Charity donations have always been appreciated, but where there is a lack of regulation and coordination, sometime it may also cause problems.
Piles of magazines, truckloads of unwanted clothes. These are all donations to a school in Nujiang village, Yunnan province. For the donors, it makes them feel good to think that they are helping here. But in reality, much of these aren't of much use.
"Some of these donations are really useless for us, for example, the mini skirts, high-heels, shorts, what we really need are new quilts, and some daily toiletries for children," Chen Xiaodong from Nujiang village, Yunnan province, said.
"These fashion magazines have sat here for a long time, since they reached this place as donations. Our students don't need them, and we don't know how to dispose of them," Wang Kunyun, chairman of Deshi Town, Labor Union For Schools, said.
And even for needed items, sometimes the quantity drastically exceeds demand.
Chen Xiaodong knows all too well about a good deed gone wrong. He posted a blog in 2015, asking for 500 quilts for the elderly people in his village.
To his surprise, the blog soon went viral, and in just ten days, over 5,000 quilts flooded into the village. It's left him in quite a pickle.
"Both of us have been busy carrying and storing these 5,000 plus quilts, we don't even have time to prepare for our wedding. There are just too many," Chen's wife said.
While over-abundance of donations trouble some, others have scarcely received any. In the same province, people in E-Duo village are in desperate need for help.
"We've only heard of charity and donation projects, but we haven't received any. The road is so rough that they are not able to reach here."
Donation is not simply about sending and receiving. More coordination work is needed in the process, in order to make clear --- what, where, and how much should we send.
Helping out is commendable, but let's do it in a wiser way.
