The Amity Foundation

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.

Continue reading ‘Inspection tour to orphan projects’

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.

Continue reading ‘Giving the gift of Loving Heart Chocolate’

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’

By Theresa Carino

On November 10-12th 2009, the Amity Foundation held a Workshop on Drinking Water Projects in Nanning, Guangxi (see our earlier report). More than 30 participants from Guizhou, Guangxi, Beijing, Nanjing and Hong Kong attended the meeting. Organized in conjunction with Amity’s ongoing research on safe drinking water in China, the workshop had keynote speakers that included Mr. Jiang Bin from the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, Prof. Zhao Fei Hong of Beijing and Ms. Li Gui Xing from the Guangxi Provincial Water Bureau.

Continue reading ‘Amity Workshop on “Sustainability of Drinking Water Projects”’

Delegates from more than 180 countries are currently meeting in Copenhagen to discuss climate change and, it is hoped, agree on measures to fight it and reduce its impact. One big issue discussed at the meeting is the relationship between climate protection and the worldwide fight against poverty.

The Amity Foundation has worked in both these areas for many years. Below are some facts and figures about our environmental protection work.

Continue reading ‘Copenhagen and Amity’s environmental protection work’

A group of 23 delegates from World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), led by its director, Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, visited the Amity Foundation a few days ago. Amity’s General Secretary Qiu Zhonghui and Associate General Secretary She Hongyu welcomed the guests. Ms. She went on to give them an overview of Amity’s history and main fields of work as well as the cooperation with its international partner organisations. The visitors expressed their hope that there will be an opportunity for WEA and Amity to cooperate in the future. Later, the WEA delegation also visited the Amity Printing Company.

Service learning! LPC students helping to remove kernels from the corn.

Tsoi Han from Amity’s Hong Kong office joined students from Li Po Chun United World College on a trip to Amity projects in Guizhou Province. In her text below, she reflects on the kind of unhappiness which no development project can make go away.

“The moon weaves through the clouds
like through a sea of white lotus.
The evening breeze carries with it
peals of happy tunes.
We sit by the hay bales and listen
as Mother tells stories from the past …”

A little boy started singing in the dusk. The vastness of crop fields was his backdrop and the courtyard of a farmhouse his stage. A dozen villagers had gathered to watch a performance by some student visitors from faraway places. It wasn’t a bad turnout for LaQiaFan Village considering it was a market day.

Continue reading ‘A song of misery in a “model village”’