At a weekend in August, Liu Shiyi – late 50s – "purchased" a bottle
of soybean oil and a bag of rice by using convertible vouchers at a
community charity supermarket on
Siwei Street of
Wuhan in central China's
Hubei Province.
Liu is one of those who've benefited from the charity
supermarket in the Yuanjia community where all the 187 local needy
people can "buy" daily necessities donated by residents just by
exchanging convertible vouchers especially produced for
them.?
Such charity shops, also called "sunlight" or "benevolence"
supermarkets, are part of a Chinese government initiative to assist
low-income families.
They first appeared in Shanghai in 2003. Now it's mushroomed to
over 4,000 such supermarkets in medium-sized and large cities like
Wuhan, Guangzhou, Jinan, Suzhou and Qingdao. Wuhan has developed
the scheme at a fast pace.??
These charity supermarkets now have complete networks
established for receiving donations including a main reception
center and local branches in many different communities.
In Shanghai, the leading Shanghai Charity Material Center has
over 60 regular outlets in the city. All the donated goods received
by them add up to approximately 46.830 million yuan (about US$5.9
million) in value. Of this figure 30 million yuan (about US$3.8
million) has been used to help needy people in the city. The
remaining 11.6 million yuan (about US$1.5) has been distributed in
poverty-stricken areas of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Chongqing, Jiangxi and Yunnan. The number of Shanghai shops is
expected to reach 100 and cover every community in the city.
These supermarkets all have uniform management. Regulated by the
local municipal civil affairs bureaus and charity foundations,
donated items are first collected at main centers and then
dispersed to local outlets. In Wuhan all the names, logos, donation
boxes, goods shelves, vouchers and account books of these
supermarkets are unified across the city.
Information technology is widely used in these supermarkets. In
Shanghai new software and networks suited to the logistical
operations of charities were created by local scientific research
centers. Traditional accounting has been replaced by computers and
donations “in and out” are also recorded on the system.
Much thought has also been given to image of these shops. The
accounts are made public on a regular basis. Publicity drives
explaining that the shops help needy people are organized during
donation weeks and handbill distribution is carried out. A number
of charity supermarkets have gone as far as to build their own
websites.
The appearance of these supermarkets has changed the way needy
people are assisted. They'll never receive donations from officials
escorted by an imposing group of helpers. Instead they can go to
the charity supermarkets to "buy" their daily necessities
themselves using the convertible vouchers especially produced for
them.
"I had to shamefully explain my poor family situation and fill
in different forms in public view to receive aid or clothes years
ago," said Sun Wei, a postgraduate student in the East China Normal
University.
Chinese experts explained that needy people had concerns over
privacy and their self-respect had to be considered especially when
children were involved. They said the charity supermarkets had gone
some way to solving this problem.?
The charity supermarket project is still in its early stages and
only a limited number of needy people can access the new
system.
However, the Ministry of Civil Affairs in collaboration with the
State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of Finance are
deliberating on how to encourage those who are wealthy to give to
charities by creating new policies which could perhaps involve an
element of tax exemption set against charitable
donations.?
Charity service centers like the supermarkets are expected to
become part of everyday community life in China during the
2006-2010 period.
(China.org.cn by Unisumoon, September 5, 2006)
