Road to Civic Society—Dialogue with Zhai Yan, Executive Director of Beijing Huizeren Human Service Centre
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.
Value Fulfilment and Route Exploration—A Visit to One-plus-one International Exchange Center
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.
Where Respect is Derived: An Interview to Beijing Hong Dandan Edu-Culture Communication
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.
A World in a Village —A Reporter’s Diary
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.”
Beijing Maple: A mix of simplicity and complexity
“Since its birth,” said Ms Wang Xingjuan, 78-year-old founder of Beijing Maple, slowly and softly caressing her silver hairs back and forth, “Beijing Maple has been keeping its head down on securing women’s endowed rights, arousing their awareness of independence, and helping them keep up with social changes. Of course, our ultimate goal is to accomplish sex equality. ”
Despite its ups and downs, Beijing Maple has not only survived but thrived on its dream. Twenty years is doubtlessly a legendary number in China’s NPO history, not to mention the number of its beneficiaries.
“Beijing in Action”: How We Take Action
Concerted efforts prop up high efficiency. BIA has so far extended job, legal and psychological service to more than 4,200 rural workers, answered over 8160 calls on help lines, hosted as many as 86 public events and involved at least 2680 people in these events. A cutting-edge “the helped being the helpful” model was experimented and successfully implemented in these activities. “In essence, NPO is representative of a notion,” said Mr. Han De, administrative officer of BIA, “the message we want to deliver is that people who help others are also helping themselves. And those who receive help can also be helpful to others.”
Hu Xinyu: Renew Mind before Renewing Walls
A volunteer at NPPCN, who once worked with CHP, took down what Mr.Hu called ‘dilemma’ faced by China’s NPO organizers:
“At present, most NPO organizers and volunteers are still faith-driven. Their awareness of responsibility pushes them to be excessively concerned and visionary. So overhead hangs a big question mark for all NPOs—how to turn passion into practice.”
Just as his peers in NPO fields, Mr.Hu used to struggle with such confusions at first. “The most difficult part of NPO is the balance between fairness and efficiency. We were only registered as a non-business organization in 2003, not a profit-making business,” he said, “so we are under great pressure from outside. And it’s real hard to gain an efficient and practicable approach to communicate with other social entities.”
Bolo: Love-idea=Love for Idea + Idea of Love
A woman in fifties was quietly sitting in a gloomy room, sewing an Indian sari glimmering in the dark. But beyond her knowledge was that the sari that took weeks to finish but yielded only 20 RMB was tagged with an exorbitant price in the market as a handicraft. The majority of the value was snatched by agents-in-between.
Stirred up by the obvious exploitations, Bolo established Love-idea with a view to helping those impoverished rural laborers. For them, there was no end in sight for a higher income. So Bolo was determined to save the extra rural workforce from being a money spinner.
HaoBing: Development of People as the Core
* For an NPO, people are the priority with their development as the core. The question poses a great challenge as to how to develop people and get them back to serve the society.
* Every newly-born upstart holds a dream that it yearns to express. And it has already sailed off. So you can see its shape
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