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.
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.
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