China's growing affluence has encouraged many locals and expatriates to give back to their community by helping the needy. EuroBiz takes a look at what a few charities in Shanghai are doing to make China a better place.

----By Anna Bartram

Hands on Shanghai

What it does: Provides volunteers for local charities
Founded in: 2004
Director: Richard Brubaker
Website: www.handsonshanghai.com
Hands on Shanghai's (HOS) main objective is to address the needs of local charities and organise groups of volunteers to help them. Because the majority of its volunteers are busy professionals HOS ensures projects are run on a flexible basis according to the limited time volunteers are able to offer. Most projects require a couple of hours' commitment on weekdays and three to four hours on weekends. Regular projects include English programmes with Soho-Ku, a charity which works with disabled children, and work with the Cerecare Wellness Centre, a residential facility in Shanghai for children suffering from cerebral palsy. HOS's project partners also include the charities Roots & Shoots, Sunrise Library, SCAA and Gift of Life. The projects it runs are successful because HOS manages the volunteers while the organisations manage the projects.

Q&A with Richard Brubaker, executive director of Hands On Shanghai:


Eurobiz: What is the main focus of Hands on Shanghai?

Richard Brubaker: Our main focus is volunteer advocacy. We run programs that provide volunteers for projects run by existing local charities. We don't fundraise; we simply provide teams of volunteers to work with other organisations. We don't have a specific target of who we work with either - volunteers help the aged, children and migrant workers - basically all those in need. Hands On Shanghai, headquartered in Atlanta, is an international charity with 50 affiliates worldwide in the US, South America, Africa, Asia, and the UK.

EB: What kind of people make up your volunteer base?

RB: Young professionals mostly, 60 percent of whom are ethnically Chinese and 40 percent foreign. We're currently trying to expand our volunteer base and are hoping to double or even triple it along with our programme base so as to further expand our assistance to the community.

EB: Hands On Shanghai also runs programmes outside the city. You're currently running one in Henan for example. What do these projects do?

RB: Most of the projects outside Shanghai are primarily donation programmes. We've done projects donating clothes in Anhui province, we're going to start team projects for constructing schools and we're looking to establish programs in Chengdu also. The current project in Henan is donation driven and will provide 5,000 care packages of hygienic and school supplies, hygienic instruction brochures and toys to kids at four schools outside Kaifeng. We're really pleased as UPS has recently agreed to sponsor the logistics costs related to the shipment of the goods by providing warehousing at a Shanghai facility and delivering the packages to the schools in Henan.

EB: Have you encountered any difficulties running a charity in China?

RB: Conditions regarding charity work in China have improved and there's a greater sense of awareness and a desire to understand and address problems. Where in the West you have to organise and advertise for volunteers, here the same activities occur as part of the strong community ties found within the various communities (family, neighborhood, company, etc). The government is very focused on solving the major problems, such as AIDS, and is maturing in its way of dealing with them, inviting international experts to come into China and give advice on such issues.

EB: Are more charities being run by local people?

RB: There are a considerable number of charities run by local people. Strong local NGOs already exist in China and I think more will emerge. The people who work in NGOs here have impressed me; they're often trained and educated specifically for NGO work. If you look at the charity sector outside the regulatory constraints its biggest obstacle, however, is management expertise. The direction is there and China has an amazing pool of resources, but management is still a problem.

EB: As people in China gain wealth and have a higher disposable income than they used to, do you think they will donate more to charity?

RB: I honestly don't know. I think it's a generational issue. Young people spend their money and don't save. The Shanghai government has publicly expressed their concerns about who will look after the elderly as the younger generation will no longer take on the responsibility. Chinese corporations on the other hand, like China Mobile, are certainly starting to give money to charities and are approaching PR firms on how to structure projects so they can establish links with local organisations. Shanghai Sunrise What it does: Provides educational sponsorship to underprivileged children Founded in: 1995 Director: Debbie Yang Website: www.shanghaisunrise.com Shanghai Sunrise is a non-profit volunteer-based organisation which provides educational sponsorship for underprivileged children in Shanghai. Since it started, it has donated books to over 120 school libraries and assisted over 1,200 students who are all sponsored on a one-to-one basis. Q&A with Debbie Yang, Director of Shanghai Sunrise

Eurobiz: Are all the children you sponsor from Shanghai?

