www.ecselfellows.org/en

ECSEL is a fully-subsidized incubation program for entrepreneurs looking to build or expand a social business in greater China.

Through the course of our year-long, part-time program, participants receive two international training trips (one in the United States, one in mainland China), customized mentorship, and investment opportunities.

Source: ECSEL

By Yibai, Jointing.Media, in Shanghai  2011-07-10

Chinese

The localization of public welfare service and its sustainable development

Only locals know the place in actual and are well aware of people’s need and relevant obstacles. Nangchukja mentioned: “we only help those who are most in need of help regardless of nationality and religions.”

JM: What’s your favorite project?

N: My favorite was a water project in my village. Before water pipes were connected to our houses, we had to travel four to ten kilometers carrying water on our backs. Many other places have similar problems and many still live with these difficulties.

It’s the same with the solar lighting project. Many herders used oil lamps in their tents. Solar power is very environmentally friendly and solved their problems.  Many locals pray for us continually because we introduced this convenience into their lives.

JM: What have you learned from all these projects?

N: We shouldn’t promise people that we will succeed otherwise, there is much disappointment if things don’t go well. Rather, we say, “We are not sure if it will succeed but we promise to try our best.” Those who promise success may find it challenging if the project is does not achieve the benefits they promised.

Clear communication and timely exchanges of information is also very important. Beneficiaries’ needs change over time and the needs that they described in a survey may no longer exist by the time the survey is completed. You have to ensure timely feedback and communication. Some of our problems resulted from poor communication. It’s also important to have good relationships with relevant government departments. I know most of the officials in those departments and I always talk things over with them when we meet difficulties when carrying out projects.

Moreover, I tend to look at what I do from different perspectives. It helps me to find inner peace. We want to help as many people as we can regardless of religion and nationality.

JM: What are your strongpoints in doing local projects?
N: We are local people and a local NGO. We understand the dos and don’ts of local culture. We must ensure that we are providing the right help for people in need. I always wear my Tibetan robes when at home that brings me closer to local culture. Local people are very willing to work with me and give me timely feedback when they have problems.

JM: I heard you are setting up a social enterprise. Why?
N: We currently rely on external funding and ultimately must find a way for our organization to be self-sustaining. We believe establishing a social enterprise is a good idea. For example, if we sell local handicrafts, 65 percent of our profits could go to the locals who make them, and the remaining could be reinvested in our organization to continue the project. Social enterprise is about helping people help themselves.

JM: How is this project going?

N: We have completed the proposal and are seeking financial support to promote it. In order to gain more experience, we decided to use our own funds and open a shop selling folk clothing. We hope to expand, integrating production and sales. We will also try to register our own trademark and develop our brand value and competitiveness.

JM: What’s your view upon life?

N: Helping others makes you happy and when you become old, you will have something to look back at and feel your life meant something.

JM: What have you considered besides your career?

N: People in my village take it for granted that I have a girlfriend. I have many ideas and there are so many things for me to do. I have no time to consider having a girlfriend and forming a family.

JM: What do you need most now?

N: More financial support to the impoverished communities. In addition, the protection of our unique traditional Tibetan culture is also very important that gives our nationality identity. Serious culture loss comes hand in hand with economic development. One of FCA’s targets is protecting local culture. We record folk songs, folklore, and such traditional folk activities as weddings and horseraces. We have also organized various activities to enrich the cultural life of villagers.

Dreams have no boundaries on a stage that matches the size of your will to achieve. One step at a time, with his feet on the ground, Nangchukja is gradually making his dreams come true.

Translated by Ryan

Edited by Robert

By Yibai, Jointing.Media, in Shanghai  2011-07-05

Chinese

Where there is a big dream, there is a big arena

Nangchukja has completed three similar projects in nearby villages. Every time he improved the living conditions in one place, he found more places in need of similar projects, and more requests from local people for him to find ways to help their communities. Nangchukja has completed more than 30 projects with funds totaling around 2 million RMB

JM: How do you target what local people need?

