This translation is not completely accurate as it was automatically generated by a computer.
Powered by
Editor’s Note: A delegation of United Methodist bishops
and mission staff visited China in April to strengthen existing ties
with the Protestant church there. This part of a UMNS series — The Church in China — focuses on the efforts to serve those who live on the margins of Chinese society.
By Linda Bloom*
7:00 A.M. ET June 13, 2013 | NANJING, CHINA (UMNS)
Student baker Huang Wen Hui (left) is supervised by special education
teacher Zhang Yun at the Amity Bakery in Nanjing, China. UMNS photos by
Mike DuBose.
View in Photo Gallery
Near the former Protestant seminary in central Nanjing, the smell of
baking bread is evident even before the sign leading to the production
and training space for the Amity Bakery is visible.
Downstairs, five workers are squirting butter cookie dough out of a
piping bag or placing sliced blocks of coffee-flavored bars onto cookie
sheets. Outside the oven area, two women sit at a table and sort edible
rosebuds to be used as an ingredient in cakes.
One trainee, Huang Wen Hui, 28, dressed in a white shirt with the
Amity logo, light blue apron and white cap, offers a tray of cookie
samples to visitors and smiles broadly as she receives thanks in return.
Huang, one of the participants in the Amity’s training program for
persons with mental challenges, has worked at the bakery for four
years.
“She used to be very, very shy,” says Zhang Yun, the teacher. “She
would hide from strangers. Now, you see, she’s very comfortable with
strangers.”
A sixth of the Amity bakery staff,
including a 75-year-old, is mentally challenged, says the manager, Zhu
Yanwei. The program involves a lot of repetitive training to help
participants learn specific tasks.
Amity would like to be able to get these trainees employed by other
businesses as well “but we find that very difficult,” Zhu says. “In
Chinese society, a lot of people can’t see them (the mentally
challenged). They think they don’t exist.”
Expanding the impact of civil society
For the past 28 years, the Amity Foundation
— with a staff of 70 at its Nanjing headquarters, 70 more in other
locations in China and 10 in Hong Kong — has worked to assist those on
the margins of Chinese society.
Now, as one of China’s first nongovernmental organizations, it is helping expand the capability of civil society to address social problems.
The need for churches and other groups to engage in charity work was
acknowledged by the State Administration for Religious Affairs and
other government agencies in February 2012.
Transition to a market economy — symbolized by the retail outposts
of luxury brands in Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing — has brought
“emerging social problems,” She Hongyu, an Amity executive, told a
United Methodist delegation visiting Nanjing in April.
“The Chinese government already has started social reform,” she
said. “They think the government should find more space for social
society.”
In recent years, Amity has taken on a new role as an incubator of
other NGO start-ups, assisting 22 organizations since 2009 at its NGO
development center in Nanjing.
That work coincides with the new emphasis on the involvement of
civil society in social needs — a trend the Chinese media calls “social
construction,” explained Tian Meimei, the center’s director.
In facilities provided by the local government, the NGO development
center offers office space, training from Chinese and international
professionals and other resources. Amity also negotiates with the
government to get the NGOs registered, Tian said.
A number of visitors have come to the center, which is regarded “as a
tool or vehicle of change, for capacity building,” added She.
When Amity hosted the “NGO Expo Nanjing 2012,” Qui Zhonghui, the
foundation’s top executive, called for a “more transparent, more
accountable and more public welfare-based philanthropy in the country.”
NGO support has now expanded to three cities and, as a side benefit,
Amity now has new local partners. One new NGO, for example, has a big
migrant workers program.
Demonstrating Christian values
Pedestrians make their way past an upscale shopping mall in Nanjing,
China. Transition to a market economy has brought “emerging social
problems,” She Hongshu, an Amity executive said.
View in Photo Gallery
Assistance to migrant workers is just one of Amity’s numerous
church-based social service programs, which also include hospitals and
clinics, gynecological disease screening, care facilities, HIV/AIDS prevention, inter-religious dialogue and rural development projects.
Amity is not the church, She pointed out, but a church-related
organization. “It’s not the role of Amity to evangelize Christianity,”
she said. “We’re not allowed to do that. More and more, we see that
Christian values are demonstrated through the staff. Sometimes, we think
the actions speak louder than words.”
The United Methodist Church has been a long-standing partner with
Amity. The denomination’s voluntary giving fund, The Advance, currently supports 22 projects in China. One of the oldest projects is the Amity Teachers Program, which provides long- and short-term volunteers to teach English in less developed areas.
Last year’s summer English program drew 42 volunteers from the
United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. Grouped into 10 teams
at 10 sites, they staffed a three-week oral English training course
for teachers of English in primary and middle schools. About 1,000
Chinese teachers benefited.
Involvement in elder care is becoming increasingly important. In
Nanjing, the elderly are 18 percent of the population, She pointed out,
and taking care of them “is really beyond the capacity of any
government. They now realize the importance of civil society providing
good care and support.”
In March 2012, leaders of 28 elder care organizations from eight
provinces participated in management training and the first meeting of
the Amity Social Service Network. Amity International Philanthropy
Valley, a new elder care project in Qixia District, Nangjing, is a
cooperative venture with the local government.
The China Christian Council’s social service department, started in
2003, also is working to set standards for church homes for the
elderly. Other programs include providing rehabilitation for autistic
children, advocating for HIV/AIDS awareness and care and promoting
community development in western China.
“This idea (social service) is quite new for pastors in China,
especially the west part,” said Chen Yue, a department staff member.
After receiving training, “they really know the church has to take
responsibility.”
The social service efforts of Christians may seem small, given
China’s vast population, but these programs have an impact, even if only
to build awareness.
Blessing the bread
Student bakers, under the supervision of a special education teacher
(wearing yellow) create pastries at the Amity Bakery in Nanjing, China.
View in Photo Gallery
At the retail bakery store that Amity opened on Huaqiao Road in May
2012, a large painting of Jesus blessing some bread covers part of a
wall opposite racks holding cookies, doughnuts and pastries for sale.
Bread is baked in the afternoons.
A month after the opening, Robert Wang, deputy chief of mission at
the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, sampled the wares at the store and talked
to Zhou Jian, a baker with Down Syndrome, as part of a visit to the
Amity Foundation.
Later, in a formal address at Amity’s Millionth Bible Celebration
last November, Wang praised the foundation’s ability to generate
compassion through its work with those in need.
“On my last visit here, I visited some of Amity’s projects that
provided training for migrant workers as well as those with
disabilities to help them earn a living and live a normal life,” he
said. “I was deeply moved by all of the volunteers at the foundation.”
“This is what it means to be Christian,” Wang said.
He is not the only one impressed by the bakery and its mission. Earlier this year, a comment about Amity Bakery posted on Sino Weibo, a Chinese-language micro-blogging platform, attracted more than 20,000 reposts and 1,500 comments in less than five days.
On Feb. 20, as a result of the social media attention, the Amity
Bakery sold more than 40,000 baking products, which was the equivalent
of about half their usual annual production, according to the Global
Times, an English-language media outlet in China.
The cookies are delicious, but sales have declined again after that
spike in sales. Three mentally challenged employees had worked here,
Zhu said, but business has been slow this spring, so they were
transferred to another shop. Only one now works here in the afternoons.
Zhu told the Global Times
he was both overwhelmed by the orders and more importantly, about the
future of the store, which has been losing money over the past few
years. “What we need is a more sustainable model so we can
continue to do good deeds," he said.
*Bloom, a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in
New York, and Mike DuBose, UMNS photographer, accompanied a United
Methodist delegation to China in April. Follow Bloom at http://twitter.com/umcscribe.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.