Talk to the Founders of NGOCN (II)

By Jasmine, Jointing.Media, in Hong Kong, 2011-11-05

Starting in Yunnan

How they came to meet cannot be separated from Yunnan.

In 2001, SecondBee went to the UK for a postgraduate course in rural development. The following year he travelled to rural Africa to research his dissertation. It was the first time he had been to a rural area in a poor region, and the first time he had seen people living in abject poverty and felt the despair in their eyes. He said he was surprised and ‘a bit overwhelmed’.

In 2003, he was working as a programme officer for an international NGO in Kunming. One of his tasks was to take charge of the ‘Rural Volunteer Programme’, in which volunteers, mainly in cooperation with the local government, went to the countryside and were required to stay at the project site for six months, with no possibility of leaving in the middle of their stay. NotFish, who was still a university student at the time, signed up for the programme and went to the project site in Yunnan. Recalling his first meeting with NotFish, he said he was most impressed by the sincerity he felt during the interview.

Sincerity is as important as competence in everything we do,” said SecondBees, adding that without NotFish, NGOCN would not have developed as it did.

NGOCN was officially registered in 2006. Initially, the running costs were paid out of their own pockets. From the following year, NGOCN applied for annual project funding of 200,000 RMB from a non-profit organisation. At that time, they planned to do offline activities and presented a three-year vision. Since then, the number of visits to the website has exceeded one million and NGOCN is beginning to take off.

In December 2009, NGOCN’s website was redesigned for the second time, moving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, with the website’s function shifting from one-way communication to two-way communication.

In 2010 NGOCN had a ‘Financial Incident’. The team dealt with the situation quickly and took the initiative to announce the situation to the public, which received positive reactions and understanding from netizens. This incident prompted NGOCN to think about transforming from a semi-amateur public service to a professional public service, and from a grassroots organization to a formal organization.

In early 2011, NGOCN moved from Kunming to Guangzhou, where NotFish is based. In September, NGOCN advertised a ‘Hero Job’ to recruit an executive director. SecondBee said bluntly: “NGOCN really needs to transform itself into a social enterprise so that it can develop in a better and more sustainable way.”

JM: What do your parents think about your charity work?

NotFish: They don’t really understand, but they’re OK, they’re like a silent support. My parents are retired.

JM: Is your family supportive of your public service?

SecondBee: Generally, as long as they can balance work, charity and family. It’s exhausting to look after NGOCN in my spare time, but I’ll continue.

JM: Why don’t you give up?

SecondBee: Only if we persevere can we do well. When you get tired and can’t take it anymore, you have to learn to manage your time and fight a long battle.

JM: What is it about this work that makes it worthwhile for you to continue?

SecondBee: It’s just to do what I can with my intuition – to bring more attention to public welfare. Everyone is responsible and concerned about other people, (which) can be contagious to those around them.

(To be continued)

Translated by DeepL

Edited by Wind