N: It’s easy for me to communicate with locals because I myself am a local. The easiest way is to live with them for some time. It’s a good way to get to know them and their difficulties. For example, soon after my graduation in 2009, we were implementing a project that required us to visit 15 villages and record details of people’s living conditions. We stayed in these villages for about a month doing interviews and questionnaires. Based on this experience and the eleven-page questionnaire we made, we were better able to choose appropriate projects for each village and specific plans for realizing them.

JM: Did any of your projects fail?

N: Yes. Back in 2007, we spent 80,000 RMB and a whole year on a clinic project. Our original target was to sell medicine at half the price because the local price was extremely high. However, we were unable to reach the target and we only half accomplished our goal.

JM: Where did the idea for clinic project come from?

N: The “barefoot doctors” in the village had very limited knowledge of medicine and could treat only headaches or colds. Those who contracted a serious disease had to ride three hours by horse to buy medicine from a larger village 8 kilometers away. On some occasions, villagers would have to ride 80 kilometers to buy medicine in the county town. We happened to have a Red Cross project at that time and we persuaded the village head and the Party branch secretary to work together on the clinic project. It cost around 30,000 RMB to build the clinic and 50,000 RMB to buy the medicine and medical equipment.

JM: Have you reflected on this failure?

N: Yes. We gained a lot of experience from this project. At that time, medicine was more expensive than we had supposed and we had many problems managing the clinic. We changed the operation method accordingly. We became more transparent and sought doctors ourselves in order to ensure that villagers could buy medicine at half the price. However, this upset the village leadership and they criticized us. We have this sort of experience from time to time while implementing projects. Thus, even though most villagers were supportive, I have had to give up some projects because some people opposed them due to their personal interest.

JM: What did you learn from this project?

N: Be smarter and settle contracts at the very beginning of a project. Everything should follow the contract. For example, we were doing a water project sponsored by the German Embassy and before implementing the project, we briefed the government, obtained their permission, then signed a contract with the beneficiaries. Only after we had permission from the government and consensus from the beneficiaries we did focus on running the project.

JM: Where did the idea of setting up Friendship Charity Association come from?

N: I realized that the level of trust I got from people was relatively low when I did things personally because I was a student at the time. I talked to people and realized it would be easier and more efficient to create a focused organization and do things under its auspices. After we set up the office in March 2009, I flew to Shanghai for a forum. It was my first time on an airplane and I was extremely nervous. My trip in Shanghai was productive: I attended lots of meetings and met many people who became friends and from whom I obtained useful information. I realized Shanghai was a different world and that there were many things we could learn there.

JM: How were you able to find the time to do these things?

N: When I was at school, I spent most of my weekends and holidays on these projects. I was not financially well-off at that time. There was a friend from inland China who spent time at my school every year and it was through the many conversations with him that I learned much about NGOs. I collected lots of information regarding registering a non-profit organization after graduation. I studied the information carefully along with relevant information I got from official websites of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and other government agencies. FCA was officially registered in October 2008. I realized that I had started a lifetime career. I had also been working with a local NGO to earn a living while studying for my Bachelor degree.

I set up the organization’s website with a friend’s help, but mostly by myself though initially I had very little knowledge of website construction. However, I had a great passion for it and it motivated me to learn by doing. It took me 6 months to finalize the website. As for the office, even though the organization was already founded, we lacked our own space. Through a teaching program, I had cooperation with HuaQiao Foundation and became their regional director for their Xining office. We shared the office. Before that, I worked at Qinghai Normal University as an assistant.

JM: How does FCA do nowadays?

N: We have only two full-time staff members–myself and Namjay Tsering. Because a staff of two people is not enough to complete all the work, we rely volunteers and friends to help us.

JM: How about your income?

N: Before leaving my job, I earned 1000 RMB per month, which was just enough for basic living expenses. Between March 2009 and February 2010, I had no income. Currently, we have few expenses because we share the office with HuaQiao Foundation. Now we have successfully obtained funds for operational expenses for two years, the result of persistence.

JM: What is your dream?

N: To continue FCA’s work and develop projects in response to local people’s needs.

