China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Church group offers faith, hope and charity Organization that receives millions of yuan in donations every year looks to become more professional to provide greater assistance to people in need. XuWei reports fromShijiazhuang.
Father Li Rongpin is a busy man. In addition to his pastoral duties, such as giving Mass several times a week and attending to the needs of his parishioners, the Roman Catholic priest has another demanding job: running a charitable foundation that received registered donations of 17 million yuan ($2.5 million) last year.
The 43-year-old takes phone calls, reviews individual charity programs and gives instructions to colleagues, but he is often frustrated by his lack of experience.
“These are things I never expected to do. When I decided to devote myself to the priesthood, all that my mother expected was that I would say Mass at the village church,” he said. “As a priest, Iwastrained to provide services in the spiritual realm. I knowalmost nothing about financial management, charity work or administration.”
the amount of money donated to Jinde Charities last year
Li is the director of JindeCharities, a Catholic organization and foundation registered in Shijiazhuang, the capital ofHebei province, a traditional Catholic stronghold in North China. Followers in the province account for about 40 percent of China’s estimated 6 million Catholics, according to statistics from the Hebei Department of Ethnic and Religious Affairs.
Jinde is just one of many charities run by Catholic groups. Several dioceses, including Xi’an in Shaanxi province and the diocese of Liaoning province, run charitable organizations, including nursing homes, orphanages and groups devoted to helping people with AIDS.
The groups have one thing in common— theirworkis beinghampered by a lack of financial management experience.
Range of activities
The Jinde foundation was approved by the authorities in 1998. Managed by about 40 priests, nuns and lay workers, it is devoted to a range of activities, including disaster relief, providing emergency relief to individual families, caring for seniors and helping people with AIDS in rural areas.
“When required, we can mobilize priests and followers in different dioceses. If we know a priest is ministering in a certain area, we can usually find hundreds or even thousands of followerswhowill provide help,” said Li, who has a master’s in biblical studies from the Catholic TheologicalUnion at Chicago.
He acknowledged that the lack of management skills poses a challenge to the priests and nuns, who have no experience of running a foundation, especially one that handles such a large number of donations.
Management of human resources is also difficult, because Li’s status as a priest means he is expected to be more forgiving than a regular employer.
He is attempting to draft a code of conduct for employees to improve the foundation’s management, but is finding it difficult: “This is why we need a modern management system. We need rules to reward those who obey the regulations and punish those who violate them.”
Official encouragement
The central government actively encourages the participation of religious groups in charity work and the establishment of charitable organizations, including foundations, which are allowed to receive donations, according to a guideline issued in 2012 by six central government departments, including the State Administration of Religious Affairs and theMinistry of Finance.
That stance has been reiterated by Wang Zuoan, head of the State Administration of Religious Affairs. In an article published by Study Times, Wang said the government will continue to support faith-based charities.
Despite the official endorsement, the foundation’s religious background can be a disadvantage when the group attempts to publicize its work, especially through the media.
“The issue suddenly becomes sensitive for many people when they learn about our religious background. Many outlets shy away from covering our work, and some have even severed ties with us,” said Father John Zhang Shijiang, Jinde Charities’ founder.
Abandoned families
One of the earliest programs the foundation established provided assistance to 45 families whose members contracted AIDS after being given contaminated blood at a hospital in Shahe, Hebei, in the 1990s. The charity provides each family with 4,000 to 5,000 yuan every year to help fund their children’s education.
He Xuecai, a nun who works for Jinde’s AIDS prevention program, said one of the most important tasks is helping people with AIDS to live with their condition: “All their relativesandfriendshave virtually abandoned them. Sometimes, we are the only people they can talk to.”
She cited the example of a family that spent an entire day preparing a banquet to celebrate the grandfather’s60th birthday. Invitationswere issued to relativesandfriends, butno guests showed up — they stayed away because one member of the family had AIDS.
According toHe, the nuns are willing to discuss almost any subject with the families, from their treatment by society to raising children, but they will never mention their missionary work unless they are asked about religion.
The objective is to help people with AIDS and their children to conquer their inner fears and, ultimately, find jobs and live normal lives, she said.
“We hope they will eventually rediscover their self-respect through work. But the chances are that they will be fired when people learn that theyhave AIDS,” she said, noting that many children from AIDS families have low self-esteem even though they do not have the virus.
“I feel low when I discover thatmy work won’t make a difference, but I find strength through prayer,” she said. “Even now, I can’t work out if my efforts have actually improved their lives, but if we gave up, they might lose the only people they can talk to.”
The program also works with mutual-help gay groups that have enlisted the foundation’s help to oversee the funds they receive via donations. Chen Tianzhi Li Rongpin, “Our slogan in the fight against AIDS is that people should refrain from premarital sex. We do not support their (gay groups’) behavior, but we believe they deserve the same care as other patients,” the nun said.
Donations rise
Last year, the growing popularity of mobile-payment platforms saw donations to Jinde rise by more than 5 million yuan from 2015.
“Individual donors are now major sources of donations,” Li said, adding that mobile-paymenthasmadeit easier for people to donate to charitable causes. “Before, a personwould have to go to the post office tomake a donation, but now it’s all down to a fewfinger movements.”
The rapid growth of new media platforms has also helped the foundation to promote its programs. “Despite that, we still need effective, traditional public relations to reach potential donors,” he said.
The growing influence of the internet has also placed a greater onus on transparency about the use of donated funds and the administration of charities.
“We are trying to make all our expenditure traceable online, and we will also try to make our personnelmanagementandfinancial situation visible on the web,” Li said, adding that the foundation is now looking for trained professionals to help run its operations.
“Each of us has a loving heart and a strong sense of mission. We are not seeking any personal gain from the foundation, but running a successful charity requiresmuchmore than just good intentions,” he said.
Chen first learned about psychology when he studied theology in the United States from 1994 to 1998.
The former Catholic priest, who gained a doctorate in psychology from Loyola University Maryland in 2012, now works at a psychological counseling center in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province in North China. He works alongside nine other people, including four Catholic nuns and four As a priest, I was trained to provide services in the spiritual realm. I know almost nothing about financial management, charity work or administration.” director of Jinde Charities patient to pay a certain amount for the counseling service, which he believes will help patients value the service provided and be more cooperative during treatment.
There are many similarities between being a priest and a psychotherapist, because both require the ability to be a good listener, he said.
“As a counselor, you hear people’s deepest thoughts. You know people from the perspective of psychology, and you give your analysis of the situation. An important code of conduct is that you never judge people. It’s not your job to judge their feelings, but to help the patient discover how that feeling originated before helping Scan the code to see the video story