Citizens' groups step up in China; wary rulers allow role in quake aid

By:Maureen Fan

Keyword: earthquake civil society NGO

Grass-roots organizations and informal networks of private citizens are playing a vital role in getting supplies to rescue workers and survivors of this month's devastating earthquake in China. The government, in a notable shift, appears content to let them do so.

Officially, nongovernmental organizations in China must register with the government; the larger groups are as rigid and controlled as their official sponsors. Authorities remain deeply suspicious of smaller, independent groups.

Now, however, aided by the proliferation of online bulletin boards, blogs and on-the-ground coordination centers, unregistered grass-roots organizations are essentially functioning as legitimate earthquake-relief NGOs, operating for the first time without having to look over their shoulders and helping to manage a crisis whose death toll could surpass 80,000.

Here in this ruined town, about 40 miles from the epicenter of the May 12 earthquake, a ragtag group of citizens -- a shopkeeper from Guizhou province, his friends and a volunteer worker who knew the way -- emerged the other day after a four-hour trip.

They had placed homemade signs in their vehicles' front windows that said "food and medicine." With miniature video cameras in hand, the group's members looked like tourists. But in delivering medical gloves, antibiotic cream, and fresh cucumbers and cabbages to the front, they had done more to get replacement supplies to rescuers than government troops had managed.

"Fantastic! We've got shortages. We really need fresh vegetables," said Wu Jun, head of a military university hospital, meeting the convoy in a camouflage T-shirt and carrying a sheaf of papers. "Our supply units went to the vegetable wholesale market in Chengdu, but there was nothing left."

The volunteer who had led the civilian convoy to Yingxiu was actually a member of the Chengdu Urban Rivers Association, which has set up a makeshift coordination center at its office to aid relief efforts. Xia Lu knew that the road here, littered with grisly car wrecks and fallen boulders, had recently reopened. She also knew which supplies were needed, having made the same trek only five days earlier and talking with soldiers.

Since the earthquake, the coordination center has fielded hundreds of calls and e-mails, using staffers who were already in the field just before the quake as well as other contacts and volunteers.

"We operate like a traffic-control center," Tian Jun, executive director of the river association and head of the coordination center, said as she juggled meetings and phone calls last week. "We get information from the front, either from our own staff or from others, and post it online. Volunteers then buy or bring in supplies, and we direct the supplies to where they're needed."

Alternatively, volunteers and other grass-roots organizations call Tian to tell her what they have in their cars. She then calls contacts in quake-affected towns to see what they need. "In either case, we will supervise the whole process to make sure the need is real and properly satisfied," Tian said.

In a room down the hall -- stocked with donated boxes of milk powder, disinfectant, soap, peanuts, sterile gauze and bags of rice -- two newly arrived volunteers waited for an assignment.

"We're retired, and we really hurt in our hearts when we saw what happened here," said Zhang Liying, 50, who rode a train for 38 hours from the coastal city of Tianjin to Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan province. "We want to help the soldiers to cook. Whatever help they need, we will do it."

Mu Wenzhi, the shopkeeper from Guizhou, had the same reaction. He said he and his wife cried while watching TV news reports about the earthquake. He had never volunteered for anything before but, right away, he asked his wife to mind the store. He and six friends pooled their money to buy food.

"We arrived in Dujiangyan on May 14 at 2 a.m., after a 15-hour drive," Mu said, describing his three trips to the earthquake zone, as his four-car convoy waited for other vehicles to pass on the narrow road to Yingxiu. "We were resting in our van when suddenly a group of retired soldiers knocked on our window. They said there was an emergency in Xiang'e town and asked us to unload our supplies and drive them there."

In Xiang'e, an old woman watching Mu eat biscuits turned out to have barely eaten. "She had only drunk two bottles of water and eaten three packages of instant noodles for the past three days," Mu said. "That's when we realized that people were in urgent need of supplies. We went back to Xishui on May 16, organized four cars, bought several truckloads of food in two hours and drove straight back."

Mu and other volunteers are getting tips from television news and people they meet in the earthquake zone, not from government bureaucrats. "No one from the government told us what to do," said Tian, of the river association. "In this urgent situation, we decided to share some of their responsibility."

Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project and a Chinese media expert at the University of California at Berkeley, said some smaller, unregistered NGOs had teams of volunteers in the quake zone almost as fast as the military had troops there.

"Many self-organized social networks are not formal organizations, but altogether their numbers, resources and role in society is much larger than what the government has officially allowed in the past," Xiao said.

So far, authorities seem pleased with the mobilization, which includes many first-time volunteers and members of social groups such as car clubs and outdoor sports organizations.

"The Chinese people, who have always been criticized for only being good at infighting, have been surprisingly united and therefore powerful in their togetherness," the state-run Beijing Youth Daily editorialized Tuesday. "Grass-roots organizations, which were considered weak due to their lack of a supportive environment, have shown effective organizing and enforcing abilities in the rescue work and proven themselves as healthy and positive forces in society."

No one expects Beijing to relax the rules governing NGOs, and there's no sign that officials will make it easier for grass-roots groups to organize or raise funds, particularly in the politically sensitive period leading up to the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games.

In fact, authorities have stepped up their surveillance of AIDS activists in the capital and pressured Beijing-based human rights lawyers not to meet with visiting U.S. representatives this week. On Wednesday, Communist Party loyalists hacked into and shut down a Web site run by a leading Tibetan writer and critic of government policies toward Tibet.

