Correct attitude
Wei Jiangang, founder of the Beijing Gender Health Education Institute, a Chinese NGO dedicated to improving public awareness about LGBT people, is promoting its "Queer University" project in an African country. Queer University aims to empower LGBT groups by teaching them how to produce documentaries to make their voices heard. Besides basic trainings, the project also offers attendees a year's funding and instruction to complete their visual works.
The project was launched this year in a country where gay sex is illegal, according to Wei. As it is a sensitive topic in that country, he didn't reveal its name.
According to Wei, he participated in an LGBT-themed meeting hosted in Africa in 2015. There he talked about Queer University with African NGO counterparts. An NGO in that country then invited him to do the trainings.
The NGO helped bring about 10 participants. Money came from a foreign foundation.
"Stepping onto the African continent is beneficial for fostering mutual understanding. Before, it was all about the Western countries spreading their knowledge and experiences. But now we can have this South-South talk which enables us to see each other," Wei said. He believes that the exchange among the developing countries is more useful as both sides can understand each other better.
The African people Wei's organization trained felt surprised that China had so many advanced technologies to make LGBT-themed visual works. They found that the interviews with gay parents were particularly instructive.
On the other hand, Wei also thinks his understanding about Africa is too limited. He had developed a stereotypical view of its poverty and backwardness from the media, but now his opinion is changing.
"While gay sex is still illegal, the country's LGBT NGOs are doing more fundamental things than us. They are even successfully cooperating with some local hospitals. The country is like 'half sea water and half fire,'" he said.
For Wei, it's important to have a correct attitude toward charity work in Africa. "Instead of thinking of ourselves as savior, we should know that both sides have useful lessons to learn," he said. He is considering bringing Queer University to more African countries in the future.
Call for improvement
Li Yinuo is director for China office at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has established partnerships with China's Ministry of Commerce to carry out pilot projects in Africa on public health and agricultural solutions.
She said a major obstacle is the lack of understanding of China's development and aid model. "What China has done in Africa is quite different from what is portrayed in the Western media, but there is few channels for the world to know about China's development assistance in Africa," she said.
Compared with most NGOs who spend lots of energy writing papers, Chinese are doing more practical things, according to Wang. "It's their way of doing things," Wang said. "But there are lessons we can learn from our Western counterparts. It's undeniable they have more in-depth understanding of Africa and they have more experience."
Wang is hoping that more Chinese NGOs can join them in spreading their charitable activities to Africa. "China, the world's second-largest economy, should have the number of NGOs to match that status. We should shoulder more global responsibilities," he said.
In his eye, this isn't about "improving the country's image," but about doing the right things that Chinese culture also advocates.
At present, most of the money comes from Wang's own pocket. In two years, he has spent millions of yuan. He told the Global Times that Chinese enterprises and government like to make donations to local people directly instead of donating to an NGO which can help supervise how the money is spent, a model he hopes to change.
Another problem with Chinese NGOs going to Africa is that in China there is a lack of special talents who have good command of local language and culture.
For Chinese followers, Wang suggests that they should get accustomed to African way of doing things, such as, the low speed of the government.
