Experts call for better crowdfunding supervision

BEIJING: Local police in Henan province are looking into accusations that a mother raised money online for her three-year-old daughter with eye cancer but failed to use the money for her treatment.

Experts are also calling for tightened management of online charity crowdfunding to make sure the money is properly used.

Yang Meiqin, a woman in Taikang county and mother of five, raised money twice via Shuidichou, an online crowdfunding platform, for medical treatment for her fourth daughter Wang Fengya in November and March after the girl was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a type of eye cancer that occurs mostly in children.

Yang raised more than 35,000 yuan (RM21,785), according to a statement from the platform released on Friday.

Yang also posted her daughter’s videos on Huoshan, a video-sharing app, to raise money.

And she also published her WeChat account to receive netizens’ money.

However, after the fundraising, some netizens, judging from the information the mother posted on her WeChat moment, suspected that the mother used the money to treat her only son, who has a cleft palate.

Yao Hua, project manager of Shanghai Dashu Public Welfare Support Centre, an NGO for children’s welfare, said that after noticing the discussion online their volunteers went to Henan on April 9 to verify the girl’s situation but were turned away by the family.

Fengya died on May 4 from the disease, which added fuel to the fire.

Many donors felt their kindness had been misused and police started to investigate. Zhang Lei, head of the publicity department with the public security bureau in Taikang county, Zhoukou city, said on Thursday that police do not consider the mother’s actions constituted fraud or child abuse but they are persuading Yang’s family to return the leftover money to the fundraising platforms.

In a statement released on Friday, the online crowdfunding platform Shuidichou says it is working with the police to figure out whether there’s any misappropriation and how much money had been used for the girl’s treatment.