"The government will not automatically be more open toward NGOs," said Guo Hong, a Chengdu-based sociology professor and volunteer at the makeshift earthquake coordination center in Chengdu. "But I hope they will establish a system for NGOs where they address what kind of social organizations will be allowed to help develop society and what kind of participation will be allowed."

In the long run, another volunteer said, the policy toward NGOs will be more open, but that doesn't mean it will just get easier. "It's like the earthquake. There will be aftershocks, but you don't know when and you don't know how big," said Gao Guizi, director of the Sichuan Social Development Research Institute.

"From this disaster, the government has come to realize the power of the grass roots," Guo said. "This power will be helpful in establishing and managing a real civil society. But the problem is how to allow the grass-roots groups to take part in an orderly way. Taxi drivers used to be considered the least-educated and least-civilized group, but they were the first to respond to the disaster, organizing themselves to drive the injured to hospitals."

Date Posted:2008-5-29 Date Published:2008-5-29 Source:Washington Post

翟雁创办的北京惠泽人咨询服务中心

志愿者，要奉献也要回报

2007-11-26 12:06　来源: 公益时报 作者：胡丽波 网友评论 0 条 浏览次数 591

在北京鼓楼西大街一个不起眼的四合院里，有一家志愿服务机构，这就是翟雁创办的北京惠泽人咨询服务中心。在这个月租800元钱的小屋子里，翟雁和她的同事们招募并培训了大批的志愿者，并和这些志愿者们一起，为那些需要帮助的人们提供服务。

翟雁在培训志愿者

■ 本报记者 胡丽波 文/摄
一块“创可贴”的启发
　　在创立惠泽人之前，翟雁做过13年的志愿者，她说，志愿精神早已经融入了她的日常生活中。上个世纪90年代初，志愿者在中国还是一个很新鲜的概念，而接受这个概念，翟雁说是一个偶然。
　　那是在1989年，翟雁带着两岁的女儿去深圳出差，刚一出火车站，女儿就摔破了膝盖，哇哇大哭。翟雁手里拿着大包小裹的东西，不知道如何是好，无奈之下，她只好向周围的人求助。“看热闹的不少，就是没人过来帮助我，当时心里特别着急。”
　　就在翟雁快要绝望的时候，一对老夫妻出现在她面前，老先生掏出一张创可贴，轻轻粘在孩子的伤口上，老夫人把剩下的几张也全给了翟雁。“当时我还没见过创可贴这种东西，以为价钱昂贵，要给他们钱，但被坚决拒绝了。”
　　“我当小儿内科医生有近１０年了，做过非常多的‘医疗援助’。可是人们急迫需要的医疗援助，却不一定是医生给予的，一个陌生人的举手之劳，有时可以解 燃眉之急。”翟雁若有所思地说，“做人一定要怀有感恩之心，受到了别人帮助，再反过来帮助他人。”这件事让翟雁领悟到了助人是快乐的根本。
　　从此以后，翟雁一直在寻找做志愿者的机会。1990年起，她开始在深圳市青少年活动中心做青少年辅导义工，1995年回到北京后，她又在北京红枫妇女心理热线做志愿者、督导和志愿者管理人员。
　　志愿者工作不仅需要大量精力的投入，还意味着必须付出更多的时间。1999年，她干脆辞掉其他工作，成为北京红枫妇女心理热线的全职志愿者，而且越干越上瘾，2003年她又创办了“惠泽人咨询服务中心”，在开通热线解答人们心理问题的同时，还培训志愿者为社区服务。
志愿者因压力辞职
　　惠泽人成立以后，翟雁和几个志同道合的同事鼓足干劲，开始了志愿服务工作。可让他们没想到的是，这条路还没走多远，就被自己绊了跟头。
　　2005年的年底，翟雁去菲律宾参加了一个为期一个月的培训，当她和往常一样，兴冲冲地带着糖果和小礼品回到北京时，却发现同事们变了。“那天他们都 绷着个脸。我一个月没有见到他们，特别想念他们。但是那天没有人跟我有很亲热的表示，我就觉得有点不太对劲，但我没敢吭声。”虽然事情已经过了一年，但翟 雁没有忘记让她难过而又痛心的情景。
　　在接下来的三天里，翟雁陆续接到了三位同事的辞职信，还没弄明白同事们辞职的原因，又一个人向她提出了辞职，这时，翟雁彻底绝望了。当翟雁在追问同事 辞职的原因时，得到的答案让翟雁接受不了——假人本。翟雁和同事们经常提人本主义，教育同事们在志愿工作中要以人为中心，关注人的内心需要。然而同事却反 映说，翟雁是一个精力超常的人，工作量很大，她强劲的工作作风给同事们带来了很大压力。那段时间，同事们普遍都感到焦虑、紧张，难以承受工作的压力，而翟 雁却对此一无所知，不仅不关心同事们的内心需要，还不断对同事们提出更高的要求。“他们认为志愿者从事的就是爱心事业，我这么拼命工作，连自己都不懂得爱 惜自己，又怎么能去把爱心献给别人？她们认为我根本就是‘假人本’。”翟雁无奈地说。
　　同事们的集体辞职事件让翟雁彻底思考了自己的所作所为，在做过心理分析之后，她坚持认为，自己并没有错，更不是同事们说的“假人本”。她说：“我觉得 这项志愿者工作，是真正尊重了我的意愿，在和人互动的时候，不管多苦、多累，我都能看到志愿工作背后的闪光点，越苦，闪光点就越亮。这是我的选择，我的价 值观，也是我的生活。”
不拿工资惹争议
　　到底是做一个玩命的志愿者，还是做一个轻轻松松的志愿者？翟雁和同事们在理念上的差异和她的坚持己见，几乎让惠泽人走向灭亡。而且，这仅仅是翟雁和同事们众多分歧当中的一个。
　　另一个分歧点在于翟雁的工资，按照翟雁的岗位，她每个月的工资是1000元。但是，在惠泽人，有9位全职工作人员，翟雁是惟一一个不拿工资的人。对 此，翟雁解释说，之所以坚持不拿工资，是因为惠泽人目前的财政还很困难，她希望能把有限的资金更多地用于那些更困难的弱势群体。“所以我老跟他们讲，我说 你们不要跟我比，你们拿钱是正当的。而且，将来我们还希望，机构发展得更好，能够给你们有更多的经济上的回报。”
　　多次劝说无效后，同事们难免会有一些想法。“她也是志愿者，我们也是志愿者，我们拿着工资，但她不拿，别人会想，我们就不是志愿者了？”“很多人都觉 得，志愿者就不应该拿一分钱的酬劳。但我们现在是全职在做这份工作，我们奉献了很多，但我们拿到的酬劳并不多。我们把少拿的那一部分当成是奉献了，这也算 是一种志愿精神吧。大家都拿了，她不拿工资算是怎么回事嘛。”
　　尽管翟雁知道自己不拿工资会给同事们带来压力，但她表示：“到现在，我不知道用什么样的方法去处理，但从我的理念上来讲，我是很坚定的，我不能拿工资。”
做志愿者只能是一种生活方式
　　在这次辞职事件中，翟雁没能挽留住一些坚持要走的同事。作为惠泽人的创办 者之一，翟雁的老朋友时乐在翟雁的一再挽留下，留了下来，但她执意退出了机构的管理层，成为一名普通的志愿者。她说：“由于工作量太大，我已经累得没有能 力工作了，我需要调整好自己的身体。如果做到身体累垮，不要家庭，不要孩子，不要自己的生活，不要自己的父母，我觉得这也不是一个正常的志愿者的状态。”
　　现在，时乐每周只需抽出三四天的时间，来惠泽人做一些力所能及的工作，她说，现在这种状态让她很放松，“其实志愿者，只是生活方式的一部分。除此之 外，我们还有很多的生活。比如我喜欢摄影，每天在新浪的摄影论坛里边泡着，跟那些人学习摄影技巧。我喜欢旅游，会照很多相片，然后发给大家。喜欢读书，喜 欢跟朋友一起喝茶等等。再加上这份志愿者工作，我觉得这种生活状态才是最美好的。”　　
　　虽然有很多的分歧，但在翟雁和同事们共同的努力下，惠泽人还是走到了今天，并朝着更好的方向发展。翟雁说，成立了惠泽人之后她才发现，志愿者工作最难 的部分不在于怎样去帮助弱势群体，而在于如何组织协调好机构内部的关系。很多志愿者机构就是因为没能及时调解内部的矛盾而消亡了。为了帮助其他的志愿者机 构更好地成长和发展，从去年开始，翟雁把工作的重点转到了志愿者机构的管理培训上。到目前为止，翟雁所在的惠泽人是全国惟一一家从事这种服务的机构。

