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Where's the money?
By Ma Guihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-07 11:14
Help that is 'more spiritual than material'
Donating to charity is not a novelty in China. Some 2,300 years ago, Chinese philosopher Mencius said that a man should contribute to society when he is well off and able to do so.
The tradition was lost in the pursuit of personal wealth in the newly introduced market economy. The increasing income disparity woke up many of the newly wealthy beneficiaries of China's reform and open economic policies.
It is against this backdrop that Xu Yongguang's Project Hope came to the fore. Since 1989, the initiative under China Youth Development Foundation has raised more than 5.7 billion yuan ($838 million), built more than 15,000 Hope primary schools and assisted at least 3 million children with their schooling.
"In pure economic terms, the 5.7 billion yuan could only build 7 km of subway in Shanghai. But the schools sponsored by Project Hope have accounted for 4 percent of the country's rural primary schools," Xu says. He notes that the social contribution of Project Hope is more spiritual than material. "It's goes far beyond what is visible to the naked eye."
When the earthquake struck Southwest China last May, killing over 70,000, many school buildings were reduced to rubble, taking thousands of young lives. But there wasn't a single death in any of the 500 or so Hope Schools in quake-hit areas.
"I'm gratified that the schools stood the tough test of the quake and didn't let down the donors," says the 60-year-old Xu.
Project Hope has inspired others in China's philanthropic sphere such as the Spring Buds Project that helps girls to return to school and the Mothers' Cistern Project that assists women in Northwest China's drought-plagued Loess Plateau to collect rain water for drinking.
Since 2004, when the Regulation on the Administration of Foundations was issued, many private funds have joined the ranks of charity foundations. By 2006, 349 private foundations stood along with some 900 public foundations.
To date, there are 414,000 registered charity organizations in China, engaging in services ranging from health, AIDS and disability to culture, education and environment. If grassroots non-governmental organizations are taken into account, the number could easily top 1 million.
