anl no. 96.4

3.VolunteerisminChina

5.e-Charity

6.Sharingfromvolunteers

8.UpdatesonPostEarthquakeReconstructioninSichuan

9.TheAmityFoundationVolunteerWorkSharing

10.AnnualVolunteerCarnivalinNanjing

12.“HerecomesSanta”

VolunteersandVolunteerism

Amity NewsletterA QuArterly Bulletin

No. 96/4 • O

ctober - Decem

ber 2011

ANL96.4.indd27Feb.indd1 2/29/201212:09:16PM

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The Amity Newsletter is a quarterly publication reporting on the projects of the Amity Foundation distributed free of charge.

Bank detailsAccount holder: Amity Foundation, Hong Kong.Account number: 1�7-5-01737�The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, �38 Nathan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

If you would like to receive the Newsletter, or desire further information on any of our projects, please feel free to write or call. Institutions receiving the Newsletter are welcome to reprint articles. Credit should be given to the Amity Newsletter, Quarterly Bulletin of the Amity Foundation.

Published by The Amity FoundationPrinted by the Amity Printing Company, Ltd.Editor in Chief: She HongyuEditor: Harry ChingVolunteer Editor: Isabel Hess-FriemannCreative Team: Wendy Wu

Hong Kong OfficeThe Amity Foundation Hong Kong, Ltd., 13/F, Ultragrace Commercial Building, 5 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong KongPhone: (+85�) �7�3-8011Fax: (+85�) �366-�769E-mail: [email protected]

HeadquartersThe Amity Foundation, 71 Hankou Road, Nanjing, �10008, ChinaPhone: (+86) �5-83�6080�E-mail: [email protected]

At Walk For Living Water, the Annual Fund

Raising Event for the Hong Kong Office

Editorial: The VolunteersWelcome to the last edition of the Amity Newsletter in 2011. I came to Amity as the

interim editor for the ANL, replacing Anders Granberg who returned to his native Europe for further studies.

Over the course of the past twenty six years, the Amity Foundation is supported by endless numbers of volunteers in our projects. Based on the principle ‘it is better to give than recieve’ . Myself included, as I was involved with several Amity organised events before serving Amity as a member of staff.

I was privileged to be part of the Summer English Programme (SEP) , the SEP demonstrated the needs for more teachers of English in China to connect with the English speaking world, as they had limited opportunity to connect with the outside world. The other project I was involved in was a service learning expereicence by visiting the orphans in northern Jiangsu. We understood that how vunlerable human lives could be in parts of China. Thousands of toddlers or infants were orphaned by traffic accidents or widows abondoning their own children and in-laws then marrying someone else in another place.

Although 80 millions of volunteers could outnumbered any other countries’ population alone, yet the percentage 7% out of a population of 1.3 billion is still a relatively low figure. In comparison to most western countries, over a quarter of the population offer themselves in voluntary services; there is also a realisation that Mainland China is still recieving support from a high proportion of support from external volunteers.

The rise of the Chinese economy provides a growth of the middle class in Mainland China. NGOs must utlise this opportunity to promote the virtue of philanthrophy amongst them. Addtionally, the increase in the number of university graduates amongst the new generation would provide NGOs with further human resources, to buy into this vision towards caring for others rather than solely focusing on personal wealth or reputation.

The advance of teachnology has given us the advantage to connect with one another more than ever before. Donation via the internet or mobile phones and campaigning through social networks has become more convenient than the conventional methods in newspapers or magazines.I hope by reading this issue of ANL, you can understand futherthe needs of volunteering and take extra action to support philanthropy in China.

Harry Ching

The Amity Foundation is an independent Chinese voluntary organisation. It was created in 1985 on the initiative of Chinese Christians. It has worked to promote education, social services, health, and rural development in the underdeveloped areas of China.

Amity’s work is grounded in the belief that all human beings share the same dignity. Abiding by the principle of mutual respect in faith, Amity builds friendship with both Christians and non-Christians in China and abroad. In this way, Amity contributes to China’s social development and openness to the outside world. It makes Christian involvement and participation in meeting the needs of society more widely known to the Chinese people and serves as a channel for people-to-people contact and the ecumenical sharing of resources. Helping to develop civil society in China is one of the key aims of its work.