政府购买NGO样本之一：惠泽人的社区矫正
政府购买NGO的扶贫服务，梁漱溟乡村建设中心不是第一家，更不是唯一的一家。?\-西省村级扶贫规划 试点项目目前共有11家非政府组织承接实施，如国际小母牛组织、中国国际民间组织合作促进会等。事实上，政府购买NGO的服务已不仅仅局限于扶贫领域，还 涉及到其他领域，如针对服刑人员的社区矫正以及对外来媳妇的就业技能培训项目等。
2004年5月，北京惠泽人咨询服务中心（简称“惠泽人”）在东城区东华门街道成立了“社区矫正基地”，街道和东城区司法局提供两间办公室，并每月付费800元给惠泽人提供的一个志愿者作为工资。
“这算的上是第一例，现在这个模式已?\-推广开来，叫‘社区矫正中心’。”惠泽人的创办者之一翟雁描述了这个“政府购买”机制的最初形态。
与东城区司法局的合作，始于2003年7月《北京晚报》对“社区矫正”的报道，此时正值北京市进行司法体制改革。“把罪犯放到社区进行矫正，司法局急需心理学背景的人辅导，就这么简单，我们找到司法局”。这一举措却出人意料地让惠泽人走上了探索“政府购买”的道路。
最 初，司法局对NGO“操办”社区矫正并没有完全放开，“政治上不信任”，同时也对惠泽人能否胜任还“将信将疑”，但惠泽人开出了有诱惑力的“免费试验”的 条件，令司法局难以拒绝。2003年10月，双方签署了为期一年的试验项目?\-议。同时，惠泽人开始主动学习了解有关“政府购买”的知识，还到社区做调 研，向专家请教，翟雁甚至借赴美访问的机会了解异国的?\-验。?\-过向政府人员解释、传递相关理念，惠泽人最终用实际行动赢得了东城区“放手”。应该 说，惠泽人的试验，为次年东城区面向社会公开招标打下了基础。
2004年9月，北京市东城区司法系统面向社会公开招标，整合并充分运用社会力量和 社会资源，开展社区矫正心理服务项目，结果惠泽人中标。《公益时报》一篇报道认为，惠泽人此前做出了种种努力，最终使得“政府购买”得到司法系统的认可。 而且惠泽人在竞价方面大大优于其他对手，所以中标也在理所当然之中。
然而，“（试验期间）给惠泽人的800元这部分钱，并不是属于购买性质的，根 本就没有纳入到财政预算里面。”后来翟雁才得知，政府采购的运作需要建立一个非营利注册的组织来对接政府购买所拨付的资金。这种情况后来促使司法局在 2005年3月成立了一个民办非企业机构――东城区阳光社区矫正中心，惠泽人心理矫正工作室就设在中心下面，以此解决资金拨付的“平台机制”问题。北京东 城司法局以每年7万元向惠泽人购买心理矫正服务，主要用于惠泽人3到4名工作人员的工资。有媒体曾对此评价，“这是北京社区矫正工作中政府与民间组织合作 的里程碑，在政府向民间组织购买服务领域，也是首开成功先例。”
“我们想探索一种政府购买民间组织服务的机制”，即便惠泽人退出后，“还会有更多的NGO加入进来”，翟雁说。
显 然，致力于推动志愿者服务建设和组织建设的惠泽人并不想停留在简单的社区矫正购买服务上，成为政府项目的“打工者”，而是“另有所谋”。惠泽人的介入使社 区矫正的主体力量由司法局变成真正的NGO。“我们主要做的就是去GO（Government，政府）化，其实就是去掉政府的背景色彩”。
在惠泽人的推动下，行政性的力量从阳光社区中心撤离，转而由招募来的社会专业人员来替代。这时惠泽人的4名志愿者也进入其中，通过竞聘阳光社区中心的主任，承接整个矫正中心的工作，从而变成纯草根的组织来实施社区矫正项目。
令 翟雁感到可惜的是，由于疏于志愿者的管理和组织的建设，“后院起火”，这四名志愿者后来脱离了惠泽人，转而变成了阳光中心的全职人员，从而打破了惠泽人希 望通过人员的“换血”来完成购买服务主体更新的“预定计划”。到2007年5月，惠泽人与东城司法局的合同到期，难以继续施加影响。此外更大的困难是司法 局领导变换，给“政府购买”机制带来了不适应，导致?\-本可以继续开展的社区矫正模式探索，现在变得很遥远。翟雁表示，惠泽人现在“没有时间去” 重新搭建共识。然而，她却又寄希望于2007年11月刚成立的北京东城区市民中心，惠泽人将在那里继续推动政府购买机制。

