Focus

The woman who makes a difference

By Christine Laskowski (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-16 11:00

Meng Weina, founder and director of Hui Ling, was a furniture maker in Guangzhou when she read a newspaper article that changed her life.

In 1985, 30-year-old Meng, who had no mentally challenged friends or relatives, read an article written by Deng Pufang, son of China's late leader from 1978 through the early 1990s, Deng Xiaoping.

"In our culture, when you are 30 years old you have to start your career," Meng told METRO in an interview at Hui Ling's Beijing headquarter.

"At that point, I felt that I needed to make some change in my life - something drastic."

The article Deng Pufang had written was an urgent call for rendaozhuyi, or the humanitarianism of equality and fraternity.

Related readings:
The woman who makes a difference One NGO inspires those in need

"Basically, he wrote that everyone is born equal and has the same rights, whether you are physically or mentally challenged or not."

Deng, who was crippled by a group of Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution after he was thrown from a three-floor building, devoted his life to improving the lives of China's physically and mentally challenged population.

A wheelchair-bound paraplegic, Deng established the China Welfare Fund for the Disabled in 1984, a year before he published the article that had a life-changing impact on Meng.

Running her rudimentary organization out of her own home while continuing to work at her furniture business, Meng realized she needed financial help.

"I knew at that time he already had a foundation for people with special needs," she said. As luck would have it, a friend's classmate knew Deng, but that did not make meeting him easy.

"I didn't even have the money to buy the train ticket to go to Beijing. And at that time you had to have permission to travel to the capital," she recalled. "But the army performance troupe was kind enough to give me a seat with them for free."

Deng and his foundation agreed to give Meng 60,000 yuan ($8,784) in order to start the first Hui Ling school (then called Zhi Ling) in Guangzhou.

"In China at that time, there were only two schools for people with special needs - in Beijing and Shanghai, and they were owned and run by the government," she said.

"There was nothing in Guangzhou. So, when I returned, I held a meeting for the parents and over 500 parents came. I was so appreciative."

With Deng's funding and additional financial assistance from a Catholic charity, Caritas, Hui Ling grew more rapidly than Meng had ever anticipated.

"The idea first came to me in January of 1985 and by September of that same year, we had a school," she said in amazement.

Twenty-five years later, Hui Ling has a presence in 10 cities in China, nine on the mainland and one in Hong Kong.

With more than 1,000 mentally challenged in China receiving their care, 225 paid employees and "countless volunteers" the demand for Hui Ling's services shows no signs of slowing anytime soon.

Facts + Figures

Beijing charity groups

There are more than 100 charitable groups registered with the Beijing Municipal Social Association Management Office.

Thirty-seven charitable groups in Beijing are members of the Beijing Charity Association, of which 21 are registered with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs and 16 are registered with the local civil affairs bureaus of district/county governments in Beijing.

Twenty-nine of them are backed by the government, retired government officials head 10, and six of them are composed entirely of retired government officials.

Some of the problems faced by the charity groups in Beijing are lack of financial support to run advertisements and promotion fairs, the absence of a philanthropy law in China to regulate their fund-raising activities and a lack of communication among different charities that results in overlapping support to the same group of help receivers.

Many charities are not run professionally enough and they do not release the details of their donations and how they spend the money. Therefore, people judge them not credible enough.

New regulations are likely to be formally introduced this year to regulate charitable activities in Beijing. The Regulations on Donations and the Incentives for Donors are already in the pipeline.

Dec 3 is the Charity Day of Beijing.

The hotline for Beijing residents to supervise and make suggestions about charities is 96156.

The hotline is also a source where people can learn more about charity activities in Beijing.

Source: Annual Report on

Public Service of Beijing (2009-2010)

Published by the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences