World Bank Small Grants Program Finances NGO Projects

On June 6, 2002, the World Bank Small Grants Program Committee approved grants to six Chinese NGOs -- Panzhihua Women's Federation, Qinghai Minority Charity Foundation, Yunnan PRA Network, Cultural Poverty Alleviation and Village Autonomy Experimental Research Center of Anhui, Legal Assistance Center of the Law School of Nanjing University, and National Committee of YMCAs of China -- for the following projects:

Enhancing the Role of Minority Women in Development

Located in south Sichuan Province, Panzhihua has a poor population of 59,300 with poor women accounting for 39.8%. Many of the poor are ethnic minorities. Panzhihua Women's Federation regards it as its mission to serve the needs of poor women and improve their living conditions in order to promote local economic and social development. In order to help poor women and enhance their role in poverty reduction and development, PWF has proposed to organize training courses on appropriate technology, gender awareness and health care knowledge for poor women in seven remote ethnic minority villages. PWF will also raise additional funds to help selected women in these villages develop horticulture or animal husbandry and have them play a demonstrative role in their villages, so as to help reduce poverty and stimulate the local economy. The World Bank grant will be used to finance the training courses.

Promoting Philanthropy in Poor Minority Areas

Qinghai is one of the poor provinces in western China, with ethnic minorities accounting for 45% of its population of 5.18 million. Qinghai Nationality Charity Foundation was created in December 2001 to raise funds for assistance to the needed and particularly to poor minority students who have been admitted by universities but cannot afford the tuition and living expenses. To enhance its name awareness and mobilize more people and resources for philanthropic purpose, QNCF has decided to publish a journal Qinghai Charity in four languages: Mandarin Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and English -- to disseminate information on needs and activities in the area. The World Bank grant will be used to finance the startup cost of the journal.

Improving Leadership Skills of Village Officials in Poor Areas

Village election is common in China today. However, how to develop greater participation and community autonomy after the election is a major challenge for most elected village officials.

In recognition of the training needs of village officials, the Yunnan PRA Network has proposed an experimental training program for 50 heads of village committees in the poor areas of Yunnan Province. The project aims to help elected village officials define their missions and responsibilities and improve their leadership skills through participatory training in areas such as participation, collective decision making, community resources management and public welfare activities. The project intends to facilitate greater involvement of farmers in rural community development and help further implement the participatory process in the rural areas. The World Bank grant will finance the development and organization of the training program.

Disseminating Information on Democracy, Law and Appropriate Technology to Farmers

The Cultural Poverty Alleviation and Village Autonomy Experimental Research Center of Anhui is working to reduce poverty and develop democracy and rule of law in the poor areas in Anhui Province through dissemination of cultural and technical information to poor farmers, enhancing their awareness of democracy and law and increasing their participation in the decision making, in attempts to help farmers protect their rights and take greater control of their own fate.

For this purpose, the Center has proposed the following activities:

• Setting up newspaper boards in remote villages to regularly post newspapers with information on democracy, law and appropriate agricultural technology, targeted at farmers.
• Organizing short term training courses on appropriate agricultural technology for farmers to help them improve production and generate more incomes; organizing training courses on village autonomy for village officials and farmers to help farmers learn about the Law for Village Committees and exercise their rights, and also to help village officials understand this Law and perform their functions properly to serve the interests of farmers.
• Procuring newspapers and journals with information on democracy and law and books on appropriate agricultural technology for village libraries for farmers to use regularly.

The World Bank grant will be used to finance expansion of the above work.

Providing Legal Aid to the Needed

Organized by faculty and students, the Legal Assistance Center of the Law School in Nanjing University aims to provide free legal aid to those vulnerable groups who need legal assistance but cannot afford its costs.

The LAC's major activities include providing legal advices to the needed who visit, call or write, serving as community legal advisors, organizing major open air legal advisory events, conducting public surveys on legal awareness, giving legal advices to prisoners, sharing information and developing partnership with other similar organizations, judiciary organs and the press, and publishing Related information materials. The World Bank grant will be used to finance expansion of LAC's legal aid activities.

Responding to the Needs of the Blind

There are about 140,000 eye-disabled people in Shanghai. About 40,000 are at the working age and about 20,000 are between 18 and 40. In the present transition period, the blind is the most vulnerable of all vulnerable groups, facing the pressures of unemployment, discrimination and survival.

In recognition of the pressing needs of the blind, the National Committee of YMCAs of China has proposed to create a Club for the Blind. The Club will help open up more job opportunities for the blind through organizing vocational/skills training such as computer skills, piano tuning and English language, and also facilitate communications among the blind and between the blind and other people through information services, cultural and recreational activities, leadership development and social participation. The project will also develop partnership between the YMCA and organizations for the disabled such as the Federation for the Disabled, the Association for the Blind and the Vocational Rehabilitation Center for the Blind, and draw the public attention to the issues of the blind. The World Bank grant will be used to finance the training and information sharing activities for the blind.