This month EuroBiz continues to talk with some of the charities lending a helping hand in Shanghai and beyond

----By Anna Bartram

What it does: Runs play sessions for hospitalised children and raises financial support for the children and their families. Founded in: 2003
Director: Christine Cullen
Website: www.heart2heartshanghai.net

Heart to Heart organises activity sessions six days a week in the playroom of the Shanghai hospital where children are operated on for holes in their hearts. It provides support for the children and their families while they are staying in the hospital and is now extending its work to provide financial and material support to the families' villages.

Q&A with Christine Cullen, Executive Director of Heart to Heart Shanghai

Eurobiz: You recently changed your name from Gift of Life Friends to Heart to Heart Shanghai. Why is that?

Christine Cullen: Our volunteer group was initially formed to conduct play sessions with children undergoing heart surgery at a Shanghai hospital. This was at the suggestion of the Gift of Life committee of the Rotary Club of Shanghai as their sponsorship scheme was involved with some of these children. We named ourselves Gift of Life Friends as we were supporting their project by our involvement with the children. As we are non-Rotarians we had relative autonomy to run our group's activities and we were self-supporting through our own initiatives, which enabled us to provide playroom furniture and toys. As we grew in size so did our purpose, as it was obvious the children needed more than just the activities we organised for them in the playroom. We observed that they were often from poor rural backgrounds and were in need of additional clothes, food and blankets for their return to their villages after their surgery, as did their parents quite often. We learnt more about their education needs and living circumstances and we wanted to be able to give more to each child in terms of support which was not within the parameters of the Gift of Life programme. We consider ourselves to be a community outreach group of volunteers and we now sponsor children under our own name and conduct our own fundraising and community awareness projects to support these children and their families in more encompassing ways.

EB: Where are the children you work with from? CC: Anhui, Jiangxi and Jiangsu provinces. The Women's Federation representatives in these areas become aware of children who, due to illness, are not growing properly or are missing many days from school. They visit the family and assess their needs and help them get medical tests for the children, which often show that the child has a hole in the heart congenital defect. Many of the families are not fully covered by medical insurance schemes and they do not have the means to initiate surgery for their child. This is when we try to help them. Some of the families don't want to risk operations on the children even if they are told the risks of not operating. I can understand this from their point of view; they don't have wide access to information or statistics about the prognosis and the needed surgery and these kinds of heart operations seem very risky to them and they are fearful that their child will not survive the surgery. If they do agree for the child to have the operation they come to Shanghai by public transport, which can be very distressing when the child is ill. That is why we are trying to work with a hospital in Wuxi as this would be closer to the hometowns of many of the children and would lessen the travel burden.

EB: What help do you give to them?

CC: We hold play sessions in the children's playroom at the hospital where groups of no more than five volunteers at a time work with the children and their parents. We don't want to totally overwhelm the children, so we have their parents join us in the playroom. There's always laughter in the playroom, which is a great way of connecting with the children and their families. It's great to see the difference in the parents as well; when their child is in ICU it helps to take their mind off things for a while. We now have more than 70 volunteers who help in a variety of ways. Some volunteer in the playroom whilst others knit cardigans or help assemble our Heart Bears or collect and distribute toys, clothes and personal hygiene packs that we hand out to those that want them in the hospital or take larger supplies out to their villages.

EB: As Heart to Heart's efforts extend to the children's hometowns, will the work of your group grow to be more equal between the hospital and the villages? CC: Yes, definitely. Only a limited number of volunteers are allowed into the hospital at one time, but because of our contact with these children and their families we have realised they may need more than just the good medical attention they receive at the hospital. What we do isn't just life saving, it's life changing. Playing with the children in the hospital has a positive effect on their post-operative recovery, and if we can assist we try to ensure that the children can continue to go to school after their operation and recovery, as education is really the key to all development for kids. We've helped with education costs and have provided school libraries for two village schools and who knows; maybe we'll be funding university grants down the line for some children. We also recognise that some of the other village neighbours of these children may be grateful for clothing, so we send clothing and school supplies to them. All of the families that we are in contact with have such wonderful community bonds that it is a joy to go and visit with them, and they are so proud to have their foreign friends come to see them.

EB: Heart to Heart has received support from the Expatriate Professional Women's Society-Shanghai (EPWS), which acknowledges professional women who have a full-time career as well as being valuable members of the community. Do you think there is a growing trend of women who can achieve both? CC: Yes. The EPWS has a good network of working and retired women who not only have their own community awareness programmes, but who also channel information about community outreach needs back to their organisations. These women work full time but still find the time to become involved with community outreach projects. With Heart to Heart being a group focused on children, maybe women empathise more with our programmes, but within corporate Shanghai, where most CEOs are male, the situation is changing as we are certainly receiving calls of interest from their companies. Chevron, GE and Pepsi Cola have approached me recently wanting to know how they could initiate programmes within their own group to help with a Heart to Heart community project. The desire to help is out there, it's just a question of how to channel it, and if Heart To Heart can be the conduit to do this we would be very happy to assist!