(To be continued)

Translated by Ryan

Edited by Robert

By Yibai, Jointing.Media, in Shanghai  2011-07-01

Chinese

Lead:

Five years ago, a seventeen-year-old Tibetan managed to stay in school thanks to a charitable donation. Since graduation from college, he has been busy raising funds to improve the living conditions of those in his home area. The strangers who gave him the opportunity to continue his education unconsciously sowed the seed of philanthropy, and it has since grown into a flourishing tree. Over the years, this young Tibetan man has founded primary school libraries, implemented solar energy projects, done running water projects for intensely impoverished rural communities desperately in need of drinking water, completed irrigation projects, and founded inexpensive village medical clinics. His many projects have given him confidence and his dreams have grown.

He founded the locally based public welfare organization, Friendship Charity Association (FCA), in Qinghai Province in 2008 with help from many people.

This is the story of Nangchukja, a young man who never stops striving to realize his dreams.

Seed of philanthropy

The proverb “A single seed can change a whole world” epitomizes Nangchukja’s story.

JM: How did you learn about public welfare services?

N: I entered college in 2005. At that time, some of my classmates were doing interesting, public welfare projects, though they had limited funds.

In 2006 I enrolled in the Tibetan-English program at Qinghai Normal University, but it was difficult to continue my study due to my family’s poverty. To realize my dream, I had to look for financial aid and finally found someone who supported me with 10,000 RMB a year.

“Sustainable Development” taught by a foreign teacher was one of my courses and it greatly impacted me. Meanwhile, a few teachers encouraged students to participate in public welfare projects. At the very beginning, we assisted these teachers and soon we started to do things independently.

JM:  Tell us about your first project.

N: It was a library project in 2005. The Lillian Kirby Fund donated around 5,000 RMB to help build a library in my village primary school. However, being only seventeen years old meant villagers didn’t have much hope that I would be able to complete this project and bring positive change to my village.

JM: And you succeeded. What did people say about that?

N: They were grateful because I solved a concrete problem. Gradually, people began to trust me and shared of their real-life difficulties, hoping I could help. I increasingly began to realize that I could really do something to help others.

JM: Did the success of your first project encourage you to move on for more?

N: Yes. I had been writing grant proposals and reports and had been making contacts with foundations since 2006. Friends introduced me to the German Embassy in Beijing and helped me prepare three project applications that included a library, solar electricity panels, and solar cookers. The solar energy project was needed because it took a really long time for people to do housework at night because they couldn’t see in dim lamp light and students in the village were able to do their homework in the evening using solar electricity powered lights. Solar cookers meant they had used less sheep dung as fuel. These proposals were quickly approved and this gave me confidence.

JM: What is significant about you doing projects?

N: We nomads are Tibetan Buddhists and taught as children to help others. During my second year in college, our school increased its enrollment, including students from Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. After a few conversations with these students, we realized that living conditions in these areas were no better than in Qinghai. It occurred to me that more people needed help and by helping others I could increase the value of my life.

(To be continued)

Translated by Ryan

Edited by Robert

By Ines Mergel

Chinese

This article is part of a Special Section on Web 2.0 and Social Media that ran in the Summer issue of PA TIMES. See the end of this article for links to others from the Special Section.

Government 2.0–or the use of social media in the public sector–has become a hot topic. Agencies and departments on all levels of government are adding Facebook, Twitter or YouTube buttons to their otherwise static–infrequently updated–websites. It is still not clear how successful and useful social media is in the public sector and how agencies can design their own social media strategies.

The term Government 2.0 was coined by Eggers in 2005 as the way that “Unhyped and therefore unnoticed, technology is altering the behavior and mission of city halls, statehouses, schools and federal agencies across America.” He goes on, describing Government 2.0 as “A form of digital revolution that transforms government.” Only with the successful Internet campaign and use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter of the then presidential candidate Obama the term was picked up again and is now widely used to describe the use of new forms of technology such as free and open social networking services in government (sometimes called social media or new media).

President Obama’s so-called Open Government memo from January 21, 2009 called for a more transparent, participatory and collaborative government and directed “Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public.”

Today, Government 2.0 is the “hyped” form of the use of social media in government and by its diverse stakeholders that transforms the way that government interacts with citizens in a participatory, transparent and collaborative way. The use of social media and the actual participation of all federal departments and agencies were reinforced by the Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzag’s executive directive giving agencies a 60-day deadline to publish their open government plans and upload their first datasets to a dedicated website called data.gov.

