Corporate Social Responsibility | The Charitiarian, Corporate Social Responsibility China

Rural Teacher Training with British School of Beijing

On February 8, 2012, In BASIC: Brazil, Africa, South America, India, China, Corporate Social Responsibility, Education, By Charitarian

From 5th – 10th December 2011, British School Beijing(BSB) hosted 20 rural teachers from across China for Cultural exchange. Wang Liwei was responsible for managing the Government relations and for selecting the teachers from Chongqing, Shandong and Anhui. Headmaster Mike Embley(picture 1) made a humorous welcome speech on the first day and then Fred Li, Yimeng Li(picture 3) and I of DLA Piper together with teacher, Val Pearson(picture 2), taught the first three mornings of English lessons. We went through English daily conversations using creative learning methods such as picture drawing, acting, games etc. Fred and Yimeng shared their own English learning experience with the teachers. In the afternoons, teachers were divided into groups, each group having the choice to observe different BSB classes. After class, they played Ping Pang with BSB staff and us. By the end of the program, teachers taught students in BSB a lesson in English. Through 22nd April to 24th April, the group visited the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Olympic Park.

This is the second training program since April 2011. The next one is about to start in April 2012. This project helps the rural teachers to broaden their horizons, receive new and advanced education ideas and gain exposure to different teaching methods. It also helps to balance the education standards between the city and the countryside. One teacher can influence the future of 10,000 rural children. In the long term, we hope through the development of the teacher, they can bring back their inspiring experience in Beijing and apply to daily class, so that thousands of thousands rural students can benefit.

New York, New York: Senator Mitchell and Stephen Baldwin

On February 6, 2012, In America, Corporate Social Responsibility, By Charitarian

Wang Liwei (Owner Charitarian Group) and I had a short but sweet visit to New York on 28-30 November, 2011. The primary purpose of the visit was for Wang to interview Senator Mitchell(picture 1 and 2) and to make a presentation to DLA Piper New York which was relayed across all US offices/clients by webinar. We also squeezed in a visit to the Head of the Goldman Sachs Foundation which does a lot of work in Mainland China. I thought there would be a un-crossable chasm between Wang and Mitchell on everything from politics to peace-keeping, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. We touched on topics such as “When is a country ready for democracy”; “Who should be eligible to vote” and “What is the best way of peace-keeping in the information age.” Although there was much mental sparring, there was no back stabbing. Instead of a logger heads, I saw two bridge-builders, striving for peace under different systems. The full interview will be written up in the magazine. On the webinar, Wang spoke on “Second Generation Rich, Second Generation Poor and Second Generation Officials in China.” He used a motor metaphor which went down well with a US audience and he engaged in active Q&A. Attentively hosted, Dimitris Anagnostou and Stephen Baldwin(picture 3) showed us the town in the evening which was fairly unforgettable!

Clare’s Second Report From BMW Buenos Aires Forum

On November 20, 2011, In BASIC: Brazil, Africa, South America, India, China, Corporate Social Responsibility, By Charitarian

Last night I visited a hotel designed by Phillipe Starck. Enclave of manicured well off. This morning I jet-lagged walk at 530 am and saw numerous long-term homeless on street near hotel.

Human rights walk in the morning took us to concentration camps from 70 and 80′s government. Back for lunch and Chairman of BMW talked on commitment of BMW to pro-social products in every continent.

Lunch with incredible social entrepreneurs – my table is “empowering women through sport NGO” uber glamorous fencers from Kuwait; Eco-Muslim founder who works for peer in UK; Head of social responsibility from Luthansa; Singaporean diplomat from India; Magic bus from Mumbai; Two Chinese from Germany; Swede designer; social Dutch architect; and Brazilian businesswoman from Washington. Complex group. Now talks on making poor people part of your business; not part of the social problem. Workshops this afternoon. Where’s the coffee!!

Clare’s First Report From Buenos Aires “Third World Young Leaders Forum”

On November 17, 2011, In BASIC: Brazil, Africa, South America, India, China, Corporate Social Responsibility, By Charitarian

I arrived at the Intercontinental in Buenos Aires for the Third World Young Leaders Forum. People were coming in from all over the planet speaking all types of languages. Registration is quite entertaining. There are a number of Chinese delegates, some of whom I know from the NGO sector and some high powered media types. We looked at workshop options for our three day stay. I signed in for the Human Rights Tour tomorrow morning and workshops in “Technology as a means of helping people achieve democracy in Syria and Egypt” as well as “New trends in philanthropy” which will update me on global trends. I read the list of 100 attendee bios. They are extremely diverse but all involved in an aspect of social entrepreneurship inside or outside their day job. It is hot and the people are very welcoming. Tonight I meet an old university friend who lives here. I cannot wait to learn more about this stunning city.

British Ball at Beijing

On November 17, 2011, In BASIC: Brazil, Africa, South America, India, China, Corporate Social Responsibility, Fundraising, By Charitarian

The British Ball Beijing was attended by over 650 people on 12th November at Shangri-La’s Kerry Centre hotel. It was a roaring success with over RMB 200,000 raised for charity. Wang Liwei of Charitarian made a speech on behalf of Wuxun foundation which trains rural teachers and provides equipment of impoverished schools. Attended by the Ambassador, it was a great evening with a theme of ‘a day at the races’. Charitarian contributed a picture for the art auction which, with other prizes, raised substantial funds.