Thursday, May. 22, 2008

China: Roused by Disaster

By Simon Elegant/Beijing
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1808638,00.html

The highway leading to Yingxiu, a small town near the epicenter of China's May 12 earthquake, is rent by fissures big Publish Postenough to swallow a child and is choked with smashed trucks and enormous rocks. Near the town's outskirts, just past a car that has been crushed by a boulder, a landslide cuts off the road entirely. A mother who walked into the mountains beyond to bring out her 12-year-old son says he's been scarred by what he's seen. The landscape they are leaving behind is hellish, she says--putrefying bodies, collapsed schools, buried roads and rows of wrecked houses. But the situation doesn't faze two friends who have traveled here by train, car and, finally, on foot to help victims of the Wenchuan earthquake. Dressed in white T shirts reading I [heart] CHINA, the men are determined to reach the core of the devastation. "After we saw the news of the disaster, we decided we had to help," says Wu Guanglei, a 36-year-old high school physics teacher from Zigong, a town 186 miles (300 km) to the south. "We Chinese people are growing closer and closer together," says Wu Xiangping, 28, who took a leave from his job at a Beijing advertising firm to join the relief effort. "And because of that, the country's morality is rising too."

These simple observations, stated with a tinge of hope and pride, crystallize much of what China as a nation has learned about itself over the past two weeks. The 8.0-magnitude quake, the country's worst natural disaster in more than 30 years, has probably killed at least 50,000 and has left more than 5 million homeless, according to official sources. Horrific videos from the disaster zone--the twisted bodies of children layered like fossils in the sediment of a pancaked concrete schoolhouse, the desperate decision to amputate the legs of a dying girl pinned in rubble--forced the Chinese people to look into the abyss. And reflected was the image of a more compassionate nation than many had perhaps expected, where tens of millions of Chinese lined up for hours to make sure their donations of cash or food or clothes were accepted and where tens of thousands of others like the Wus left their jobs and families and rushed to aid their compatriots. The roads to the disaster zone were jammed with cars carrying banners that read RESIST THE QUAKE: PROVIDE RELIEF and WHEN ONE HAS DIFFICULTY, EIGHT ASSIST. The traffic was so overwhelming that authorities had to close the roads and turn back volunteers. So many clothes were contributed that they were piled in mounds six feet (two meters) high in some devastated towns. Within days, contributions from the country's private companies, not known for their charity, had hit a billion dollars and were still rising.