The Amity Foundation has about 60 full-time staff at its Nanjing headquarters. Hundreds of volunteers work with Amity all over China. The foundation receives funds from partners abroad as well as in Hong Kong and mainland China.


3www.amityfoundation.org

Volunteerism in China and Practice in Chinese Social Organisation She Hongyu

According to China Volunteers Association, by the end of 2010, there were more than 80 million volunteers in China, which accounts for 7% of the total population.

2008 has been recorded as a mile stone for volunteerism

in China, In the Olympics in Beijing, 1.7 million volunteers offered their service during the game. Media commented “Smiling volunteers won another gold for Beijing.” During the Sichuan earthquake, three million volunteers helped with the earthquake in all possible ways they could.

SEP volunteers visiting the school for migrant workers’ children

It goes without saying that the number for volunteers was surged by the two major events in 2008 and the media, thereafter has reached a new high. The earthquake and the Olympics no doubt, have greatly inspired and stimulated the enthusiasm for volunteerism among Chinese people, demonstrated the strong force and great potential of the volunteers, promoted the voluntary spirit and voluntary culture in the society.

Civil society organizations play important roles in society. In China, with the development of market economy, the role and function of government is changing, the sense of citizen as a whole is getting improved. The growing up of volunteers group, the development of voluntary organizations are the important factors of cultivating and constructing a civil society.

How can social organizations attract volunteers and promote volunteerism and expand their supportive groups?

Accountability of social organizations is vitalVolunteer service is defined as those who uses his/her

own time to provide service and help voluntarily with no

intention of gaining physical reward. Accountable service to the disadvantaged group will stimulate the enthusiasm of the volunteers and help them to realize the value and importance of their volunteer service. The high accountability of the organization will increase the desire and add the value for those who volunteer with the social organisation.

Training volunteers on the VMG of the social organization is key

Making volunteers understand the vision, mission and goal of the organization, appreciating the organization culture, willing to work with disadvantaged group such as the elderly, the disabled, the poor is important. One could not expect a volunteer who has desperate fear and strong stigma on the disabled people to work whole heartedly with the group. On the other hand, social organizations would require commitment from the volunteers to respect and work under the same VMG.

A toddler putting a bank note into the collection box at the Amity Carnival in Nanjing

A university student playing with a kid from the rural villages


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A SEP volunteer helping Children of

Migrant Workers

Tree planting during SEP in Sichuan

Handing out Christmas gifts to students from under-privileged background

Supervision of volunteers work is important

Voluntary work needs supervision by experienced staff at the social organizations. Guiding through the process, setting clear standards for the job volunteers involve, solve problems that occur along the road will help maintain a stable force of volunteers.

Innovation of the voluntary work is the lifelineCreating new voluntary opportunities, involving volunteers with

new creations and innovation would give a constant new blood to the voluntary work

Motivating scheme as a strategyRecognizing the volunteers contribution, giving them proper

recognition in public will strongly motivate volunteers to involve more actively. Amity Foundation give annual dinner to key volunteers and award the top 10 volunteers to recognize and appreciate their contribution to the organization in the year.

Promote understanding and appreciation of the voluntary spirit in society as a long term goal

Through all kinds of activities that volunteers participate, social organizations shoulder the responsibilities promoting the voluntary spirit—make volunteerism a habit in people’s lives.

Strategies to promote volunteerism

Establishment of complete law frame for voluntary serviceThere should be a complete law frame to specify and protect

the right of voluntary service by the citizens, and also to regulate the illegality in the process. Strengthen organization’s capacity in bringing up the quality of voluntary activities. Social organizations need to specify the responsibilities and provide professional training for the volunteers. Draw specific training curriculum for the different volunteers. Include communication, organization and fund raising in the training curriculum. It is important for social organizations to establish a wider social resource network and increase voluntary personnel pool.

Establish strong motivation system

Voluntarism will not sustain only on the basis of dedication and love. Only with proper rewarding and encouragement, could volunteerism develop in a long and healthy direction. Self encouragement and stimulation are important, yet recognition and encouragement from the social organizations and the society could not be neglected.

Today, China is in a great changing era. The development of voluntary organizations will be an activator of the civil society. In this process of building a more harmonious, volunteers will be a strong and vivacious force.