In April 2010, Cass Sunstein, Whitehouse advisor, published a memo that specified the use of social media in government advising the heads of the federal agencies and departments on how to handle content published and public feedback posted on social media sites under the Paperwork Reduction Act. While agencies were hesitant at the beginning, the GSA’s “Terms of Service Process for Free Social Media Products” with no-cost social media providers made it easier for agencies and departments to pick and chose the applications they found useful to promote a greater openness.

What we can now observe is a surge to use social networking services in government: almost every federal agency and department has at least one Facebook organizational page and at least one official Twitter account–many even have a dedicated social media site which aggregates all their different accounts (see for example cdc.gov/socialmedia).

Although for many agencies it has become mainstream practice to use social media applications and “be where our audiences are,” it is clear that not every agency has the same goal or a dedicated social media strategy. Some start by setting up blogs, Facebook fanpages, several Twitter accounts, YouTube channels, etc., but the actual use and outreach proves to be very diverse.

“We have to be where the people are!”
From my interactions with new media directors in the federal agencies and departments, I differentiate between three different types of social media use to promote transparency, participation and collaboration:

• The first strategy can be called push strategy: The new medium is used as an extension of the existing (usually relatively static) Internet presence and is used as an additional communication channel “to get the message out.” This results in un-moderated Twitter updates that are mainly used to publish press releases or appearances of the secretaries, unmanned Facebook walls that are blocked for public comments and sparsely populated YouTube channels.

• The second strategy can be called pull strategy: Social media applications are used to bring audiences back to an organization’s website, where the news is aggregated (to avoid losing control of what happens with the information). Pull strategies are actively involving audiences using some degree of interaction that result in a few comments from on Facebook walls and a few retweets (reuses of messages by other Twitter users) or answers to comments on responses from Twitter followers. Examples include the CDC’s use of social media tools to alert and inform the public about peanut salmonella outbreak or its H1N1 flu campaign.

• The third strategy–and at the same time the least observable–can be called networking strategy. The use of social media tools is highly interactive with a lot of back and forward between the agency and its diverse constituencies. The new media directors usually have a sense of who is following them and who they want to reach. They are using Facebook, Twitter, etc., very strategically not only to control and direct messages to their audiences, but also to have their ears and eyes on the channels where the actual issues are being discussed that might be of relevance to their agency’s or department’s mission. Social media tools are not only used for mere publishing purposes and are not viewed as a time sink of the already overworked IT staff, but as a strategic information sharing and knowledge creation tool involving social media champions from different content areas.

One agency that stands out is GSA. The agency used an informal social networking site called GovLoop.com to create a group and discuss their “Acquisition 2.0” strategy. The discussions of a diverse audience of government employees has led to the creation of the Better Buy wiki project (see betterbuy.fas.gsa.gov) that truly transforms the acquisition process of GSA multibillion dollar budget: Tenders are now “crowdsourced” –meaning that vendors and agencies are asked to submit their revisions to the final document before it is officially released for solicitation.

How to Design Your Social Media Strategy
The question now is: What does a successful social media strategy look like? On the federal level very few departments and agencies have made their social media strategies or policies publicly available, but from interviews with the current new media directors I derived a few general observations:

• It is necessary to get people on board and don’t put the use and content creation on the shoulders of the one-person IT shop, instead understand the need to socialize your strategy and find champions who are interested in experimenting with new media and include them in early efforts.

• Social media does not replace the existing traditional channels of communication with government’s stakeholders, instead it provides a test bed for new ways of interactions with citizens and public.

• Design your social media strategy around the mission and the audiences you are trying to reach and not the necessity to be out there and part of the movement. Make a conscious decision what your expectations are and if you have the manpower to actually interact and network with your audiences.

• Reach has not yet proven its value and measurement of the outcome is difficult. The pure number of Twitter followers or Facebook fans does not indicate the actual impact. It is more important to understand who follows your Twitter or Facebook profile; what do your followers do with the content and who is in the network of each of these followers: Social networks have the ability to distribute information from friends to friends and their friends and can therefore reach many more than just the few directly following your updates.