The outpouring of support has been a revelation. For years, China's citizens couldn't watch the evening news without being reminded of their darker side, of the grasping, reckless self-interest that has characterized China's headlong rush to become wealthy and powerful--stories of slave labor and child-kidnapping rings, rampant government corruption, counterfeit products, tainted food, dangerous toys and, lately, the brutal crackdown on dissent in Tibet. But from a monstrous humanitarian crisis has come a new self-awareness, a recognition of the Chinese people's sympathy and generosity of spirit. The earthquake has been a "shock of consciousness," as Wenran Jiang, a China scholar at the University of Alberta, puts it, a collective epiphany when the nation was suddenly confronted with how much it had changed in two decades of booming growth and how some changes have been for the better.

Of course, when the national emergency abates, much of China will revert to its familiar ways. But something fundamental has changed. There is a new confidence in the ability, even duty, of ordinary Chinese to contribute to building a more virtuous society and a willingness to press the government for the right to do so. Most of those volunteering were doing so for the first time, for example, and many said they were eager to do more community work in the future. Says Jiang: "It's a major leap forward in the formation of China's civil society, which is vital for China's future democratization process." That doesn't mean the Wenchuan earthquake will lead directly to elections in the next few years, but the complex and shifting relationship between the Communist Party and increasingly vociferous Chinese citizens will probably evolve into some form of compromise between autocratic control and Western-style democracy.

It's not just China's self-perception that has changed. The quake has altered, at least temporarily, the world's perception of China, whose growing economic and military might is viewed with suspicion and fear in many quarters. China's relationship with the democratic West has been particularly strained of late, after March's bloody demonstrations in Tibet and the chaotic protests that dogged the Olympic-torch relay. But the quake, coming just 10 days after Cyclone Nargis ripped into Burma, has cast the Chinese government in a different light. By blocking foreign aid, Burma's paranoid military junta demonstrated just how impotent and callous to the suffering of its citizens a repressive autocracy can be. But even Beijing's critics expressed admiration for China's swift response to the quake.

In turn, some of China's most xenophobic bloggers have expressed astonishment at the sympathy shown for China by the rest of the world, the donations of cash and goods and the dispatch of foreign search-and-rescue teams, doctors and other personnel. The outpouring of international goodwill "has changed everything," says a senior Western diplomat based in Beijing. "Now many people will be cheering for the Chinese and hoping they pull off a good show at the Olympics. That will be pivotal for China's self-confidence and its perception of its place in the world."

A Nation's Agony

If the crisis had a defining moment, it came on May 19 at 2:28 p.m., exactly a week after the quake. That was when the entire country paused for three minutes. Traffic came to a halt, flags were lowered to half-mast, and Chinese everywhere stood in oft tearful silence to honor the victims of the Wenchuan quake, named for the county at its epicenter. Drivers honked their horns, and factories sounded their sirens in a collective wail of agony. The ritual marked the start of three days of national mourning, during which Internet activities like online gaming were halted and all TV channels except those broadcasting news were blacked out.

This cathartic outpouring of national grief helped put to rest the notion that China lacks civic spirit. Academics have long argued that Confucian ideals, which emphasize duty to family, have mutated over the millenniums into a national mentality that views contributions to nonrelatives as a waste of precious personal resources. This trait was exaggerated by the beggar-thy-neighbor capitalism that has been Chinese society's driving force for the past two decades. Charitable donations from individuals and businesses in China amount to about 0.09% of the gdp, compared with 2% in the U.S.

But in the space of a few weeks, China has shown that not only do its people know how to grieve but they also know how to give. And the charity isn't coming from just private companies and wealthy citizens; many of those donating are poor Chinese making enormous sacrifices. Waiting patiently in line at the Red Cross Society of China office in Beijing on May 19 was Liang Baoying, a 63-year-old retired teacher. Clutching an envelope containing the equivalent of $287--her monthly pension--Liang tearfully said she could no longer watch news of the quake on TV because it was too sad. "I believe this is a national tragedy, so we have no choice but to give. I'm sure the Red Cross will use the donation properly."

Thousands are doing even more. The China Youth Daily reported that an estimated 200,000 citizen volunteers from all over China have descended on the quake zone, providing food, shelter and medical treatment, their convoys of vehicles sometimes causing traffic jams on the narrow mountains roads of Sichuan province. Private aid takes many forms--beef trucked from Inner Mongolia, sleeping bags shipped from Shenzhen, building materials from Chongqing, millions of bottles of water and packets of instant noodles. Volunteers are working in areas overlooked by government relief efforts. In the village of Yongan, south of the devastated city of Beichuan, quake victims, from the very young to the very old, line the road, waiting for the citizen cavalry to arrive. "We're counting on volunteers to bring us food," says Wang Shaoqing, 82. As he speaks, children run up to the cars of volunteers, who stop and hand them food and water bottles through the windows.

The dedication of the volunteers has been covered in the state media with almost the same enthusiasm that's been given to the performance of the 120,000 People's Liberation Army troops and paramilitary police officers in the disaster area. The normally muzzled Chinese press has been freed by the information ministry to saturate the airwaves with quake coverage. The leash on the Internet was also loosened. Popular blogs have been uncensored; commentators posting to mainstream discussion forums were even allowed to criticize the government's handling of some aspects of the relief--the failure to use helicopters for the first three days after the quake, for example.

