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Inside a rudimentary mud house in one of China's most far-flung regions, half a dozen wide-eyed villagers crowd around the screen of a laptop, as though glimpsing some alien part of their future. It is the first time any of these impoverished farmers has seen a computer.

 

For young expatriate volunteer, Allison Spector, witnessing such moments is the true reward of involvement in charitable projects like this one, in a desolate county of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The 23-year-old American is part of a new wave of foreigners who are fueling a grassroots movement of social responsibility.

 

While volunteering in China has for many years been mostly equated with teaching English, a widened focus is now supporting development across a range of other platforms.

 

As Chinese government officials more actively identify and address social issues, an increased presence of international NGOs has brought greater awareness of these challenges.

 

 

PlaNet Finance volunteer Allison Spector (left) helps poor farmers in remote parts of China. She is pictured with a villager in a rural community of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. File photo

 

Skilled and enthusiastic international volunteers are helping vulnerable groups including migrant children, rural workers, the elderly, and those living with HIV/AIDS, as well as taking a lead on environmental conservation, animal welfare and cultural heritage protection.

 

According to the organizations that take on these volunteers, there are always more willing to donate their services than can be placed.

 

The primary motivation for most volunteers is a sense of social responsibility, and a desire to make a positive difference for a cause in which they strongly believe.

 

Volunteers also gain new skills and experience, making contacts that may assist in their later career. It is an opportunity for personal growth and achievement through dealing with challenges, and a way to meet people from different walks of life and build greater social awareness.

 

Since October last year, Spector has worked with the French NGO PlaNet Finance, helping poor families in rural northwest China secure their future by establishing a small business capable of generating income and savings.

 

She recently traveled to an isolated Ningxia community, where farmers were given computers and mobile phones, to access market prices, weather reports and other information.

 

"They live in the middle of nowhere. It is a great experience to actually get out in the field and talk with them and have lunch with them," Spector says.

 

"I'm getting experience in all kinds of development work, and getting to go out and see the effects of what we're doing. I don't think I could have got that in the States, I love it," says Spector, who studied Chinese and International Relations at Emory University in Atlanta.

 

"It is rewarding talking with the farmers and really seeing how their lives can change and how capable they are. It really banishes all the misconceptions that the world seems to have of here. It is inspiring and reminds you that you don't have it so bad -- we have it pretty good as expats here."

 

Bridget Goddard, of Midlands in the United Kingdom, combines a full-time teaching job at Yew Chung International School with her volunteer work for Beijing's migrant children, through the charity organization, Compassion for Migrant Children. The Christian woman said she believed helping these disadvantaged kids was her "calling".

 

 

Goddard, 28, coordinates an after-school program with an educational as well as mentoring focus. The children are helped with their homework, play games, sport and music, and learn valuable life skills.

 

"With migrant children, all these people are coming to Beijing to build offices, to work. I don't think people in China understand that they have had to leave everything, and there're these children who belong in the countryside, but live in the city and have to learn urban ways of life," she says.

 

Goddard said behavioral and emotional problems were common, but "dramatic changes" were possible simply by treating the children with compassion.

 

"Over the last three months, the children have just come on in leaps and bounds. At first, they couldn't even sit on seats properly and they basically were like wild. Now they understand to treat people with respect," she says.

 

For New Zealander Grant Keinzley, 40, the impetus to help others arrived in the form of a severe typhoon that hit Fuzhou, Fujian Province, shortly after he arrived five years ago.

 

The avid storm-watcher "ran at full speed" down a main road and saw, "sheets of metal tumbling past me like wastepaper, parked cars rocking on their suspensions, and everywhere the sound of doors banging and glass shattering".

 

The shocking damage wreaked by the typhoon spurred Keinzley to start Superstorms, an organization coordinating search-and-rescue operations during disasters, and helping communities clean up and rebuild in the aftermath.

 

Superstorms now covers five cities in four provinces of Fujian, Hainan, Zhejiang and Guangdong, where teams of volunteers including police and doctors are stationed. An Internet weather channel features forecasts and typhoon warnings, while a radio network has also been set up in Fujian. 

 

"I took it from a storm-watching group and thought it was time to stand up and do something. The community were very helpful but there was no real group," he says.

 

Keinzley -- also known as "Mr Typhoon" -- was a successful artist in his home country, but said he had discovered a "new life" that he found, "somewhat more rewarding".

 

Briton Jill Robinson, 48, is another expat whose dedication has made a difference in the Middle Kingdom. Robinson has devoted the last 14 years to the endangered Asiatic black bears. The bears used to be held in farms where their bile was extracted for use in medical treatment.

 

In 2000, Robinson established the Moon Bear Rescue Center in Longqiao near Chengdu, Sichuan Province. She was drawn to the cause in 1993 while working in China as a consultant with the International Fund for Animal Welfare. During a visit to a bear farm, one animal stretched a paw out of its tiny cage and squeezed her fingers. Robinson says it was a pivotal moment in her life.

 

"I truly believe this bear reached out to me for a purpose," Robinson told Impact Press. "It's a moment I will never forget."

 

Robinson is now based in Hong Kong, where she continues to raise funds for the cause. Two foreign volunteers work at the rescue center each year, usually committing to a three-month stay.

 

(China Daily June 8, 2007)