Girl with leukemia dies after fundraising effort

A 5-year-old girl with leukemia has died one month after her father’s fundraising blog received wide attention from Chinese netizens.

The girl, nicknamed Xiao Xiao, died at Shenzhen University Health Science Center at 6 am on Saturday. Her parents donated her body to the center for clinical research.

Gao Min of the Shenzhen Red Cross Society told Xinhua News Agency that Xiao Xiao’s parents had bought her some new clothes and planned to dress her up as Santa Claus to celebrate Christmas.

The father, Luo Er, first wrote about the infant on Nov 25. She was diagnosed with a low blood platelet count in September and hospitalized soon after.

To raise money for her treatment, Luo began writing about his daughter and her illness on WeChat. His journals were not widely read until Xiaotongren, a Shenzhen-based finance company, said it would donate 1 yuan ($0.15) for each reposting of the article. The father’s article entitled “Luo Yixiao, Stop” went viral.

Luo described how he was signing up for the Red Cross Angel Plan. “I do not want to take advantage of the government,” he wrote. “I want to tell my daughter that I am doing all I can, but she must wait for me.”

“Luo Yixiao, don’t run away,” he wrote. “You must be a good girl and come home with me.”

He gently chided her: “If you run away to heaven, even if you are an angel, one day when we meet there, I will not talk to you.”

As of Nov 30, the article had been read and liked by more than 100,000 people on WeChat, raising more than 2 million yuan from Xiaotongren and from readers.

As Luo’s journal grew in popularity, people became interested in his private life. It was soon disclosed that he owns three apartments, implying that he perhaps had the means to fund his daughter’s treatment without requiring donations from the public. Suddenly, far from drawing the sympathy of millions, Lou was denounced as a cheat who had taken advantage of people’s kindness.

Luo made no secret of having three apartments, but said he was planning to use the money raised to set up a foundation for children living with leukemia.

Luo said he was in mourning when contacted by Xinhua by telephone on Saturday. He added that he hadn’t expected his daughter to pass away so quickly and expressed his gratitude to everyone who tried to help.

The development of internetbased charity activities has been amazing this year. Three landmark developments— legislation, the total amount of online donation, and rational public discussions— deserve the credit for the progress.

The annual session of the National People’s Congress, the top legislature, in 2016 passed the Charity Law, which includes online charity law. And even though China lags a little behind some other countries in terms of modern charity legislation, it is taking the lead in online charity activities and making efforts to streamline the sector.

Internet makes it convenient for Chinese people to embrace modern charity. Online charity has grown pretty fast in China and has huge potential to expand further.

There are several reasons why online charity has grown at such a fast pace. The traditional practice was to donate money to charity organizations, thank yourself for doing a good deed and forget about it. That used to be the case partly because donors had little information about where the money they donated went and who benefited from it.

But today the internet offers information on online charity more transparently and frequently. Despite the positives, however, the development of online charity this year has not been without glitches. Late last month, it was revealed that Luo Er, who went online to seek public help to save his 5-year-old from leukemia, had hidden from people the fact that he owned three apartments — one in Shenzhen and two in Dongguan in South China’s Guangdong province. Luo eventually returned the more than $360,000 money he had received to the donors but only after raising a controversy.

Some have called Luo “a liar” and blamed online charity for giving him the chance to fool the Good Samaritans. What such people forget is that the truth came to light only because of the internet.

While a few internet users hold radical opinions and blame Luo for everything, the majority have kept the discussion on a rational level. As a result, when Luo decided to return all the money he had received as donation, he could do so without much of a hitch.

The Luo incident also made netizens discuss what measures should be taken to make sure the information released on online charity platforms is complete and factual. The government, on its part, should take measures to better regulate such platforms and protect both the donors and those receiving the donations.

The internet will continue playing an influential role in promoting charity in the future, and the internet will propel China’s online charity sector toward greater success.