Volunteers at the Volunteers Carnival in Nanjing



Thirteen years old Tian Jinlei is an expert on the different functions a mobile phone has to offer. Like his classmates he does not only enjoy the great variety of games and fun applications, but also uses the transportable device for his homework and social networking. Coming from a migrant background, Jinlei never had a fixed line telephone or internet access at home. For a

great percentage of Chinese citizens it is the mobile device which caters every type of information and communications needs.

A cute little penguin, the trade-mark for the instant messaging service QQ already became an integral part of the average Chinese childhood. While the generation born before 1980 is characterized by a certain respect or even reluctance towards the new media, the younger generation takes it use for granted without giving it a second thought, mastering technical challenges in a most natural and playful manner. Jinlei recalls that he had been introduced to QQ by a friend three years ago. Now he testifies that girls and boys in Grade 2, age seven or eight, use it regularly. The red scarf wrapped around the penguins neck illustrates “weibo” (Micro Blog in Chinese). It is a symbolic play with characters characters wich share the same pronunciation for different meanings. In this specific case weibo in the sense of “scarf wrapped around the neck” turned into the internet slang for Micro Blog. The dissemination of this service is growing rapidly. According to China Internet Network Information Center, in the first half of 2011, Chinese weibo users increased from 63.11 million to 195 million. There are close to 20 different China-based microblogging services. The most visited or traffic generating service is Sina Weibo. Due to the large number of instant message service QQ’s users, Tencent surpassed Sina in terms of registered users, reaching 136.7 million in June 2011.

Internet and other new media offer new options for commerce, advertisement and information exchange, but also for social engagement. The first charity foundation established by a Chinese internet enterprise was the Tencent Charity Fund with its public charity website gongyi.qq.com going life in June 2007. The goal of the platform was to establish a multi-dimensional philanthropy model, following the Web 2.0 software upgrade embracing the free or low-cost use of information and communication technologies for socioeconomic development and crisis or disaster management.

Amity’s partnership relation with Tencent started four years ago and resulted in several highly successful project executions. One prominent example is the coordinated relief campaign for the victims of the Yunnan earthquake in March 2011, only one day before a much larger earthquake struck Japan. The Chinese quarterly Amity No. 93 gives a comprehensive and vivid account of the complex cooperation project.

When the earthquake took place, instant message services facilitated news and updates about scope and scale of the crisis, reaching and widening its audience in seconds. Donations could be made by simple and most effortless use of mobile phone or internet applications, realizing the desire to help without any delay. Small sums, starting with transfers from one Yuan upwards,

e-charityIsabel Freeman

summed up for the supply of 10 independent villages or more than 2700 people with quilts, towels and provisions.

Several weeks later a group of young volunteers spread into the most remote villages to look after children who became orphans. They could share their encounters and insights in real-time with each other and the attentive Micro Blog community, turning their individual involvement into a touching collective experience.

The uprising of NGO’s in China2008 - the year of the great earthquake in Sichuan, was a

turning point in the process of conscience building nation-wide. Never before China has been testified with such a willingness to help, collective empathy, as well as creative and heartfelt commitment everywhere. There was only one theme ruling the daily life, waving a web of solidarity based on a mixture of compassion, information-exchange and organization of very generous support. Television channels transmitted news up-dates, radios broadcasted around the clock, people searched the internet for pictures and information. It can be said that the citizens of China transformed into “netizens” for several weeks, forming a big network of exchange based on the use of new media.

While Amity Foundation was one of the earliest NGO’s starting to operate in the Mainland 25 years ago, many new organizations were founded in recent years. As a consequence many analysts call 2008 the beginning of the NGO era in China. In Nanjing Amity has set up an incubator for NGO’s to support new initiatives with workshops, seminars and trainings.

Picking up the new arising trend of philantrophy, Amity and its partners on the one hand focus increasingly on the use of new media based channels for fundraising, on the other hand foster a culture of regular donations, rather than disaster-driven activity only.

Starting in July 2009 a net based project called “e-Wan” (wan means 10.000) raised more than 10 million Renminbi until November 2011 [see gongyi.qq.loveplan/helponline/index.htm]. About 300.000 people contributed, the majority with little donations like 10 or 20 Yuan per month to cover the living costs and school fees for more than 1400 rural orphans.

The Amity bakery in Nanjing, a day-care center for mentally disabled, promotes and sells their high quality products like bread, cakes or mooncakes successfully through the internet.