Debbie Yang: Yes, they all have a Shanghai hukou or ID card and all have at least one parent from Shanghai. We only sponsor children who go to school in Shanghai as we visit each student on a regular basis, and if we worked with students outside of the city we wouldn't be able to do this.

EB: Who are the sponsors?

DY: We have sponsors from everywhere; expats in Shanghai, expats who used to live here and have now moved back home, local Shanghainese, companies, schools. Several of our sponsors live outside China in the US, Australia and Europe. They have never been to Shanghai but have seen our website and decided to sponsor a student.

EB: Do you tend to sponsor more children in high school or primary school?

DY: We've recently redirected our focus to high school students as they get less help from government subsidies and have the biggest need. EB: Has the money needed to sponsor a child increased in recent years? DY: The money that we give has actually decreased for primary schools (it costs RMB2000 per year, per child), it hasn't changed for middle schools (RMB2500 per year, per child) but it has increased for high schools (RMB3000 per yea, per child). This year the government said high school students can receive help but only those who go to professional, vocational and technical schools. Students attending regular high schools are not yet receiving government assistance. We don't provide a child with enough funds to cover all educational costs in high school as the cost varies from school to school. The sponsorship provided helps defer educational expenses.

EB: You started a new "University Scholarship Programme" in 2005. Do many of the students you sponsor in high schools go on to study at university?

DY: Eighteen Sunrise students are currently attending university in Shanghai. They are either on a Shanghai Sunrise University Scholarship, a sponsor-funded scholarship, or their sponsors have elected to continue sponsorship through university. My understanding is that if a child is accepted into a very good university, like Fudan University for example, they receive government funding and therefore don't meet the criteria for a Sunrise Scholarship. In 2005 we awarded two Shanghai Sunrise University Scholarships, one sponsor-funded scholarship and three sponsors chose to continue sponsorship. In March, Sunrise celebrated its 10th anniversary with a gala to raise funds for university scholarships. This, coupled with funds raised from the sales of our holiday cards, enabled Sunrise to fund eight scholarships for this school year. There were also three sponsor-funded scholarships available and one sponsor elected to continue sponsorship through university. In June this year we had 22 students graduate from high school, and 12 are going onto higher education. We hope this number will increase each year, however we feel that for a program that is only two years old we are off to an excellent start.

EB: How closely do you work with the street committees?

DY: Very closely, because the students who need help are recommended to us through them and through the Shanghai Charity Foundation. When we assess each child's situation, one person from the Shanghai Charity Foundation always accompanies us. We have a good relationship with the street and district committees.

EB: Do you run any projects between international schools and local schools in Shanghai?

DY: No, because we deal with the families not the schools. But I do know several international schools sponsor a child through Shanghai Sunrise; SCIS and Rego International School sponsor at least one child, and the teachers and students at Shanghai American School sponsor at least eight students. Students at Dulwich College International School also chose to support our organisation and started a Shanghai Sunrise Club themselves. YCIS also sponsors nine Sunrise students.

EB: How does it feel when you sponsor a child throughout their education from primary school all the way to university?

DY: Very nice! Shanghai Sunrise students are really amazing. They do so well in school and even if they aren't awarded a university scholarship through Sunrise, or if their sponsor doesn't continue sponsorship through university, they always say they will find a way to attend university. All Sunrise students come from very difficult backgrounds; most live with just one parent, some parents are mentally or physically handicapped or have terminal illnesses, and some live with their grandparents, while others have no family income at all. For students to receive a Sunrise sponsorship they must live below the poverty line which the government has recently changed from RMB300 to RMB320 per month per capita. Second Chance Animal Aid What it does: Provides health care and foster homes for abandoned animals Founded in: March, 2005 Director: Carol Wolfson Website: www.scaashanghai.org Second Chance Animal Aid (SCAA) is a non-profit organisation that provides Western-standard health care and finds fostering and adoptive homes for abandoned animals in Shanghai. It runs outreach community programmes to raise awareness about animal welfare and raises funds for existing local animal welfare projects. Q&A with Carol Wolfson, Director of SCAA

Eurobiz: How did SCAA start?

