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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 in the Middle East: 5th Arab Women’s Forum, Beirut

On February 6, 2012, In Middle East, By Charitarian

Just back from the 5th Arab Women’s Forum, Beirut (1-2) February. As a guest of Lulu(in white) and Balsam(in black suit) Al-Ayoub, the famous fencing sisters from Kuwait I got an insider’s view of what is going on across the region. The general sentiment was that the Arab spring is all very well, but what now? There was a harrowing presentation with pictures of abused girls and women on “The worst country to be a woman” from an Afghan presenter. She said that the US used ‘women’s rights’ as a pre-text for invasion but left the country in a worst state and just took the oil. Generally the mood was upbeat put there is palpable fear of dictatorial theocracies planting themselves in “Spring” soil. I met Arwa Damon who reports for CNN in the Middle East and we had a good discussion re. reporting in this region. Lulu, Balsam and I headed back to Kuwait where elections were being held. There has never been so much at stake at the ballot box and I was impressed to see Lulu and Balsam helping with vote counting. I will write more in this issue of the Charitarian.

Clare in the Middle East:Qatar Foundation’s ROTA Fundraising Auction

On December 14, 2011, In Fundraising, Middle East, By Charitarian

Thanks to my two friends’ kind invitation. Please see photo below, the two ladies in stunning dresses are Lulu Al-Ayoub (in white) and Baslam Al-Ayoub in blue and pink. I got the chance to attend Qatar Foundation’s ROTA (Reach Out to Asia) fundraising dinner this week. It was quite an eye-opening experience for me. Auction items were including Damien Hirst’s limited edition porsches which starting bid at 1 Million dollars and earrings auctioned by Angelina Jolie . I am afraid I forgot my purse and they did not take Union pay so I left them for someone else. Like my new Muslim look?

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.

Chinese Film, Rural Teachers Training and Soul Fuel Centers

On September 13, 2011, In Uncategorized, By Charitarian

Mid Autumn Festival is the time of year when you are meant to gather with family and admire the full moon. Unfortunately there was no moon in sight all weekend as the pollution index reached a new high.

To escape the smog I ran to the hills on Saturday and did the sort of hike that only attracts people born at altitude; Swiss, Austrians and Germans dominated. It was in the mountains a couple of hours outside the city. Total wilderness with broken rugged sections of the wall. No maps and much scrabbling on hands and knees. Back as base, a villager gave us some food. I was very happy that his fat cat sat on my knee acting as a kind of hot water bottle. We were soaked through and pretty scratched.

Back to Beijing on Monday (bank holiday) we edited the next edition of the magazine. Charity is in crisis in China. The Guo Meimei red cross scandal has reduced donations almost to nil. This issue is very much an attempt to try and profile the transparency pioneers trying to reduce the oxymoronic impact of Charity and trust.

Wang and I met at Stone-boat in Ritan Park where we tend to have our best ‘blue sky’ thinking ideas (despite inclement weather). He can edit very quickly because he has been doing this for seven years and understands the salient issues better than me (Being Chinese and working with Government).

Once the edit was over, I refilled my date and ginger tea, scoffed some moon-cake and we brainstormed Charitarians three main projects this year:

1) Charitarian Film
Wang has written a moving script on materialism versus volunteerism in modern China; the script has won him one of the ten general release licences to be made available in China this year. Called ‘passer by’ it stars the very famous TV heart-throb Chen Kun as a white collar working who gets double crossed by a colleague on a deal in Anhui.
Losing his wallet, he also nearly loses his life when he tries baking a sweet potato in a field that catches fire. Kidnapped by the local villagers he is made to pay back for his crime by working in a local school. Shocked that the children do not idolize him as a city success story, he begins to question his own morality and very raison d’etre. Unravelling he falls in love with a local teacher but meets a rival in the form of a foreign student. The story challenging assumptions of success in modern China is perfectly aligned with the 12th Five Year Plan’s focus on ‘happiness’. I love this film because of it’s touching dialogue and harsh questioning of the out of control capitalism ripping the heart out of shopping mall China. The film will be shot in Beijing/Anhui in October for general release in March 2012.

2) Rural Teacher Training Project
Charitarian are working with British School Beijing (BSB) to put 100 teachers through creative education training programs in BSB Beijing over the next year. The next group of teachers from Anhui, Shandong, Xinjiang and Hubei arrive on 4 December and we are currently working with the school to decide on their curriculum. We are building on the success of our April launch of the program which saw 25 teachers visit the school for eight days (for more information see Ed 6 of Charitarian). Since then we have been back to Shandong to receive honest feedback from Government, teachers and media.

3) Soul Fuel Centers
To counteract the pressures of living in rural China, Charitarian have a license to build 50 Soul Fuel Centers. To reduce rural isolation and attendant suicides we will build 50 modern centers focusing on a) Poetry and reading; b) Environmental projects and volunteering; and c) Inspiring Talks. There will also be a nurse available twice a week to provide front line check-ups for early diagnosis of curable illnesses. SFC’s will provide some food and a place to meet informally but essentially intellectual stimulation and a chance to volunteer. In the west we would call it a community center/library/Starbucks.

We are planning a launch party for the next Charitarian. It goes to iPad later this week and out in London on Thursday. The Chinese copy will come out on 25 October at the Charitarian party – likely guest speakers will be the Somalia Ambassador and two Chinese Film Producers in the development sector. More later.

Clare

Tagged with: Chinse Film • Rural Education Centers • Rural Teacher charity

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