• While a lot of rumors circulate about generational differences and that the main audience are young citizens, it has become clear that social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook have the highest increase rates in the age group of +35 year olds. Moreover, the Facebook newsfeed has the potential to become an important information mechanism that aggregates traditional media sources with information spreading through the trusted friendship network people are paying attention to.

Over a year into the Government 2.0 movement it is clear that social media is here to stay and not a fleeting fad. Although there is a surge to jump on the bandwagon, deciding how the different social media channels fit into an agency’s mission is a crucial step that should involve top management but also all departments that might populate the social media channels with content.

Ines Mergel is assistant professor of public administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Campbell Public Affairs Institute, Syracuse University. eMail: iamergel@maxwell.syr.edu

]]> http://jointings.org/eng/archives/329/feed 0 http://jointings.org/eng/archives/307 http://jointings.org/eng/archives/307#comments Wed, 29 Dec 2010 09:04:37 +0000 admin http://jointings.org/eng/?p=307 By Methanol@HR, Jointing.Media  2010-12-26

Chinese

Jointing.Media, an independent online news organization, aims to connect the citizen worldwide via joint effects between media organizations, business communities and Non-profit organizations. Providing extensive news, comment and analysis, Jointing.Media pursues quality, accuracy and integrity, and promotes Chinese citizens to take an active part in social work, to accomplish the forming of a Global Civil Society.

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Online Editor (Bi-Lingual)

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By Echo Zhang in Kathmandu, Jointing.Media 2010-10-02

Chinese

Dhruba, in his age of 28, has already two children. Born in the 80s, this man shows a huge social responsibility and sense of mission of the era, which are rarely found among his fellows. He’s well aware of what he wants, and he has a clear plan of his future.

To reform the society at the age of thirty

“What we have now is just a beginning. I’m planning to pursue a doctoral degree of education in ten years and then I want to enter the political world” Dhruba explained. He believes that one is not able to make much on his own in improving the society whereas establishing the right policies could change a country profoundly. He ascribes social issues such as the violation of traffic regulations and the excess of population with the lack of education. The solution thus, according to Dhruba, is to restructure the education policies via politics. . He is expecting the society’s development in the coming future, which he believes is the natural result when people obtain the right understanding of things.

With a clearly defined goal and not a slight hesitation, Dhruba continues on his career of women’s rights movement, for which he has completely devoted himself during four years already. Many female students are attending the classes at school now,, most of them are encouraged by Dhruba as he visited families at the neighborhood consistently and persuaded those women and their husbands with reason as well as compassion. “One should never underestimate the role men could play in the women’s rights movement” was what Ghruba realized while doing all these.

Ghruba is confident that these ten years he devotes to social work are firming his determination. Thus regardless how strong the temptation of power in the political world would be, it would never corrupt his mind. He referred to three social workers who turned political figures that stick to their original political ideals and devote themselves to the well-being of the Nepali people. “Nepal had witnessed ten years of turmoil, and has just recently entered the fourth year of her peace era”, Ghruba said, “but I am completely confident of the future, and I believe that we young generations have the power to improve the current government.”

I am never confident enough to imagine this ideal blueprint: working from a grass-roots social worker to a member of the superstructure, and then changing the society structurally top-down. I wish sincerely that Dhruba could reach the highland successfully as he desires and realize his dream of the social improvement in the future.

Translated by Ryan

Edited by Gokay

By Echo Zhang in Kathmandu, Jointing.Media 2010-08-02

Chinese

It was at Thamel Kathmandu where I first met Dhruba Ghimire. He and Uma, his wife, took one hour bus ride from Chabahil to pick me up. This tall thin man it’s the initiator of RUWON– Rural Women’s Network Nepal. Nowadays, hundreds of women in neighborhood take various classes of Nepali language, English, Mathematics, and Dance in Sagarmatham, a local primary school, from 5pm till 8pm, every Sunday till Friday.

RUWON, the organization which determines to evaluate the lives of the Nepali women, has been established for four years. Now it has two branches in Nepal: one in Sindhuli, Dhruba’s hometown and the other in the country’s capital, Kathmandu. Dhruba works full time in the organization, together with ten volunteers who forms the major staffs within both branches.