Micro Blog and alike technologies offer endless possibilities of proactive initiatives, multiplying the opportunities and ways to contribute. The degree of self-determination is much higher than it has been in conventional ways of donation. Students can help with their ideas and communication skills. Synergy effects scale the impact of small inputs. Love in action experiences a certain shift from compassion to fun. Weibo is simple, easy to access, efficient and cool. E-charity is becoming a new and trendy lifestyle choice that appeals to the youth.


6

“Love in Action” Tiffany Ngai

“Unless you love, your life will flash by.”The Diocese of Hong Kong Island Diocesan Youth

Committee and Amity Foundation jointly organized the ‘Love in Action 2011’ service learning tour between 29th June and 4th July, 2011. The trip comprised of visiting the headquarters of Amity Foundation in Nanjing, trainings related to visiting orphans and visiting families in rural villages. We also had a chance to get to know and share this memorable experience with brothers and sisters from St. Paul’s Church, Nanjing. The activities allowed us as youngsters to reflect the meaning of life and one’s faith as we sent our love and blessings towards the orphans and their families, who are mostly less well off and living in poor conditions.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to share my love with the children in Jiangsu for six days during my summer holidays. Six days of getting along with other brothers and sisters has allowed me to get to know each other better and also created common memories in which we can share and laugh about in the future. Apart from sending our love to the orphans during the trip, I have come to realised that the reason for these “left behind” children was mainly due to a range of social problems in the villages. Many children became orphans because their father, who is usually the breadwinner of the family, passed away due to sickness or accident, resulting in a child being left behind as the mother would leave home and remarry. Although I personally found this “custom” of women remarrying and leaving their child behind rather absurd, at the same time, I was thankful and relieved to know that these children were being loved and raised by their grandparents. The love and relationship we saw between each grandparent and child was indescribable.

As I saw endless fields, plantations and red brick houses during one of our long coach rides, a thought suddenly flashed by my mind. I asked myself how would life be like if I was born in one of these villages, not to mention having lost both parents during my childhood. Would I be as well behaved, mature as these lovable children who are full of ambitions and dreams?

This whole experience has once again reminded me how blessed I am. After returning to reality (i.e. Hong Kong), the only thing we can do is to keep the children in our prayers and support them financially, as it is impossible to visit them on regular basis. I believe that rather than being ambitious and wanting to help those who are more distant from us, we can begin with sharing and spreading our love to the people around us, within the community and in Hong Kong. On top of sharing my experiences and thoughts, I want to encourage more people to participate in similar experiences because I think that no matter how much you read or see, nothing can be comparable to your very own first hand experience. As mentioned in a recent film Tree of Life, “Unless you love, your life will flash by.”

“From Home to Home”: A Chinese American Volunteer Peony Yiu

Before this past summer I didn’t know much about the educational disparities (which lead to health and income disparities) of the rural and minority populations of China. Amity’s Summer English Program really opened up my eyes the needs of the people in China. We often hear statistics about the urban-rural educational attainment gap, but knowledge alone is not enough. Volunteering with SEP this past summer truly allowed me to see what I was reading about: to understand why the struggles aren’t that simple to overcome and to know the people behind the statistics. I was able to see how the teaching facilities looked in rural China, the lack of English teaching resources, and how teachers had to deal with large class sizes and yet try to keep their lesson plans effective and interesting for their students. I listen to stories of frustrated teachers who had been forced to switch the subject they taught to teach English because schools became mandated to start teaching English. Thus I was able to see the impacts of the structural violence in China first-hand.

As a college student I did not have many refined skills or resources I could offer. Nonetheless God had blessed me with the ability to speak English. And I decided that with the little I had I wanted to go and see what I could do to help. Honestly I

had no clue what to expect, but I learned that if you follow Him with all your heart and place what you have into His hands, and then God will multiply it for His Kingdom. And that is exactly what I felt God did. I found SEP to be a great way to teach and motivate Chinese English teachers so that they in turn could teach and motivate their students. During those three weeks I spent down in Guangxi I felt fulfilled as I became immersed in my teaching and in my students’ lives.

The most valuable things I gained in China were the amazing friendships that I forged and will never forget. The hospitality and generosity of my students allowed me to enter into their lives for that brief 3 weeks. I was welcomed into one of the homes of my students in the small mountain village of Buquan to enjoy a home-cooked meal. I learned about their struggles with teaching, their pasts, their daily lives, and their families. I experienced many Zhuang traditions from my students’ ethnic



A Nanjing VolunteerSophia Wu

As the voluntary translator and interpreter of Amity, my personal experience proves the great significance of volunteerism in society, the organization as well as volunteers themselves.

