Introduction
Networks for Mutual Help and Civil Society: from Shanghai to Yunnan
Wang Li
I am a new shanghainese, or at least this is what other people say.... (Pause) I came to Shanghai in 1991 from Sichuan. And with Ku Haiyang, a disabled person started a small but happy family. We were content to live the quiet simple life.... in 2001 an event occurred that completely changed my life and my previous way of thinking... I was given the opportunity of a free prosthetic limb by a charitable organization (it would be nice to name them)...Receiving help like that in such an unselfish manner changed my feelings and moved me deeply.... Later I gradually have begun to understand their activities... I introduced other disabled people so that they could share in the benefits that this organization gave... I shall never forget the joy that other disabled showed when they obtained free prosthetics. Truly the confidence of many disabled people increased 100%. In fact the only thing brighter than the sun was the smiling faces of those the organization had helped
One day I heard that a 16-year-old female junior high school student had been in her home when a fire started and as a result her face was disfigured. I told her story to a German friend working in Shanghai, who contacted a German principal living in Shanghai, the Germany principal contacted a Foundation based in the state of Bavaria, and the Foundation raised 100,000 Euros for her going to Germany for treatment and rehabilitation. It seemed so unbelievable to me that the small link I had established had been such a big help for this student. Later on I created a “network of love” for people with disabilities. The network introduced them to people eager to do good deeds and initiate mobilizing resources to help the disabled people.
Over the past few years, we have had a lot of volunteers coming to help. They come from not just shanghai but 20 different countries….At the start, the work was focused on prosthetics, material for rehabilitation, clothing, and so on, but later my thinking focused on long-term support. We should be offering skills training and learning opportunities.. We slowly found volunteer teachers for organizing two English classes, two arts and crafts training classes. We began to organized outings and encounters with others… In such an atmosphere, volunteers also learnt to know other people and made personal progress.
An online appeal to aid a six month old Tibetan girl to go to Shanghai for an operation to resection of a tumor created a network of more than 20 volunteers… We united together to help the girl receive 37 days of hospitalization…. Once, because of a mistake, the doctor in charge of anesthesia cancelled the planned surgery. The outcry from the volunteers was amazing. We understood at that time that the volunteers’ behavior was not as ideal as one would expect but it showed their dedication and commitment After a process of communication with the doctor, the operation was rescheduled.. I can tell you now that after the successful operation there was not a dry eye amongst the volunteers, can you truly imagine people banded together to help save the life of a young child that they did not even know.
In 2006 I learnt online about a small village in Yunnan - Napa village – recruiting volunteer teachers, and then in October I went to that small village and discovered that it was a Tibetan village located in the county of Shangri-La, 12 km away from the county township, located at an altitude of 3,260 m, the villagers being half farmers and half herders numbering 41 households for a total of 227 inhabitants. When I left the village, I could not forget the simple and smiling face of the children.
In May 2007, I recruited online a Shanghai volunteer to go to Napa for one year and teach children. The determination with which this volunteer teacher quit his job moved all of us. In July and August I and 19 volunteers from Shanghai went to Napa in order to help in organizing activities.
Napa village’s location is beautiful, between mountains and a lake. Before arriving to the village there is an "alpine wetland bird habitat Natural Reserve" consisting of the "Napa Lake." After the village lies a virgin forest typical of highlands climate. The village’s per capita arable land accounts for less than three acres, and the harvest fiduciary product allows only for food and clothing. Considering the situation, our plan focuses on the development of an eco-tourism village. At the start, two villagers have had the opportunity to build and convert rooms in their houses, repair toilets, and rely on solar energy. Each villager gave some money, and so did our volunteers, in order to help two villagers to rebuild their houses, with the conditions that, when receiving visitors, the villagers give 8% of the revenue to the village committee as management fee. When the toilets and shower rooms were installed in the village, villagers went from harboring doubts about the usefulness of the improvement to gradually becoming accustomed to using the toilet, which made us most happy. We have participated in the meetings of this traditional village, from the ones focusing on projects to the ones concerned with implementation, and we were most surprised to see the villagers being extremely democratic in their discussions. Once there was a meeting to discuss whether to send children into the township for the fifth grade of primary school, half of the parents not agreeing, considering the road too long and unsafe and also the subsequent reduction of the labor force; they boldly stated their concerns. I thought it was a very good thing to express one’s difficulties, for it also shows the willingness to be helped out of them.
Napa’s future has been a constant topic of our discussions; children’s education is the core issue; within this village of over 200 people, none of them finished primary school. It is necessary to continue to search for teachers, the standard of the fourth grade students of the village is more or less the one of first grade students in the cities, but the children’s cleverness and capacities are far higher than our initial assessment. The one year experience of a volunteer teacher has given us a lot of information to ponder over. For instance, while learning Chinese, we hope that at the same time the children can learn to read Tibetan; the only lama in the village is also the only one who will write Tibetan. Villagers and children only speak it, and now the village lama has opened a Tibetan reading and writing class for free, saying that what we can do, he can do it too.
Among the events we organized, we have brought 25 school-age children in the village to the county for a medical and physical check-up, 14 students were under standard, with problems in height, weight, calcium deficiency, presence of hepatitis B, and so on. During a village meeting, we asked the parents to attach importance to their children’s health problems. We also surveyed 41 households, made records and analysis, so as to understand their present status and their mode of existence.
Once, a volunteer was bitten at the waist by a Tibetan mastiff dog, just during the time when the village was experiencing annual floods, so we had no way to leave the village, and felt very anxious. Villagers tied three logs together, we stood on them, and the villagers paddled for one hour in order that our volunteer could arrive in time at the township and deliver an anti-rabies vaccine. Afterwards, we went to the county and the prefecture government, exposing the situation of Napa when there were floods. The county government allocated special funds to buy a boat for the villagers; this was the first time they were enjoying a boat trip experience. Before, during the annual floods they had to make a full circuit throughout the mountains or to find a ford. With a boat, the villagers can go in a much shorter time to the township for selling matsutake, for July and August are the time for the matsutake harvest, which constitutes the only opportunity for monetary revenue.
This is the end of my account of a small experience in a village. I can not say that the situation we witnessed in Napa is ideal: the villagers have been doing much logging, the sale of timber helps them to make a living for surviving; the so-called preserved wetland area you find before arriving at Napa has become the sewage place for the county township, where garbage is piling up; grassland and husbandry are continuously regressing.
I very much hope that in 2008 even more volunteers will be willing to go to Napa. We wish to provide volunteers with a real experience in the field, make them pursue their various understandings of the situation, and then make their own judgments. Nevertheless, we always stress that what is always to be maintained is the need to know what the villagers are thinking, because we and they are living together.
Before I bring my speech to a close, I would like to extend my personal Thanks and gratitude to the volunteers for the devotion and commitment they have shown and also to the Benefactors who have supported us in changing people lives.
Thank you!
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