Carol Wolfson: SCAA is the only organisation of its kind in Shanghai, and in China. When we started in March 2005 there was nothing here, just money making scams where local people would pick up sick animals and sell them, yet would call themselves animal welfare organisations. Now there are hoarders; people who keep 100 or more animals, usually cats, in their home. They think they're doing good by getting the animals off the streets but they're kept in unhygienic conditions, they can't receive treatment and have no quality of life. We call ourselves a "mobile shelter" because we have no physical address; if we had a location people would literally dump thousands of animals over a wall or tie them up in boxes and leave them at the door. We already have 30-60 phone calls a day asking us to pick up abandoned animals that people have found, but that's not what SCAA does. Although there are emergency cases where we rush to personally save an animal, in general, if someone finds an abandoned animal they must foster it until SCAA can secure a foster parent, and we also ask them to pay for its first medical checkup. We have been recognised by the UK RSPCA and the WSPA for the successful foster programme we run.

EB: How many animals have been adopted?

CW: 252 in 18 months. It may not seem like a lot, but it's a long process for every single animal we rescue. Each animal is assessed when it first comes in; it has to be isolated, checked for disease, vaccinated, neutered and in some cases when the animal is too sick to cure or in great pain it is best for it to be euthanised. Behavioural problems are also observed to see if it is a risk to humans or other animals. Before it is adopted it is taken care of by foster parents where we can watch its behaviour and overall health condition. Often the foster parents end up adopting the animals themselves. We hold three adoption days each month to which the foster parents bring the animals and sometimes people just bring their children along to these days so the kids can pet the animals as there are so few chances for this kind of bonding in Shanghai. All of the get togethers we hold are very informal and joyous.

EB: How do you ensure the foster and adoptive parents are suitable for looking after animals?

CW: We do house checks for local adopters; unfortunately, we've had some disastrous effects from adopting to local people who know little about real pet care. We also urge people not to take their pets to local vets which are rarely licensed and poorly trained; they'll spend more in the long run fixing the problems. Most foster parents are expats; a lot of Australians (due to the need to take pets via a third country for six months prior to another month in Australian quarantine) and now some Japanese as we've had some media attention in Japan. But we desperately need more foster parents, as well as adoptive parents and more money! We're lowest on the totem pole for financial donations behind other "human" organizations, and our monthly medical bill has grown to US$2,000. It's a catch 22: the more animals we save, the higher the medical bills. We have sponsors that have donated gifts in kind - AGS Four Winds International Movers generously sponsor a van for example - but as of yet we have no corporations that just give us cash.

EB: What's been your most successful fundraiser?

CW: The Christmas party was very popular last year where we raised RMB60-70,000. We just held a fantastic event on September 10 where we auctioned off 20 eligible young bachelors for dinner dates and netted RMB42,000. It was a great night.

EB: Do you run programmes to promote animal healthcare?

CW: Yes, we run projects about pet care education in Chinese and international schools in Shanghai. Education is one of our main priorities together with foster care, promoting animal protection laws and urging boycotts on the horrific pet markets and stores that sell animals here. Most of the animals sold in markets are inbred from puppy/kitten farms, pumped full of antibiotics and have been weaned too early from their mothers. It's hard to walk away but if people buy them, they're only condoning these practices.

EB: So how do you promote animal protection laws?


CW: We work with international organisations who work with the government. It takes time but I believe there will be animal protection laws in the next five years. Cases such as the culling of 50,000 pet dogs in Yunnan for fear of spreading rabies incited protests from many young people. People are not putting up with this treatment of animals anymore. Dog culling wouldn't happen in Shanghai (the police would have to shoot us to get to our pets!) but we do urge everyone to get their dog licensed and muzzle them when walking if necessary. We also recommend walking the dog yourself and not just letting the maid do it; dog nappers do exist in Shanghai and it's easier for them to take a dog from a frail Chinese maid rather than a Westerner.