Firstly, the volunteer group is comprised of people all walks of life, from students to teachers and from housewives to breadwinners, which implies that their efforts are able to reach every corner of the world. Society breeds us so that it is our obligation to pay back to the place where we are brought up. As the head of the translation team at NGO Development Centre in Amity, more than half of our team members are college students. Young and inexperienced they might be, at least they pass the spirit of giving and helping to their universities and encourage their fellow classmates and friends to participate in philanthropic work.

Secondly, even though volunteers are not the official staff of an entity, they are still crucial resources of the organization. For one thing, due to the nature of NGOs and perhaps their development strategy, most NGOs including Amity are not as large as multinational corporations which employ hundreds or even thousands of staff. This means that much work may be fulfilled with people outside the organization. This is exactly where the role of volunteers comes into play. Taken my own work for example, since the limited full-time workers in the NGO Development Centre, a significant amount of documents have to be translated by volunteers. As a matter of fact, compared with the number of full-time employees of the Centre, which is less than ten, the translation volunteer team alone has 12 people, not to mention the volunteer team on publicity, event planning and clerical work. Therefore, volunteers are intergal part of the Amity operation. In addition, as mentioned earlier, volunteers come from different professions so that they consciously or unconsciously function as publicity ambassadors for Amity. For example, a member of our translation team works for a biology

company where none of his colleagues had heard of Amity before. However, it was due to his volunteer work in Amity that more and more of his company staff have learned about this organization and some of them even began to make some regular contributions to Amity.

Finally, choosing a voluntary position that fits one’s particular interest or strong suit definitely benefits ones’ personal development. In my case, I major in Accounting as well as English and I am interested in translating articles. The workload of translation at Amity can be overwhelming sometimes, but every time I completed a task, I gained certain amount of self-satisfaction. What is more, I assume if I want to take translation as my job in the future, the experience at Amity would certainly serve as a bonus.

In conclusion, volunteerism is meaningful for all parties involved, from the broader society to the organization and to the individuals as well.

background. Also, I found out that despite the subject they teach, my students easily schooled me in basketball and volleyball. I listened to their dreams, aspiration, and hopes for themselves and their families. I discovered that despite our different backgrounds we’re all simple people that just wanted the best for our loved ones. Through teaching, learning, eating, watching movies, singing, and playing volleyball together, I’ve made friends that have impacted and changed my life forever.

More over, even as a Chinese American, I still learned many things about culture in China. Also, I spoke about my life experiences as a Chinese person in America and gained their perspectives on America and China. Thus through this cultural exchange I believe that my team members and our students became more internationally aware. SEP broke me out of my small northeast American bubble and expanded my perspective to a global one, because that is what Christ’s church is, global.

University volunteers teaching oral English in a primary school for the migrant workers’ children

In conclusion, even though I went to teach English and teaching skills, I found that I learned even more from my students than I taught them. My SEP experience broke me out of my comfort zone, expanded my worldview and perspectives on life, and led to much personal growth.


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Updates on post 5•12 Earthquake Reconstruction

Pastor Gu Yu Mei

Mianzhu Christian Church

In the ANL 89/2, we covered the reconstruction progress of a Mianzhu Christian Church in the months after the earthquake. Two years on, we hear from Pastor Gu Yu Mei on the stage of recovery of the church and their role in the community. She writes:

The temporary worshiping venue

The 5•12 Earthquake was a painful experience for all the members of the Mianzhu Christian Church, but it helped us to witness the Grace of God and the support from others. The earthquake took away our homes, our church, and it even took away our strength and confidence. In the mist of desperation and grieve, The Amity Foundation came to us, and brought us the support and love in the selfless sprit of Christ. Amity brought us the plan for reconstruction and fund to rebuild our homes. Many volunteers and workers from the Amity Foundation and others who cared for the Mianzhu Christian Church came to us for the reconstruction. The countless support gave us the courage to restore our hope and strength to persevere, and to rebuild a pleasant neighborhood.