As surprising as the freedom is the sophistication of the coverage. It's on television and radio round the clock, and newspapers have put out special editions. An anchor even dressed down a reporter on air for broadcasting from the comfort of her hotel room rather than venturing into the field. "Three to five years ago, both the state media and the online world simply wouldn't have had the energy, experience or skill to do coverage on this scale," says Xiao Qiang, a Chinese-media expert at the University of California, Berkeley. "It's going to progress just as much in the next three to five years too. It's not going to be total media freedom, but it is a big step in the empowerment of China's civil society."

Unlikely Hero, Familiar Villains

One of the most widely praised aspects of the relief operation was the speed and scale with which the government responded. And to Chinese and foreigners alike, the man primarily responsible for that was the country's Premier, Wen Jiabao, 65. Within two hours of the earthquake, Wen was on a plane to the disaster area, and for the next four days, Chinese TV was flooded with images of the increasingly exhausted-looking leader as he rallied the relief forces, offered succor to survivors and even choked up.

Wen has long been the human face of the Communist Party. Netizens responded rapturously. "I couldn't help crying when I saw the pictures of Premier Wen in the stricken region," wrote a poster in a typical comment. "I feel very safe to have a wonderful leader like this." The praise will reassure the party hierarchy. Having long since discarded their Marxist-Leninist ideology, China's leaders are increasingly dependent on the approval of the public for their legitimacy; the survival of the party may ultimately depend on its handling of crises.

Wen's star turn notwithstanding, the real danger to the party comes from its rotten base: the county and township officials whose corruption and venality have had the greatest impact on the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese. There's sure to be a backlash over the number of children killed by the quake, buried in their classrooms as shoddily built schools collapsed around them. In the days following the quake, blogs and online message boards teemed with demands for answers as to why so many schools were destroyed. In one structure alone--the three-story Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan--at least 600 students died. "It was built out of tofu," says Hu Yuefu, 44, of the building that collapsed and killed his 15-year-old daughter Huishans. He holds local government officials and building contractors responsible. "I hope there is an investigation," Hu says. "Otherwise, there are a thousand parents who would beat them to death."

Corruption has proved an inflammatory issue in the past--it was one of the driving forces behind the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989--and mixed with student deaths, it could be explosive. Beijing's first instinct will be to sweep the schools scandal under the rug. Much of the online anger over the collapsed schools has been deleted, and all discussion of the topic has been banned. But the University of Alberta's Jiang says that as China's civil society develops, leaders know they must adapt. "It will be extremely tempting for the control types and ideologues to use the earthquake to glorify the party and to direct this new openness toward reporting only good news," he says. "But that will be one step backward out of two steps forward--no more."

It's hard to see how Beijing can stifle the civic impulses of the millions of Chinese who have been stirred into action by the humanitarian crisis. The earthquake has exposed how much China has changed and given a fleeting glimpse of what might be. The political and cultural aftershocks will roll on for years after the ground has ceased to tremble.

With reporting by With Reporting by Austin Ramzy, Lin Yang/Yingxiu

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China's Citizen Sector Rises through Earthquake

The Earthquake has brought China NGOs from the Dark and Grey Area to the Bright. Chinese Government is Being Open and Tolerant to Them. (By Asia Week published in Hong Kong in Chinese)

China's citizen organizations, web-groups, either officially registered or not, have played a major role in earth quake relief efforts, to be reckoned with by the government. Their power of mobilization and coordination, once given the platform (recognized and accepted by the government) can play an important role in the society. The earthquake has helped proved that. (xh)


中国地下NGO地震之后见天日 政府采取宽容态度 亚洲周刊

《亚洲周刊》朱一心／中国NGO在灾后成立救灾平台，大批‘地下NGO’积极救灾，得以见天日，而政府也采取宽容态度。香港NGO以专业及良好的管理，配合大陆NGO的网络，协调统筹救灾。

汶川大地震发生后一小时，雷刚抱着电脑坐在街头，两脚仍在发抖，他找到一个消防栓，把电脑放上去，打开，上线。‘太好了！网络没中断！还有很多人在线上！ ’他立即向‘爱白成都青年同志中心’服务的一百多个QQ群发出救灾讯息：请大家立即查看所在城镇的伤者及惊惶失措的人们，为他们作出心理干预（心理辅 导），并开放自己的家居作临时避难所。

同步发生的，是深圳、广州及北京等大城市以及香港NGO（非政府组织）干事及志愿者，都第一时间往成都进发。而零三年首个获中国政府批准注册的成都NGO -成都城市河流研究会秘书长田军，以及香港NGO社区伙伴项目统筹何德贤，临时被推举为救灾NGO的指挥官。一边有动员能力，一边有管理能力，两边结成网 络，协调统筹，立即就行动起来。

一场惨痛的灾难，一夜间令大部分中国地下NGO都站到亮处，承担救灾义务，而政府也对他们包容，让一直‘发育不良’的地下NGO得见天日，政府各部门还提 供方便，为NGO建构庞大救援空间。这大批无偿的义务民间组织，过去十年来在中国散播人道关怀和培训志愿者的种子，使得这次救灾工作一呼百应。

