The Amity Foundation

The participatory approach in practice at the Forum

Amity sponsored a “Forum on Capacity Building for Project Managers”, which was held in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, earlier this month. More than 70 people attended the Forum, among them representatives of Peasants’ Associations, staff from local Amity project offices, the director of the Institute of History at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, Du Juan, the vice director of the Cangyuan Amity Village Development Association, Wei Meiying, and Amity’s assistant general secretary, He Wen. The Forum had two focus areas: firstly, the “participatory approach” used by Amity and its importance for the capacity building of project staff, and secondly, the preservation of cultural traditions in multi-ethnic Yunnan Province.

Continue reading ‘The Participatory Approach: Amity Forum for project managers’

Strategic planning was the topic of a recent training session at the new Amity NGO Incubator in Nanjing. Mr. Cui Yazhou, a trainer at the Incubator, outlined the definition and importance of strategic planning before he discussed the specific strategic plans of several organisations and, with the participants, looked at what is crucial for their implementation and success. This training session laid the groundwork for participants’ own thinking about strategic planning at their respective organisations.

Strategic planning is quite a new and even strange concept for Chinese non-governmental organisations. Most of them have so far not done any strategic planning at all, and this has severely limited their ability to work as well as their potential to grow. Chinese NGOs have found it difficult to move beyond certain causes and, instead of being innovators, tend simply to follow the government’s lead. The widespread lack of strategic planning has led some observers to worry about the future of NGO work in China.

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The Social Venture Group, which advises foundations, corporations and individual donors on philanthropic opportunities in China, has published an interview with Chu Chaoyu, the director of Amity’s Social Service Center. In 2007 he helped set up the Amity Bakery, a social venture which aims to provide job skills training for the mentally challenged.

For a number of years, the Amity Foundation has organised field trips to Amity project sites for people who are interested in finding out more about the situation in China far from the big cities and in the work Amity is doing all over the country. Members of the groups which go on such field trips, or inspection tours, pay for all their expenses themselves. The latest group has just returned from a trip named “On the Road – the 2010 inspection tour to orphan projects in the Yimeng mountainous area”. From Nanjing, the group travelled to Yishui and Linshu Counties in Shandong Province, where they spent three days visiting orphan projects.

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In recognition of the human tragedies following the disastrous earthquake in Haiti a few days ago, Amity has decided to contribute to the relief efforts there. Amity has received donations, yet since we have no local presence in Haiti, we have given HK$ 100,000 for relief work to Oxfam Hong Kong. We encourage our supporters to give generously to this cause (see our donations page).

The “Loving Heart Chocolate” campaign on Amity’s Chinese website has found strong resonance and has been supported by people from all walks of life. A lot of Nanjingers phoned in to order chocolates made by the disabled young people working at the Amity Bakery and to help make their dream of professional training come true.

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The Amity Foundation has supported the professional training of so-called “village doctors” (rural health workers) since 1989. More than 16,000 people were trained as part of this Village Doctor Training Program until 2000, when the duration of a full course was doubled from one and a half years to three years, and almost 15,400 more since then. The three-year course is a distance learning course. Amity’s Village Doctor Training Program is now running in 11 Chinese provinces: Jiangsu, Anhui, Guizhou, Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Hainan, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia.

Below we’re publishing the personal account of one of those tens of thousands of village doctors who have taken part in our program.

My name is Hai Yang. I took part in Amity’s Village Doctor Training Program and am now a village doctor in Houchuan, a village in Yuanzhou, which is part of Guyuan Prefecture in Ningxia Province. I love working in healthcare and think it’s great to be a health worker. In fact, being a health worker has always been my dream, and Amity has helped this dream come true.

Continue reading ‘A memorable winter’s day: the story of an Amity village doctor’

Curt Lindquist, who teaches at Reinhardt College, Georgia, USA, visited the Amity Foundation last summer and, on his return, encouraged his students to do some research of their own into China and Amity. He sent this report:

I had finally reached the Nanjing Amity office. I opened my notebook with my list of questions. Given the opportunity, I excitedly plunged into asking those questions. Immediately, I stopped. Smiling with a soft voice, She Hongyu said. “Let’s get to know each other for a bit before I answer your questions.” With that brief disarming comment, I knew that I would thoroughly enjoy getting to know the Amity staff. My intuition was right!

Continue reading ‘Reinhardt College Students Research the Amity Foundation’

Li Shuying is examined before her operation

Li Shuying is a 77-year-old woman from a village near Yan’an in Shaanxi Province. She has 4 children and lives with her eldest son. Her husband is bedridden as a result of chronic illness. After she became blind 4 years ago, she had great difficulty doing even the usual household chores. Like a lot of elderly people, she had to overcome several obstacles before she could undergo cataract surgery: The next suitable hospital was far away, the family didn’t have enough money to pay for the operation, she would need somebody to accompany her and look after her as well as somebody to take care of her husband during her absence. But with Amity’s help, she did get the operation, it was successful, and now she can see again.

Continue reading ‘Amity’s blindness prevention and treatment work’