China Philanthropy

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

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

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.

Teach for China: Bringing educational equality to rural children

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.

Happy Year of the Dragon!

 

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

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.