Pastor Gu recieves a gift from Mr. Qiu Zhonghui, the General Secretary of Amity, in his visit to Mianshu Church

The 5•12 Earthquake destroyed our church, we were forced into a temporary premise for our services, and it was certainly not easy to have services during the summer with heavy rain and the unfriendly heat. In the most difficult time, the Amity Foundation provided us the funding to build a steel rooftop for the church, to meet with the minimum needs of our congregation of one thousand. The steel rooftop was completed in the space of less than two months, the construction began on 21st September and completed in November the same year. The steel scaffolding gave us a stable worshipping venue. We used this temporary venue to worship in the name of the Lord, and to have a decent venue nurturing our flock with Bible studies. Throughout the period hardship in earthquake reconstruction, this steel scaffolding church became our safe haven from God.

The interior of the New Church on Yuyen Road While we were singing our praise in the temporary venue, we also

spent time focusing on the reconstructing our old church building, rebuilding homes. Reconstructing ‘our own spirit’ was a vital part of our ministry, yet we cannot over concentrating on one particular direction or dimension. We have received countless support from the Amity Foundation, who helped us with matching the cost of rebuilding

the old church building; Amity solidified the progress and ensures the reconstruction is completed on time. The Church building has a new outlook after the renovation. The tiles of the rooftop are decorated with the hovers of eagles, representing our brothers and sisters in Christ ascending like the eagles. The walls were thickened by steels

Mianzhu Church, a View from the outside



The Amity Foundation volunteer work sharing

Tan Chunfang

In 2006, I was fortunate to join The Amity Foundation at the capacity of volunteers coordinator. Since then, “volunteers” has become an integral part of my life, and we were moved to share with each other and forged a deep friendship. Along the way, we believe, only to help others, can be truly satisfying amongst themselves, only through perseverance and love.

With the rapid development of China’s philanthropy, more and more public participation in volunteering, the word “volunteer” is becoming a familiar term, voluntary services are slowly becoming a part everyone’s way of life that many institutions of higher education even have assessment on voluntary service units. All these indicated a society with greater sense of philanthropy.

Volunteer in my understanding, means through promotion, recruitment selection, education and training, public applies to build a good team of trained volunteers, to provide quality voluntary services. Generally speaking, volunteers are very passionate with specialized knowledge. With good management, them can form a voluntary force to promote volunteerism as an integral part of their citizenship.

With the increase of voluntary services in terms of forms and the number of people involved, Amity has developed the Amity volunteers webpage, which was put to use in April, 2011. The webpage takes questions and give timely replies. Volunteers are also able to share their stories online. We hope that the webpage would enable more people to join Amity families as volunteers.

I was often asked such a question: Why have you chosen this job? My answer was that, with lovely volunteers, fill my life and work with more fun and confidence. Working with them helps me to understand the true meaning of having happiness from helping others.

and concrete, we hope that they could last for at least the next one hundred years. We hope to continue this fighting spirit, inherited from the overseas missionaries of the past, and we would like to continue with this tradition of strong evangelism.

The capacity of the old Mianzhu Church could no longer hold the ever-increasing numbers of congregation; we had to build a new premise and to welcome the newcomers. (Praise the Lord!)We have built a new church building in Yuyen Road in Mianzhu. We had our dedication on 29th May for the completion of the new church, with an average attendance of four/five hundred members each Sunday. There is also an increasing number of local residences to come visit to God’s temple, exploring the Christian faith.

Such magnificent temple comes at a fair cost, we still have a deficit of ¥ 634,477 for the building and ¥ 56,000 for the sound system. We have been asked by the authorities to settle these debts, yet we reply with our confidence in begging them for greater leniency. We will continue to persevere in spite of this hardship. I appreciate for all your entrusted prayers, and your wholehearted support.

For the journey of this church community to have come this far, it has been relying on the mercy of God and the support from the Amity Foundation. May his Grace continue to guide us, so that we can continue to be his good Christian witness.


10

The �011 Annual Carnival in Nanjing Wang Yi

On December 4, 2011, the eve of International Volunteers Day, hosted by the Amity Foundation, supported by a number of local companies and organisations, the widely-expected fourth annual Amity Volunteers Carnival was held as scheduled. The theme of this year’s carnival was “Speak Out Love”, aiming to call for mutual respect and hearty joviality in the whole society by way of loving and helping others. Thousands of volunteers from all walks of life, gathered in the 1912 Acade, donating stuff or money, performing on the stage or in the crowds. With great passion and energy, they showed the true colours of philanthropy, in memory of the arrival of the International Volunteer Day. The image ambassadors for Amity volunteers, Tang Tian, Anchor of JSBC’s “Good Morning Jiangsu”, and Lee Wei Yang, Host of Jiangsu News Radio, were the MCs of the Carnival.