Crisis in Charity Talk by Wang at Bookworm

On November 17, 2011, In BASIC: Brazil, Africa, South America, India, China, Corporate Social Responsibility, Government Social Responsibility, By Charitarian

Crisis in Charity is the common theme in China at the moment. Sure, some money has gone astray. Guo Meimei, the 20 year old who claimed to be Business General Manger of Red Cross Commerce flaunted her luxury lifestyle on sina microblog. Lu Xingyu, the inexperienced 24 year old executive chairman overseeing a RMB 1.5 Billion fund at China-Africa Project Hope. Soong Ching Ling Foundation in Henan reportedly made large loans to several companies and converted a charitable construction project into a luxury apartment. But I do not think it is so much a crisis as an evolutionary process. Charity is quite new in China. It only really started 7 years ago as the yawning gap between rich and poor became a chasm.

Since then there has been a lot to improve the situation but people still choose to criticize charity because it is one of the weaker departments in government least able to defend itself. Wang and Carma Elliot (OBE) of China Director
of Half the Sky discussed the hot topic at the Charitarian Launch party in bookworm on 25th October. Q&A lasted for half an hour with many in the audience impatient for improvement in the infrastructure of charitable checks and balances.

Trip to Sichuan earthquake rebuild site

On November 16, 2011, In BASIC: Brazil, Africa, South America, India, China, Corporate Social Responsibility, By Charitarian

On 20th October I went to visit Sichuan with the American Chamber of Commerce and local government. We visited the site of the earthquake to see the rebuilding projects. The main contributors to the event were Fedex, Cisco and Mircrosoft. I was really impressed with the work government had done to build new homes for the affected people.

The stories we heard were very moving and I realized that Corporate Responsibility (CR) was not about the soft stuff but about the roof over people’s head in times of disaster. The gentleman who showed me round (brown jacket – picture 2) had lost a sister in the Tangshan earthquake (1976) and then survived Sichuan. He was only 40 but had lived through two of the worst natural disasters ever in China. We discussed whether it was better to live or die if your family died. This is not the sort of conversation you have with most people. I had great admiration for him and the other hardy survivors who seemed so hopeful despite the catastrophe.

Chinese people are very resilient. Companies should contribute to China in the bad times and not just ‘take’ in the good times if they wish to remain welcome here.

Disgruntled Employees

On September 10, 2010, In Corporate Social Responsibility, By Charitarian

In the useful “phrase-a-day” section of the June edition of Fortune China we learn that disgruntled employees are “unhappy employees who often complain about their work to each other in a sulky dispirited manner e.g. The Company’s disgruntled employees felt underpaid and underappreciated; they never showed any enthusiasm for their work”. I doubt that Terry Guo, CEO of Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, Foxconn in Shenzhen or Managers at the striking Honda Lock plant, Guangdong, had to pick up Fortune to seek an example. There have been eleven employee suicides this year in Mainland China at Foxconn factories. The first Honda strike was at Foshan, Honda Auto Parts on 17 May and disruption is still ongoing as wage increases of 600 Yuan (60 GBP) are debated. Look forward to July’s edition of Fortune where you can expect more timely phrases such as “Flying picket” and “Works Council” as we enter a new era in industrial relations in China. (more…)

Tagged with: disgruntled employees China • Honda Auto parts Foshan China • Honda strike Foshan China • Terry Guo CEO electronics manufacturer

Foxconn Suicide Factory

On September 10, 2010, In Corporate Social Responsibility, Mental Health, By Charitarian

An employee of high-tech firm, Foxconn died on 21 May after jumping from a building in the Southern manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, the tenth such suicide since the start of this year. The dead worker was identified as Nan Gang, a 21 year old from Hubei Province. All the suicide victims at this electronics component factory are migrant workers from outside the city aged between 18 and 24 years old. Stress and lack of social life seem to be the root cause of the suicides. Public outrage has been incurred by a report on Beijing television showing security guards in black uniforms beating workers in Foxconn’s Beijing plant in August last year. The Mayor of Tianjin arrived at the Foxconn factory to investigate on the day Nan Gang died. The factory owners have invited monks to the factory to try and ‘relieve the bad atmosphere’. (more…)

Tagged with: Foxconn suicides • Mayor Tianjin Foxconn

China’s Richest Inmate

On September 10, 2010, In Corporate Social Responsibility, By Charitarian

China’s richest man, Huang Guanyu, has been given a fourteen year jail term for corruption. He typifies the modern-day Mainland tycoon. He was a school drop-out who used to hunt for food from garbage cans. Trading between South China (factory center) and Inner Mongolia (scarce supplies) he established Gome electronics, a multi-million dollar retail chain. Huang Guanyu is the latest is in a string of recent high profile business corruption investigations. What makes this case exceptional is the high level officials that he will take down with him including Xu Zhongheng, a one time mayor of Shenzhen. Although prosecutions for business corruption have increased many still assert that targets are chosen for political reasons. When very wealthy Chinese meet they often say “See you in the US or in jail in ten years” e.g. in the US if you make enough to get out, or in prison if you make enough enemies that get you convicted. (more…)

Tagged with: China's richest man • Huang Guanyu China • Xu Zhongheng mayor Shenzhen China

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