostic of aphasia, etc. Fortunately these children lived in a fine environment with clean sheets, lovely cabinets and most prideworth of all, a beautifully dressed dining room where the warm and bright sunshine could drop in through the ceiling window.

To my knowledge, there are organizations specialized in autism such as Beijing Stars and Rain Education Institute, or in mental retard like Huiling Mental Retard Service Center , or in physical disability. However, once realizing how TCSC combines services for different categories of handicaps and how it keeps on the run to earn the children as respectable and comfortable a life as that of a normal child, you will be moved to tears by Chang Meng and her colleagues. At this moment, words are the faintest expression of emotion.

At noon, we were invited to dine with the children and the working staff. Stir-fried vegetable (planted by themselves) and fried cauliflowers with pork—simple but delicious and nutritious—were the children’s favorite cuisine and biggest enjoyment. The food was tempting for the children that it could be used as a big prize. In order to encourage a well-behaved little girl of aphasia to speak, Chang Meng gave her a loaf of pork and asked her to call “mama”. Gathering all her strength, the lovely girl squeezed a slurred sound of voice. “Professionally, this is called positive reinforcement,” said Chang Meng peacefully.

After lunch, we played soccer with the children. Looking at these angelic faces, I sank in a mixed mood, wondering: Do they have dreams? What would their life be like in future? Till when could Chang Meng take care of these children long alienated from the main stream? And what might happen to them once leaving the center?

“If I’m dead, I’ll be free from these concerns. But as long as I’m still alive, I must live with them,” said Chang Meng lightly, “the other day I ran into a car accident. I was thinking if my life ended any moment, I’d be gone with no regrets. But it seems that even God couldn’t let me drop these kids. As for future, there should be someone to take over.” Fearless was the word that instantly popped up in my mind to describe her attitude towards life.

Chang Meng told us that the original drive that pushed her into charity was simply the gratitude towards people who helped her through the most difficult time of her life after a divorce with her ex-husband. As a single mother, she decided to do something for the unfortunate children and their mothers.

As to the rumors widely spread over the internet that she graduated from Renmin University, she responded, “as a mother of so many children, I have to learn different professional knowledge. So I studied psychology at Beijing Normal University. In order to call for more social attention and support, I learned writing at Luxun Research Academy. Now I’m a free writer of a magazine. Also I learned photography at Renmin university to exhibit a better picture and memory of our center.

“I don’t study for myself,” she added, “I do for my kids.”

Now she is already an expert equipped with all professional skills to train the children in the center. Some day, she told us, she will introduce her experience in video discs, a popular practice in some foreign countries.

Her professionalism stood out in every respect. “For curtains, go to large hotels because they spend regular time on the disposal of used stuff,” she sounded particularly eloquent when talking about operational experience, “But if you want social support, you’ll need a media platform. Other than that you need good ideas.”

10:30 Call from Han Jinping saying they are arriving
11:30 Han Jinping, Liang Yuqing and Liu Shaofeng arrive
12:30 Lunch: stir-fried vegetable, fried cauliflowers with pork
….

Chang Meng had a note-taking habit. Just as is shown above, she took down every single detail about the visitors including their names, contact information, and even special skills, and would, if possible, attach photos in the delicate-looking notebook. She proudly dubbed it a “marker tradition” that distinguished her organization from others. Actually she hid other intentions in this practice. First, with the information listed in the book, they could easily track someone if they needed his or her help. Second, the note was a convincing evidence of what they did, clearing off doubts and suspicions that widely exist in China’s NPO landscape.

Upon departure, we could not shift our eyes from the children, their great mother and the tightly-knit family. They had sneaked in our peaceful life. And from that day on, the picture of a tranquil village permeated with love and laugh would recur to me again and again. For in that village a woman created a world.