Primary school kids perfomed Street Dance

Since the first of its kind, the Amity Volunteers Carnival has been warmly welcomed and greatly supported by the public in Nanjing. Adopting the model of a flea market, the 2011 Carnival consisted of 170 stalls, covering a wide variety of goods. Organic agricultural products, home accessories, children’s clothing, toys, dolls and all kinds of small commodities could be found in the field. All of them were donated by volunteers.

Rather than paying directly with cash, buyers paid the things they wanted with the nominal currency. Money for the nominal currency was given to support Amity’s program supporting rural

schools with desks and chairs. The whole process outlined the theme---“Speak Out Love”. It was reported that the Fourth Amity Volunteers Carnival raised a total of RMB 38,424 yuan, which would be adequate for 213 sets of school desks and chairs.

To attract young people, the 2011 Carnival was featured with two interactive parts: live broadcast on microblogs and post-event photo competition. The most active micro-bloggers would receive a surprise from Amity, and the winners of the competition would be rewarded with some gifts by Amity. Visitors would appreciate the prize-winning works via Amity’s official website (www.amity.org.cn).

“One Bus = 200 purchasing tickets (RMB 5 yuan per ticket)!” This was not a made-up story. In the “Speak Out Love” flea market, with only 200 purchasing tickets, one could enjoy the right to use the space of pull-rings, chair-backs, light boxes for advertising in one bus. The period of validity was for one month, and the candidate buses shuttled in the downtown areas. The chosen bus would be used as a brand promotion bus for the user-specified legal Ads of

any type. The regular price for one-bus advertising was RMB 6,000 yuan per month. According to the slogan of the company, any commercial or non-commercial Ads would be welcomed by the Bus Space. Here, the author happened to encounter a staff member from some company, who was about to buy the right to advertise in No. 34 Bus. He explained, “To spend 200 purchasing tickets (RMB 1,000 yuan) to buy one bus for a full month of advertising, it is a very good deal. Through this exchange, both sides can make their own contributions to the society as well as build a positive public image. It is really a win-win situation! ”

According to Ms. Mei Youyou, the brand promoter of the Bus Space, all the five buses chosen by buyers were among the top rank vehicles, and the market price for the same advertising would be RMB 5,000 yuan more.

Group Photo outside 191� Acade

Above: Ms. Mei (left) from Bus Space with

an Amity Volunteer . Right and below:

Amity Adverts were being advertised in

the interior of Buses



Professional Footballer’s boot up for auction!

Students from Nanjing International School signing Christmas Carols at the Volunteers Festival

The most creative stall holder“Hey, what treasure is in the garbage bag, ah?” There was

nobody hawking in front of the stall run by the Nanjing University students. But surprisingly, this stall was surrounded by a group of people, enquiring curiously from time to time. The major difference from other booths was that there were several black garbage bags, stuffed and wrapped up, and nothing else could be seen. The poster said - “Trust your eyes! What we are selling to you is a bag of garbage. ” Indeed, each garbage bag contained some literary notebooks, Parker pens, card readers, USB flash drives, and other stuff purchased from New York. Besides the goods in the bag, customers could experience the fantastic feelings of curiosity, anticipation, excitement and luck!

“What we expect to do is to arouse people’s curiosity and to encourage them to donate their purchasing tickets to us. In this way, we can raise more funds to support the school kids in remote places.” One of the stall holders, Cheng Anqi, a sophomore from the Business School of Nanjing University, told the author, her team got the inspiration from some foreign Geek shops. According to her knowledge, Taobao, a famous e-commerce website in China,

also adopted this method to attract customers. She was so happy to see the fact that her team was able to sell 16 bags in one hour or so, with only 8 bags left. It was a successful attempt for them.

The most energy-consuming donations

Students Nanjing School of Foreign kanguages with their hadcarafts

The Nanjing Foreign Language School’s Handcrafts Society was newly established in this November. According to the organizer, this was their first time to participate in a public welfare activity, which left them with a unforgettable impression. The members of the society had been longing for participating in community service, but found it hard to get chance as there were very few events like this around. Therefore, they rather cherished this great opportunity.

