These days, there are concerns whether some charitable organizations are misappropriating or withholding donations and relief supplies. Yesterday the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation made public some important details, including fund raising work, relief project implementation and follow-up work.
Its Vice President He Daofeng said that the foundation is a non-governmental charitable organization and could charge certain management fees according to international practices in order to ensure its operation.
According to He Daofeng, the foundation's first rescue team reached disaster areas on May 14 and assessed the needs of victims. Afterwards they agreed to provide such relief supplies as food, cooking oil, tents, rice, medicine, and etc.
The foundation then immediately sent supplies already in stock to disaster areas and bought goods including food and drinking water in Chongqing. On May 16, the foundation transported these donations to disaster areas via rail, highway or air, and/or organized enterprises to transport supplies for them.
In Deyang, the foundation established its Relief Frontline Headquarters. The headquarters consists of an office, a construction group and a logistics group to be responsible for making contact, constructing temporary housing, procuring and distributing needed supplies respectively. The volume of procurement done amounted to 9.31 million yuan.
In the follow-up rescue work, the foundation will establish seven mobile home communities in Wolong, Qingchuan, Beichuan, Mianzhu, Shifang and Wenchuan. They estimate relocating 7,000 families, or approximately 20,000 to 30,000 people. In addition, 300 simple portable schools, equipped with teaching facilities, will be built. Taking long-term demands into consideration, the foundation will initiate the "May 12 Care Plan", which is supposed to provide permanent aid toward those severely damaged or destroyed schools.
He Daofeng said that to date donations of 6.5 million yuan for orphans have been made; this money ensures three full years of financial support for 1,450 orphans. This project plans to solicit donations amounting to 10 million yuan, which would be used to support 2,000 orphans throughout disaster areas.
In respect of management fees, He pointed out that the Red Cross Society of China belongs to the civil service system and enjoy government's financial allocations. However, he said, the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, as a non-governmental organization (NGO), can't operate without charging management fees. In 2007, its management fees occupied only 5.6 percent of all received donations.
According to established international practices, any NGO charging a proportion under 10 percent is considered excellent. "Our figure has been rather small and it embodies our responsible attitude toward donors," He said.
"I went to Sichuan at my own expense," he added.
According to He Daofeng, the foundation doesn't extract anything from the relief goods. Moreover, he said, the management fees retained from the fund donations are also used toward relief work, for example, transporting supplies, supporting administrative work for people in disaster areas, etc.
(China.org.cn by Wang Wei, May 26, 2008)