A decade of charity in Chinese mainland
"There can be no wellbeing for individual families if society overall is in decline."
This old Chinese saying aptly reflects leading international financial corporation HSBC's philosophy of continuous and selfless charity.
Stephen Green, HSBC Group chairman, draws a picture with a rural school student in Haifeng County, Guangdong Province. |
Regarding itself as an integral part of the community, the bank has set up its own charity trust - the Hongkong Bank Foundation (HBF) in 1981 - to manage its donations and formalise its community investment programs in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Since 1997, the foundation has progressed to secure a strong foothold in the Chinese mainland as well. To date, its total donation to the Chinese mainland has been 200 million yuan for about 200 philanthropic projects, ranging from education and community service to environmental protection.
Its joint endeavors with the China Charity Federation (CCF), a leading non-government organisation (NGO), since 1997 have seen remarkable achievements and won a great reputation in the Chinese mainland.
In view of HSBC's commitment to charity over the past decade, a series of government officials, CCF representatives, and senior HSBC executives shared their experience and views with China Daily.
All-around success
HSBC was one of the first overseas companies to team up with CCF in its fledging stage, said Fan Baojun, president of CCF.
"One of the key reasons we selected HSBC as our long-term partner was that we hope to commit ourselves to charity in a sustainable way," he explained.
Instead of simple donations, HSBC and CCF together closely manage aid programs and deploy strong manpower in a bid to maximize their social effect.
"Our cooperation significantly creates multifaceted success," Fan said, pointing out the three following areas as examples:
HSBC introduced leading accounting firm KPMG to audit every project of the non-profit NGO, enhancing CCF's credibility and attracting more enterprises to donate to CCF.
Meanwhile, HSBC itself has built a sound community relationship through its cooperation with CCF, and learnt more about the needs of the under-privileged, which has helped it to deliver greater assistance to the truly deserving.
Also, the government and society as a whole have benefited from cooperation between CCF and HSBC, as the government has identified the "ignored" masses and strived to satisfy their needs to set a good example for all.
Fan Baojun (right), president of the China Charity Foundation (CCF), unveils the first State-accredited textbook for the elderly care sector. The publication of the textbook is financed by HSBC. |
The biggest advantage of HSBC's cooperation with CCF has been that the bank has actively sought an effective approach to help the less-privileged, said Vincent Cheng, chairman of HSBC Asia Pacific and HSBC Bank (China).
Cheng, a witness to their early cooperation, said: "The company is devoted to localisation and need to find a 'purely' localised organisation to work in hands."
"It was a cold winter, we met with CCF, which had only five or six staff members, and was chaired by Cui Naifu. Although CCF was not very strong, it was very sincere in its desire to collaborate," he said, pointing out that HSBC emphasised transparency and capacity building for project management and strongly hoped to set a shining example for charity in China.
"CCF readily agreed to our suggestion to have KPMG as auditor for the organisation, a practice that lasts until today," he recalled.
Cheng has visited many projects, including a poor primary school in Chongqing, a Yangtze River ecological recovery project and a South China wetland protection project.
Significant recognition
"Charity is an important undertaking of HSBC, just like our businesses," said Kathy Wong, secretary of HBF.
"We try to manage our charity programs in a sustainable and effective way. It's not about how much we give, but how we give."
HSBC is a hands-on donor and it stresses on the quality and effect of philanthropy, she added.
To date, HSBC has won significant recognition from the government, NGOs and the community.
Moreover, it has published a government-accredited textbook with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Labor and Social Society, and was one of the very few overseas companies which twice received the China Charity Award from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
While HSBC is able to access grassroots communities and address their needs through CCF, CCF's regional members in turn are able to improve their management capacity in going shoulder to shoulder with HSBC, Wong noted.
"CCF is willing to input more manpower and time to carry out our projects, which may not be the most stunning in donation figures," she said.
Pragmatic approach
"HSBC adopts a pragmatic approach and strict management, and is keen on discovering socially hot and difficult areas," said Liu Hongwei, staff member of the Project Department of the CCF, exclusively devoted to HSBC projects.
Many of the projects that HSBC donates to are based on discoveries by HSBC and CCF staff.
For instance, the two organisations found that senior citizen care is a problematic issue for modern China and began to donate to homes for the elderly.
After further investigations, they found that people engaged in caring for the elderly were not well trained. They then organised a group of directors of the homes of the elderly to join a training program in Hong Kong.
More training courses were next held in Beijing, in which some 600 top executives from homes for the elderly around China participated.
HSBC also initiated the publication of the first government-credited textbooks for the elderly care sector, Liu said.
Liu said that once she had read in a newspaper that some policemen were being threatened by HIV positive criminals who would try to injure themselves against walls or scratch the law keepers in an attempt to transmit the virus to them through blood.
HSBC and CCF conducted detailed investigations into the issue, leading to their holding the nation's first AIDS-related training course for policemen, which attracted widespread attention in China.
The two organisations will focus greater attention on the social welfare of senior citizens, teachers in the countryside and migrant workers for their next three year plan.
Top model
Zhang Mingliang, director of the Social Welfare and Social Affairs Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said the 10-year HSBC-CCF charity effort has unique features.
The bank is keen on learning about the development of Chinese society and government policies, and is devoted to lending a helping hand to rectify some existing shortcomings, he added.
Citing some examples, Zhang said: "Eyeing the status quo of China's aging problem, they initiated a series of successful and model projects to raise the quality of employees engaged in the geriatric sector and the sector's overall management."
The project has influenced the government to further accelerate the sector's development, formulate new policies and regulate its administration.
The "Tomorrow Project" was launched by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, targeting healthcare for disabled children in the orphanages.
It has made a remarkable contribution to helping the children undergo necessary operations and recover their health, Zhang said.
HSBC supported this project by establishing a rehabilitation center for orphaned and disabled children's healthcare.
"It has created a charity donation model for the whole society," said the department director, noting that the sustainability and influence of HSBC's charity efforts is another key feature of its work in this field.
"Their long-term and unceasing projects have strong capacity building and model effects, which has a far-reaching influence," he said, referring to the yearlong training for the staff of homes for the elderly as a prime example.
(China Daily 06/26/2007 page18)
