Charity fundraising platforms must be transparent

SHUIDICHOU.COM, an online charity platform raising funds to assist poverty-stricken sick people, was recently found to have appealed for donations to provide medical help for a sick girl, who actually comes from a well-off family. Guangming Daily comments:

Shuidichou received more than 250,000 yuan ($36,578) in donations to help the girl. But it failed to verify whether the girl and her family were really unable to afford the cost of treatment. It turns out the family lied about not being able to pay the girl's medical bills as it runs a rice noodle restaurant in Nanning in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

People were angry as the family refused to return the donations at first, but they chose to let Shuidichou off the hook by ignoring the fact that the organization failed to ascertain whether the family was truly in need of assistance or not, and also make sure that the donated money was used for the purpose for which intended.