雷刚是爱白中心的项目协调员，爱白每年均与香港及本土十多个NGO，联手为四川省培训志愿者，把种子撒播大地，大灾像一声春雷，民间的‘种籽’迅即发芽， 带动更多志愿者走上救灾之路。地震发生后二十三小时，五月十三日中午一时半，爱白向外发布一百个QQ群救灾行动的简报，并迅速与二十多个成都基地的本土及 国际NGO联合，建立‘五一二民间救助服务小组’（十五日再成立五一二中心），与另一个NGO平台‘NGO四川救灾联合办公室’，成为这次八级大地震救灾 工作的两大NGO平台。

走进成都东城根街的河流研究室，墙上贴满大张分工表，写着天涯网络三十吨物资运到、国际小母牛几十吨的物资来了……‘这么多年来，各个NGO互相合作，建 立了一个极大的草根网络，可以接触灾区很远很孤独的小村，甚至只有十余间房子，灾后没人理的农村，我们尽力转介，并尝试援助药物及物资。’来自香港、正在 研究室指挥救灾工作的何德贤，边忙着审批项目，边跟亚洲周刊记者说。走在她身旁商量工作的田军，也在多个房间穿梭忙碌。来自成都的田军说：‘我们这里什么 专家也有；NGO这东西比较复杂，政府一直很担心我们的活动会影响稳定，但现在我们有的是灵活性和有经验的志愿者。’

以公司注册名义生存了九年的爱白，平时擅长心理辅导，来自全国各地的注册心理治疗师一下子就组成了四组心理辅导组，每组分配八至十五人，负责整合及培训灾 后辅导人员，再由他们到前线工作。田军不远处，正是忙着在电脑上工作的雷刚，这位资深义工平时是位旅游从业员，他说：‘五一二平台现在已召集了一千多名志 愿者，这个民间平台很棒。’

提供有序救援工作

五一二平台的一千人是‘非常义工’，他们是在各方面有NGO工作经验的人员或专业人士，能负责带队，到灾区及医院统筹工作。何德贤又像一阵风般掠过，跟记 者补充说：‘但愿这次的NGO平台提供一个有序的志愿者救援工作，不添乱子、不滥用资源。我举个例子，我们派出其中两个团队，每组八人，到不同的医院做志 愿者管理，一所医院就有几百人报名要来当志愿者，若不管理分流，再加上不停走进医院问病情和打听亲人的生还者，前线医护人员的压力就很大，也会阻塞绿色通 道，阻碍救援。说实在，我们的小组管理效果不错，我们是替政府做“细眉细眼”的救援工作。’

葵丽、牛可佳和莎莎等三位大学生，是另一本土NGO Green SOS成员，虽然没有加入两大平台，却在大学召集义工。救灾不仅是在镜头前抬出一百小时后的生还者，还是在没人看到的政府支援的缺口把讯息和物资第一时间 传达给最需要的人。莎莎和可佳说：‘我们到了华西医院，安排志愿者工作，例如围起消毒区，帮忙需要消毒的人。’Green SOS跟其他平台上的本土NGO，大部分不获政府注册，包括专门关注流动人口和农民工的尚民社会发展研究所；北京农家女文化发展中心；擅长野外工作及登山 的Ci -山水；四川省农民工法律援助工作及曙光社区发展等，以至香港及大分份国际的NGO，都只能在中国设立办事处，而不能成立基金会，包括这次在五一二平台上 的嘉道理农场社区伙伴成都办事处、宣明会昆明办公室。

难能可贵的是，每天都有救灾的新NGO诞生。Green SOS的葵丽便与其他NGO组织者成立了山水自然保护中心，投入的是灾后重建及地震援助讯息平台，成员有建筑师及大学生。他们游离于政府组织，又有别于满 腔热血冲进灾场及医院的个别志愿者，他们其实是志愿者之母，多年来不断培训志愿者，在灾难来临前，已不停警告河流污染、树木砍伐、水库危机、社会问题等静 态灾难。

从汶川地震救援工作可看出中国政府关注人性的一面，同时注重灾后的心理辅导，但中国的大学社工系才刚起步，学生并没上实习课程，也缺少处理灾难的心理辅导 经验，爱白和无国界社工刚好填补了这块空缺。来自香港的无国界社工和四川大学华西医院心理卫生中心连成一线，香港的六位资深社工拥有南亚海啸的救灾经验， 带动社工系学生到灾区进行哀伤治疗，还有三位香港心理学家到成都培训哀伤治疗的志愿者。

震灾后，中国成为一个充满志愿者新手的国家，很多新手走到前线慰问伤者，竟哭得比伤者更伤心，哀伤治疗其实不是这回事。已在灾区工作多天的无国界社工庞志 成说：‘我们会分四个阶段处理，有宣泄悲伤、探知悲伤、肯定抗逆能力和逐步重建生活和朋友网络等，社工会凭经验配合不同活动。大海啸后，我们在印尼及泰 国，由于辅导要透过翻译，我们就有拥抱行动，烧饭聊天，是渗透式的。’他举了一个成功的例子，他们在景秀镇服务灾民，跟一个学校的小朋友做了两天活动，小 学生告诉他，晚上真的可以睡着了。

