The Amity Foundation

Amity’s blindness prevention and treatment work

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.

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Amity Workshop on “Sustainability of Drinking Water Projects”

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.

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Copenhagen and Amity’s environmental protection work

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.

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WEA delegation visits Amity

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.

A song of misery in a “model village”

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.

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