Above all else, give us your skills

Zhou Huazhi, the first doctor assigned by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to Sudan conducts a prenatal examination at a local villager's home. A recent debate on China's aid to Africa has highlighted the significance of skilled professional training. Photos provided to China Daily

In debate on what Africans want and need most, the answer is clear

Doctor Zhou Huazhi says she can not forget the tragedy of a 27-year-old Sudanese woman who died during a troubled childbirth.

"She gave birth to the baby at home and suffered a postpartum hemorrhage. The baby survived but we failed to save the mother because she had been taken to the hospital too late," recalls Zhou, 52, maternity and children's care project head with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. The foundation is one of several Chinese non-governmental organizations that have experience in running overseas philanthropic programs.

"In China, pregnant women usually have cesarean operations no more than twice because of concerns about the risk, but in Sudan I've seen pregnant women have such surgery more than four times. It's too dangerous," she says.

Zhou, a veteran surgeon from Fujian province, was assigned to a poverty-stricken area in Sudan in 2012 to train midwives and spread knowledge about healthy maternity in the China-Sudan Abuashar Friendship Hospital, 140 kilometers south of the country's capital, Khartoum.

Her work is a good example of how China is providing "how to" knowledge in Africa and involving Africans in that process, as well as helping fill lasting infrastructure needs to support the new skills.

The importance of such work is clear from the starkness of the needs.

Pregnant women in rural Sudan often take four to five hours to reach the nearest hospital, which greatly increases the maternity mortality rate, says Howyda Osman M. Ahmed, project manager with Al Bir and Al Tawasul Organization. The group is one of the biggest chartable organizations in Sudan.

"Most of our midwives have limited knowledge about childbirth. Thanks to China, the maternity mortality rate in the hospital has been cut to zero."

The Abuashar hospital, jointly built by PetroChina, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and Al Bir and Al Tawasul Organization, opened in mid-2011 and treated more than 52,000 patients from more than 200 nearby villages last year. It had annual revenue of $1.53 million in 2012, the only annual figure available, which means the hospital has been able to balance its books.

Chinese companies have completed more than 1,000 major projects in 54 countries, according to a speech in March by Foreign Minister Wang Yi and figures from the Department of Commerce.

But a debate has surfaced: What do Africans want most? The answer appears to be that the people of the world's second most populous continent are calling for the skills they need to live and thrive, even more than for infrastructure and donations of goods such as food or clothing.

While China built the Abuashar hospital and provided advanced equipment for it, Ahmed says the biggest challenge for locals remains a shortage of skilled professionals.

About 400 politicians, academics and heads of charitable organizations from 15 countries in Africa talked about the importance of such training at a series of philanthropic forums held in Wuxi, Southeast China's Jiangsu province, from May 16 to 18.

The forums are part of the 2014 Lingshan Philanthropy Promotion Convention, a national charitable platform approved and led by the Ministry of Civil Affairs since 2012. The convention works on project training, international cooperation and source sharing for philanthropic organizations around the world.

Africans have an urgent demand for knowledge and skills to "transform poverty to prosperity", says Joan Kakwenzire, senior presidential adviser on poverty alleviation in Uganda.

China has invested $596 million in Uganda, which now has 265 Chinese businesses with representative offices or branches that have created 28,000 jobs for locals.

"We have gone beyond government to government, and should go to people to people," Kakwenzire says. "We want you (Chinese) to teach us how to fish in our biggest lake, and how to grow fruit, vegetables, and raise honeybees. We want you to be our teacher."

She says she has read about the struggles the Chinese people went through to resolve many long-term problems. "We want you to tell us how to conquer disease and starvation."

The appeal is echoed by Fatima Alamin Abdullah, chairwoman of Al Bir and Al Tawasul Organization and wife of a former vice-president of Sudan.

"We want to train more midwives and medical staff. We think it is very important, because if you train the people, they can take on their responsibilities to take care of the pregnant women and help to develop their communities," Abdullah says.

Poverty, political conflict and the ignorance of women in rural areas have made it more difficult to spread up-to-date information on maternity and infant health care, she says.

Many experts with decades of experience in philanthropy say assistance to Africa should be designed specifically for the area where it is going.

For example, in South Sudan, almost 90 percent of women give birth at home because their husbands are reluctant to send their wives to hospitals, a 2011 United Nation report says.

"Based on my experience in Africa, in poverty-stricken areas, people know what they most urgently need," says Pierre Ryter, head of the Regional Delegation for East Asia of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"Therefore, any outside assistance should respect the needs of the people and conditions on the ground."

Ryter says most international NGOs and assistance providers are "giving fish" more than "teaching to fish" in disasters and emergencies, which often is the first phase of aid. Afterward are the early recovery and development phases, when the transformation to "teaching" begins.

"It is relatively easy to transfer hardware to Africa, such as highways or other infrastructure," Ryter says. But transferring needed "soft" skills is a long-term process that cannot be driven by donors, he says.

"When it comes 'software' or skills, there is no 'copy to paste' approach. To become sustainable, such skills have to be an integral part of the culture of the recipient country."

There is no one-size-fits-all model for philanthropy in Africa, Ryter says. "Before providing assistance, we should know what African people need and adapt to their way of doing things."

Lu Hailin, council member of the UN Association of China, says locals in aid-recipient countries need to be involved with projects from beginning to end.

"Our African friends should participate in the entire progress, including planning, operations and the final evaluation, which will make sure the aid jobs are done well."

xufan@chinadaily.com.cm

(China Daily Africa Weekly 05/30/2014 page28)