化解忧伤防止自杀

一个地方在灾难后，自杀率往往会提高，问题不仅在开解忧伤，也在把被诱发的忧郁症根源找出来，避免成为社会问题。其实，震后纷纷亮相的草根NGO，也像灾后抑郁的人们，长期潜伏，就像沱江及泯江浇灌着成都的地下水，一直淌着却没有声影。

直到五月二十日早上，地震第八天，仍不断有来自全国各地的NGO加入五一二平台和NGO四川救灾联合办公室，仍不断有新NGO成立，如果政府善用NGO资源，在这场大灾难里，将能更恰当地分配和管理志愿者，更快令灾民解除震痛。

‘大地震救灾，是中国NGO对政府的一次大型示范。’田军说。

The earthquake in Sichuan

China helps itself

May 22nd 2008 | JIANGYOU
From The Economist print edition

http://www.economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=11409357

The government's relief effort is impressive; even more inspiring is what ordinary people are doing to fill the gaps

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SOME 200 survivors of China's deadliest earthquake in more than 30 years line up for a handout of food. It looks good. There is rice gruel, braised diced pork, courgettes and hot steamed buns. There are also no officials. The Communist Party likes to be seen as society's main benefactor, but this is private aid.

The party has mobilised its own forces on a huge scale in response to the disaster on May 12th in the south-western province of Sichuan, which has left more than 74,000 dead or missing, 247,000 injured and 5m homeless. More than 100,000 troops and police have been deployed to help survivors and to rescue people trapped by rubble and landslides. Hopes of finding more are fast dwindling. But the scale of non-governmental involvement has been just as striking.

The food handout in Jiangyou, a small city 115km (70 miles) east of the epicentre, was being carried out by volunteers from an ad hoc group of private catering companies from another province. The recipients were refugees from the nearby town of Beichuan, which was all but flattened by the earthquake. Their appetising hot meal contrasted with the instant noodles and biscuits offered at other food stations.

Even had it wanted to, it would have been difficult for the government to keep relief efforts in the hands of its usual instruments: military and civilian officials, the Communist Youth League and the Chinese Red Cross. The disaster struck at a time of nationalist fervour fuelled by a widespread feeling that China was being unfairly criticised for its handling of unrest in Tibet. Sentiments were further aroused by blanket coverage of the earthquake in the state-controlled media—a departure from the party's usual tongue-tied approach to disasters.

Responding to the mood, the government declared three days of public mourning from May 19th. Disasters do not normally rate such attention—the last day of public mourning was 11 years ago, on the death of Deng Xiaoping. In Beijing thousands of people gathered in Tiananmen Square to observe an official call for three minutes of silence. They also, spontaneously, chanted slogans and punched their fists in the air, shouting “Come on China!” as police looked on warily. In Chengdu, the provincial capital, on May 21st a police car shadowed about 100 unofficial relief workers who marched through the streets after dark, carrying candles and chanting patriotic slogans.

A fast-growing middle class with money to spare on travel and, as it now seems, on charity, did not wait for official encouragement to help out in Sichuan. Thousands of volunteers headed to the disaster zone, from businessmen to Christian youth. Their cars, some bedecked with flags and slogans, ply the expressway between Chengdu and Jiangyou.

Hundreds of taxis helped ferry the injured to hospitals in the city. At Mianyang, a big city close to Jiangyou, police erected barricades on an approach road to a stadium sheltering some 20,000 refugees, to prevent its being clogged by volunteer vehicles. A government plea for unofficial volunteers to stay away from the disaster zone and concentrate instead on activities such as raising money and donating blood has fallen on deaf ears.

The government seems little inclined to deter the volunteers more rigorously. It knows that public opinion is mostly on its side. The prime minister, Wen Jiabao, appears to have earned considerable kudos by rushing to the scene and staying there for five days to direct relief operations, at one point in tears.

Inside the stadium grounds, which are guarded by militia in camouflage uniforms, stalls set up by volunteer groups offer the refugees services ranging from psychological counselling to the (seemingly more popular) charging of mobile-telephone batteries. An American nurse at one stall helps doctors examine children. In the town of Shifang, south-west of Jiangyou, Buddhist monks say prayers for victims in a temple where the government has settled hundreds of refugees.

The combination of government and volunteer effort appears to have had good results. In refugee camps on the periphery of the disaster zone, tent areas appear clean and orderly, with adequate supplies of food and clean water. There have been no reports of serious outbreaks of disease. Most refugees seem in reasonable spirits. Tents, however, are a problem. Officials say there are still far from enough proper ones. Many refugees are sheltering under makeshift tarpaulin structures. Some Chengdu residents, fearing aftershocks, have taken to sleeping in tents. Demand has pushed up the cost of a small tent fourfold, residents complain, despite government orders to retailers to rein in prices of relief-related materials.

Much of the volunteer effort has involved individuals or small groups. China is still wary of large NGOs and has none that is truly independent of the government specialising in disaster relief. But in recent years the party has begun to acknowledge more openly that there may a role for them. Official press coverage of the earthquake, although careful to highlight the party's contributions, has also paid rare tribute to the unofficial volunteers.

The government has been encouraging firms to give more generously to worthy causes. From this year it has increased tax incentives for corporate donations to charities. But this applies to only a small number of government-approved organisations. For the sake of earthquake relief the authorities are letting down their guard. But the government gives little encouragement to new NGOs and often treats the small existing ones as potential germs of political opposition. The response to this disaster might ease its fears.