The members of the society made a variety of flowers from silk materials, wire, etc. Their hand-made lilies, with paleness of color and elegance of manner, were as vivid as life. It usually took an hour or so to complete a single flower. Some might consider it as a time-consuming thing. Most of the members had made use of their spare time to prepare as many flowers as they could for the Carnival. In the “Speak Out Love” flea market, they also conducted site trainings, winning lots of applause. Their manual dexterity skills were very impressive.

The most eye-catching stall holder

Earlier in the year, a 50-year-old man named Chen Zhengyin caught the eye of the press and public with his talent for making rice-dumplings. Chen Zhengyin applied to be an Amity volunteer, as well. He volunteered to bring Chinese onigiri(s) to the Carnival and renamed them as “Happy Onigiri(s)”. Due to his popularity, many people came to him for photo. “After several trials, I developed a knack for making Happy Onigiri(s). It’s a top secret!” He laughed. Actually, Happy Onigiri(s) was evolved from the fruit dumplings. As bamboo leaves were not available throughout the year, he thought of replacing them with transparent bags in packing. The appearance of the Happy Onigiri(s) looked more attractive, the taste better, for the rice was immersed in fruit juice, sweet and delicious. He believed that it was a most satisfying thing to support charitable programs by means of making his own delicacies.

Love in sportsmanship

Jiangsu Sainty Football Club and its “12 fans union” gave their strong support to the 2011 Amity Volunteers Carnival. During the preparation period, the football club donated 20 limited-edition footballs with players’ signatures, 10 Sainty jerseys and 10 Teddy Bears dressed up with jerseys. On the Carnival site, Cao Rui, one of their star players, donated his boots and the lucky No. 24 jersey of his teammate for the charity auction- What a bargain!


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Here comes Santa!Wendy Wu

A few days before Christmas, students and staff from Nanjing International School prepared 276 pieces of Christmas presents, entrusted them to the staff of the Social Service Department of Jiangsu Provincial Democratic Construction Association and the Education and International Exchange Division of Amity, to deliver these gifts to the less privileged students in the northern part of Jiangsu.

Endeavour from the international students, who created their own Christmas cards, sending personal wishes to the students in northern Jiangsu, each parcel has been wrapped with tags and personal greetings (see picture above).

With the move toward further efficient energy consumption, Nanjing International School rent a bus (see picture top right) from the Postal Service of Jiangsu Province, to deliver these gifts in a more eco-friendly way, just like Santa Claus with his team of reindeers.

The Amity Foundation has been in collaborative partnership with the Pfrang Association since 2001. Gifts were prepared and delivered to every year to the students in northern Jiangsu. However, some gifts could not be delivered to the students due to logistic reason. In order to prevent further disappointment amongst these sponsored students, since 2008, Ms. Li Lihua, the head of the Jiangsu Social Services and staff from the Education

& International Exchange Division of Amity, began to feature as Santa Claus(es), delivering gifts and sending warm wishes in persons. In due course, the popularity of Ms. Li rose amongst those needy children.

Mr. Kong (picture below, first from right), a teacher from Shunhe Middle School, was a role model amongst the people we visited, for he could recall all the names of the sponsored students. In hind sight, we discovered from our conversation with Mr. Kong that he visited all twenty of his supported students regularly and provided adequate pastoral support to them. In their stories, we witnessed the needy students being supported and nurtured by these role models and from all the institutions.

The route map below demonstrates the 1600 km we managed to travel. It was indeed meaningful despite the distance, 274 pieces of Christmas gifts were delivered.

A small regret was that we were unable to reach two sponsored students. Despite that their applications were eligible for subsidies, they nevertheless chose to defer their studies, and to enter the job market in order to support their families. It is indeed unfortunate for us to see them leaving school at such a young age, yet we should admire their courage and determination to take on a new responsibility. We could only wish them well.

A. Nanjing International School B. Fengxian: Huashan Middle School, Liangzhai Middle School, Shunhe Middle SchoolC. Guanyun County: Yibei Middle SchoolD. Guannan County: Changmao Middle SchoolE. Binhai County: Tongyu Middle School, Batan Middle School, Binhai Middle SchoolF. Lianshui County: Yangkou Middle School, Lianxi Middle School, Lianshui No.1 Middle School


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