Roots and Shoots

What it does: Runs environmental education programmes for young people
Founded in: November 1999
Director: Tori Zwisler
Website: www.jgi-shanghai.org

Roots & Shoots is the international environmental education programme for the Jane Goodall Institute and it became the first foreign-affiliated NPO to be approved by the Chinese government in November 2004. The organisation raises awareness about environmental, animal and human issues through local involvement with schools and universities, encouraging young people to manage and direct projects and take action themselves to improve their community and surroundings. Projects include poverty alleviation in Anhui province, recycling initiatives in Shanghai and work with the Fusui Leprosy Rehabilitation Village in Guangxi.

Q&A with Tori Zwisler, Director of Jane Goodall Institute-Shanghai

Eurobiz: What does Roots & Shoots do?

Tori Zwisler: We run environmental education programmes for children through after school groups. They are all voluntary and project-based and the kids range from primary to university age.

EB: What kind of schools do you work with, international or local?

TZ: Both. We have more than 130 schools, 10 of which are international, 20 are universities and the rest local schools. We have good links with them but don't do any overt marketing ourselves to contact them. Students start their own groups and then we provide mentors and trainers to help them.

EB: Is there a balance between the environmental and human aspects to the charity?

TZ: Yes, we try to keep a balance. Our groups are directed to manage a minimum of three projects per year, one for animals, one for people, and one dealing with the environment. We work with NGO animal groups and have cooperatives with environmental groups in China. We're a big network and just aim to keep the kids involved and aware of different issues.

EB: Do you raise money?

TZ: We raise money for the projects that we run. We're currently involved in building Roots & Shoots' first school in Yangshan village, Anhui. We're paying for the building work but will also be involved in teacher training in the school. It's a way we can make a large, sustainable impact without needing a political connection.

EB: Are there other Roots & Shoots groups in Asia, and how much contact do you have with them?

TZ: There are other groups in China and also in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. We run joint projects with the other groups in China but not within Asia. When you work with school kids it's hard to afford the time and money to join up with groups outside the area. We are, however, having a China R&S summit meeting in October on Chongming Island near Shanghai, which Jane Goodall will attend. The meeting will address the citywide projects we run and workshops to learn about programmes involving organic gardening, AIDS awareness, project management and nature appreciation of Chongming Island.

EB: What are the AIDS awareness programmes you run?

TZ: We work with university students teaching them how AIDS is spread and how it is treated. There is a gap between what is known in the world about AIDS and what is known in China. These programmes are a means of teaching awareness in a non-political, non-confrontational way.

Soho-Ku

Founded in: 2003
Director: Wang Li
Website: www.soho-ku.com
Email: apleinesmains@hotmail.com

Founded by a group of disabled people, Soho-Ku meets the material needs of the disabled community through donations of clothes and furniture as well as providing encouragement and support to improve their practical skills. Together with other Shanghai organizations, A Pleines Mains and Hands on Shanghai, Soho-Ku runs regular workshops offering handicraft and foreign language teaching.

Q&A with Wang Li, Director of Soho-Ku

Eurobiz: How was Soho-Ku started?

Wang Li: At the beginning, our charity became known to disabled people through the social workers who work with the disabled community through street committees. Each social worker is paid an average of RMB750 by the government to look after the disabled persons in their district. We first built our network through the social workers in order to help disabled people. Our website is the major way in which we communicate to others about what we do, but handicapped people have few opportunities to go on our website. So last year we ran a project asking people to donate old computers they didn't want which we could fix and then give to handicapped people to access the Internet.

EB: Is there much discrimination against disabled people in China?

WL: Yes, a lot, especially in the workplace. Companies have to pay a penalty sum if they don't have the required quota of 1.6 percent disabled employees making up their total staff. However, they often prefer to pay this penalty instead of actually employing handicapped people.

EB: What does Soho-Ku do to help the disabled community?

WL: We work with foreigners in Shanghai to provide volunteers, furniture, clothes and computers for the disabled community. We have a lot of disabled people who want to learn English or French or another skill that will get them out into the community and help them find employment, but not all street committees accept our interventions. We are given material support and work closely with A Pleines Mains, a charity set up by French people in Shanghai which provides volunteers and matches donations to local charities. The donations we give are all small ways of helping. Regarding the companies that support us, they are all international firms as the Chinese ones prefer to give to government groups, not private groups like Soho-Ku.

EB: Do you think the situation regarding the disabled community will improve in the future?

WL: Yes, slowly. For now we just help people's personal situations by giving clothes and furniture, etc.

06-11-15 WL: Yes. Soho-Ku and A Pleines Mains help the Rong Xian government school for disabled children by providing money for the children's' school meals. I am also going to Lijiang, Yunnan, in October to help a disabled friend set up a school for minority children. Another project is in Jiangxi province where we hope to help handicapped people sell their painted pottery to shops in Shanghai.