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"THAT ALL MAY HAVE ABUNDANT LIFE"
AMITY TURNS TWENTY!
Editor's Note:
On the occasion of Amity's twentieth anniversary, we are proud to present you with this special double edition of the Amity Newsletter. In a series of interviews conducted in summer 2005, some of the movers and shakers in Amity have shared their experiences, hopes and beliefs with ANL. This issue of ANL allows you a first glimpse at excerpts from these conversations. All interviews will be reproduced in their entire length in our upcoming anniversary book, Growing In Partnership. We also share with you the congratulatory notes received on the occasion of the anniversary.
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"A New Engine"
An Interview with Qiu Zhonghui
The challenge:
- Strengthening Amity's organizational development
- Enhancing advocacy work, in particular through a Research and Development Center
- To continue functioning as an avenue for Christian involvement in social work
Does the government do enough in terms of internal redistribution? And how do you respond to critics who argue that much of what Amity does is the government's responsibility?
Different elements of society have different responsibilities. Basic education and health for example are definitely government tasks. But does this mean that NGOs should not be involved in these tasks? Certainly not. Years ago, I took one such critic to a decrepit village school in the mountains and asked: Do you want us to wait all the years until the government is ready to help here? If we help now, at least these children will have a chance for a better life. - The villagers had prepared boiled potatoes for us guests to eat, but the children did not know better and started eating while we were talking with the villagers. I will never forget the face of the small child that wanted to eat the last potato. When he stretched out his hand to take it, he realized that the last potato was small and had gone bad and could not be eaten. That impression has remained with me for long.
Coming back to the role of a government, from a moral perspective, of course the critics are right. But we also have to consider the practical side, and then the argument turns hollow, because the government does not have the capacity to help everywhere. And finally, being involved allows us to shape government policies. Recent changes in policies like central government's decision to cover tuition fees for the poorest students are also a result of initiatives like Project Hope and Amity's Back To School Project. On the whole, we have to face reality while at the same time push for better policies. As NGOs, we cannot possibly fill all social gaps, therefore it is so important to do advocacy work that will influence the policymakers.
In what way can Amity influence policies?
Our way of doing advocacy is to work through practical examples. We expose the government to our work at the grassroots while we also try to maintain good communication with the policymakers higher up. With our twenty years of experience, we also want to contribute in theoretical areas, for example through a Research and Development Center. We hope to bring the academic world more in touch with reality at the grassroots, so that their research can contribute in a more practical way. In that way, closer cooperation with academic circles can also help us to influence policies. The exposure to non-profit work will also help to foster non-profit organizations in China, particularly through training personnel. We would like to encourage young people to join non-profit organizations. Zhu Chuanju, the acclaimed scientist, recently remarked on the growing trend for educated young people to work in non-profit organizations. "In the 1960s and '70s, educated young people would go to the countryside, in the '80s, they would go into business, in the '90s, they would ride on the IT wave, and today, they join NGOs." We hope to strengthen certain areas of research and develop better evaluation methodologies. For Amity, enhanced cooperation with academic circles will definitely be our new engine for the next twenty years.
Amity was set up to provide an avenue for Chinese Christians to engage in social and development work. Has this role changed over the years with the changing situation of the church?
Our organizational culture is based on the idea of love, of a human-centred approach, and the "6 Cs" - commitment, compassion, competence, communication, cooperation and creativity. Our emphasis on love is certainly related to our Christian background. Of course we are not a purely Christian organization - we have representatives of different faiths among our staff, and we will not discriminate between them. God is love, and God does not distinguish between people of different faiths. Our shared notion of love is very basic to our work, it is fundamental to what we do.
Twenty years ago Chinese Christian leaders established Amity in the hope of bringing religious believers and non-believers together in their service for society. The idea was that people of different faith backgrounds would contribute together towards China's development. At that time, this was something new and very special indeed.
Today we can say that the practice of the past twenty years shows that through Amity's work we can indeed witness Christ's love, that we are salt and light through our actions. And even if the form of Christian involvement changes, we will continue along this line. Amity will continue to serve society through serving the people and glorifying God.
Amity has run a number of very successful programmes in conjunction with local churches, and we will continue to implement such projects. However, in general the lack of education of Christian leaders at the grassroots still is a problem for the implementation of social services, be they run by Amity or the China Christian Council (CCC). Training will be essential to make them ready for such tasks, and Amity will help the CCC with training, but also technical and management help. Through these contacts, I expect our relationship with the CCC to be strengthened over the next few years. The virtually simultaneous leadership changes in Amity and the CCC have naturally caused some delay in our cooperation. Some people fear that the existence of the Social Service Department will diminish the funds available for Amity. I see us as working together for a cause, and as long as our cause is served, both of us will benefit.
Christians working in China still have to respect sensibilities. For example, we cannot say that all non-Christians will go to hell - remarks like this will hurt many people. The Christian religion calls on us to share our love with all human beings in a non-discriminatory way. If we work in such a spirit, our approach will also contribute to theological reconstruction in China; we can help to shape a theology that is suitable for the current Chinese context and does not discriminate between people of different faiths.
Finally, the Amity Printing Press has been a way for Amity to serve the church, and we hope that this work can be further improved when the press moves to its new location. With the new premises, which will be much bigger than the current press, we will be able meet the demands of Chinese and overseas Christians in an even better way. Apart from serving the domestic market, we also produce Bibles that are exported. Right now, we are looking forward to the moment when the Amity Printing Company will have printed forty million Bibles (complete editions, that is Old and New Testaments) at the end of this year.
What tasks lie ahead of Amity for its organizational development?
Although we have strengthened this area over the past five years, much remains to be done. We have to continually balance the task of preserving the worthwhile elements of our existing organizational culture with the need to integrate new elements. Training will remain very important and we will try to do our best to free staff for training opportunities. Our human centred approach holds true not only for our beneficiaries, but also for our staff. As the organization develops, our staff follow suit. Organizational development will be the basis for our future work, and for this we need to work on the hearts and minds of our staff. Of course, the project work will go hand in hand with the organizational development - the latter will help us to serve our beneficiaries even better.
Sustainability is one big concern, not for the survival of Amity as an aim in itself, but because the social needs continue to be so great. With our new fundraising division, we are taking a first step towards this organizational sustainability. We will not become a "real" foundation that lives on endowments but maybe we can develop a base of funding from which we draw. From a Chinese perspective, we hope to be actively involved in the development of the non-profit sector as one way to achieve sustainability for our work. Because of our experience, many Chinese NGOs look up to us and this raises certain expectations about our work.
Finally, we hope to strengthen all our networks, from our relationship with the church and with other Chinese NGOs to our international supporters. Perhaps the nature of international support will change over time, shifting towards more intangible contributions like training, rather than consisting mostly of finances. Our recent trip to the U.S. has been a very inspiring visit for strengthening our ties with American partners.
Qiu Zhonghui joined the Amity Foundation in 1992 and served as director of its Rural Development Division before becoming General Secretary in 2003.