The organization arranges classes inside borrowed small classrooms of the Sagarmartha primary school where the school principle and seven young teachers give classes to around two hundred women. Teaching in their spare time, these volunteers take this work serious. Along with free classes, the organization also organizes speaking skill trainings and public events  aiming at rousing a public awareness of women’s rights.

Two women behind

Dhruba could have been a successful professor in stead of choosing to devote himself to the education of Nepali women. However, this decision, in a large extend, traces back to the influence of two women: Dhruba’s mother Indra Ghimire, and his wife, Uma Ghimire. “I could have never achieved my study and career without the supports from these two women.” Dhruba said.

Indra, a villager woman, is able to write her name only. She has encouraged her son to teach women how to read and write since he started his education.. Dhruba thus has tutored nearly 400 children from poor neighborhoods since he was 15. Right after obtaining a master degree in education, Dhruba founded a private school specializing in improving personal skills and leadership techniques of women. While Dhruba’s father never encouraged him to teach women in the village for free, his mother implanted in him the belief of “Education brings changes”.  Besides financial support,, this uneducated woman contributes to her son’s career in her own way.

“If she had been educated”, Dhruba said, “She would have joined me in my career right away and have contributed the best.” Having benefited the best from his mother’s open minded attitudes since his birth, Dhruba is willing to promote education and disseminate the idea of “education improves lives” among the Nepali mothers. He believes that mothers are the best teachers for children because they play an important role during the growth of their children, and thus an open-minded mother could bring hope into the whole.

Uma, Dhruba’s wife, on the other hand, is more like a comrade. She was there during the initial conception of RUWON Nepal and she worked closely with her husband in setting up this organization. Nowadays, she, the best friend of Dhruba of his childhood, is not only taking care of the family, but also in charge of the organization’s propaganda work. “Some find it odd that my wife and I work together for a common career, and some even take immediate aversion. For us, we don’t feel a slightness of uneasiness to work together for the well-being of Nepali women.” Dhruba said.

Dhruba is able to be a practitioner of his dream, all thanks to the supports from these two women. Dhruba’s story reminds me of director An Li. Both men were once desolate for a long period while pursuing their dreams, and both men are able to be persistent in their pursuits ,appreciating to material and spiritual from certain women behind. It may be true that persistence doesn’t guarantee success, but every success is for sure built up bit by bit through long time persistence.

To be continued

=======================================================

Translated by Ryan

Edited by Gokay

By Abdel Kabi in Ottawa, Jointing.Media 2010-05-15

Chinese

We can’t be fragrant without water

We can’t be sunny without water

We will be wilted without water

We will become the stone without water

How could you decorate the capital of  maple leaf at that time?

There was almost 3.000.000 bulbs of tulips sent every year from Holland to Ottawa for this event

The ones that drawn on this kind of ”pillar” are just a kind of decoration. Some artists drawn pictures relating to tulips.

Translated by Peipei Zhu

Edited by Wind

May 7: The 2010 WATERCAN BALL – The Canadian Tulip Festival is proud to support the annual Embassy Dinner on Friday, May 7 to raise funds destined for clean water projects in Africa. Help support a great cause! Liberation Street Party – The 65th Anniversary of the spontaneous street party just as it happened on May 7th 1945 on Sparks Street Mall. Listen to bands on different stages from 4:30 – 10pm. Free entertainment from Elgin Street to Bank Street!

May 8: VETERANS CEREMONY – The Canadian Tulip Festival and Veterans Affairs will be honouring our Veterans during an Official Ceremony at the National War Museum at Confederation Square at 11h00 am.

May 14-24: MAJOR’S HILL PARK – An International Bazaar and Food Emporium, including a Beer Garden, will be housed under a huge tent that will dominate the Park.

The iconic Cabaret Libre (Mirror Tent) will host Celebridée and special Cabaret shows reminiscent of the 1940s.

Please continue to check www.tulipfestival.ca for updates!

Festival Information:

General information: 613.567.5757
Tulip Hotline: 1.800.66TULIP
General information email: info@tulipfestival.ca
Location:  Major’s Hill Park
Commissioners Park at Dow’s Lake [Preston St. & Queen Elizabeth Drive], Ottawa

On the Web:

Website: Canadian Tulip Festival