Editorials

Manage donations well

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-19 08:01

Any waste of donated money or materials constitutes an abuse of the benevolence of the donors. And it is unforgivable.

A report on medicine and medical materials left unused in a makeshift hospital in suburban Beijing's Changping district six years after the hospital was shut down has brought this issue to the surface. The materials were donated by enterprises and people from all walks of life for the fight against SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

With Beijing reeling under the epidemic, the relief materials donated were worth more than 70 million yuan ($10.2 million) in the city. Of them, materials worth 15 million yuan were left unused, and some of them are now unusable.

It is obvious that there is much to be desired on how donated relief materials are managed in a way that can be used where they should be in a most efficient manner.

As far as legislation is concerned, we only have a law on Red Cross societies and a law on donations for public benefit. They have only very general stipulations about the management of donated materials and money.

Manage donations well

How to make the best use of every penny to benefit the aid receiver is no small matter after the earthquake in Sichuan last year greatly raised Chinese people's awareness of charity.

Letting donors know that the money and material they have donated have been put to best use in relieving victims of their problems is the best way to encourage more to participate in charity activities.

After the earthquake last May, some individuals and enterprises transported relief materials to the quake-devastated areas but could find no one to receive them. As a result, they had to dump the materials by the roadside. And whether the donations match the needs of the victims is also an issue that needs to be addressed. This happened after the earthquake when medicines or materials transported to the quake areas were not what the disaster-stricken people most urgently needed.

The health bureau chief in Sichuan province made an urgent call to donors days after the earthquake that random donation of medicine or medical equipment may lead to waste if they were not what the victims needed.

All these problems send the message that well-organized relief work is badly needed. It is not only with government departments at various levels, but also non-governmental organizations. We also need legal codes to stipulate detailed procedures for the management of donated materials and money.

The country's laws on charity and donations are in the making. Those who are drafting the two laws need to investigate existing problems and at the same time learn from the experience of other countries that have done a good job in this regard.

Hopefully, the problems exposed can be food for thought in the building of a desirable mechanism for the management and distribution of donated relief materials and money.

(China Daily 11/19/2009 page8)