Expats
Charity serves cycle of hope
By Wang Ru (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-27 10:48
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 Leslie Simpson holds a box of donations at her charity shop Roundabout. [China Daily] |
It could also be a mother of four from Scotland managing a charity shop in suburban Beijing that collects and distributes donations to children in impoverished rural areas across China.
Leslie Simpson, a 48-year-old from Aberdeen, begins her busy day at 9 am when she opens her four-room shop named Roundabout in northeast Beijing's Shunyi district.
Simpson carries a heavy box filled with used but tidy clothes dropped off by donors and puts it on a shelf labeled "newly recycled donations".
Without a heating system, the shop is as cold as an icehouse in the frozen winter.
But there has been another kind of warmth generated at Roundabout since it opened in October 2008 - sending needed items and hope to recipients across the country.
A truck will come and pick up boxes that hold winter clothes, blankets and toys and transport them to 700 kids in a mountain village in Yunnan province.
In 2004, when the former accountant moved to Beijing with her husband, Simpson volunteered full-time at a local home for orphans with disabilities. She saw that the staff seldom had time to sort donations.
"Charity is not a simple collect-and-send model. It has to be managed efficiently to ensure the right recipients get the proper donations," says Simpson.
She opened the shop to find a better way for charity, a bridge between needs and resources that connects the charities and NGOs, the individual and group donors, to recipients.
The front section of the shop sells donated items in good condition, such as Christmas decorations, kitchenware and electric appliances that are not crucial needs of recipients. The income helps defray operational costs.
Simpson pays 9,000 yuan a month for rent. The heavier burden is the shipping. She has paid over 64,000 yuan this year to hire trucks.
Donors need to contact the shop and make arrangements first, then come and drop off their donations. Simpson and two full-time Chinese staff sort through the items and send them to other charities and NGOs across China.
She usually receives more than 30 e-mails from donors and charities each day. In the past six months, the shop has dispatched over 20 truckload of goods to impoverished areas in Yunnan, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Shanxi, Gansu and Sichuan.
Two of Roundabout's storage rooms are jammed with donated items ranging from baby carriages and clothes to toys and books.
All items are sorted into different categories that are clearly marked with dispatch dates and destination.
Simpson updates a database to record information on every single donation that arrived and was sent out. She also goes to international schools, embassies and local communities to promote the shop.
Luckily, there are 32 volunteers - mostly expat wives and international students - living nearby who take turns helping her from Monday to Saturday.
Roundabout also has rules standards for donations. Simpson said the dignity of recipients is an important part of charity.
"We don't send junk to our recipients like broken toys and dirty clothes. You can't convey to them the idea of 'that's all I am worth'," she said.
The shop has the Chinese name Zhongai, which means spreading love. Simpson said she is happy to see Chinese drop off donations. For most local villagers, Roundabout is only a shop for bargain hunters, but some Chinese have begun to help her.
Last month, a local clothes factory donated three truckloads of children's thermal underwear. Simpson sent them to the children in quake-hit area of Sichuan.
Simpson's New Year's Resolution is to get a large warehouse to store donations. Her ultimate goal is to eventually introduce the Roundabout model to other parts of China and pass it over to Chinese administration.
A photo of a young woman in extreme poverty is an incentive for Simpson. "Every time I feel exhausted, I look at her eyes and see they are dead and hopeless. I don't know her, but she makes me understand why and what I am doing," says Simpson.
Contact Roundabout shop for drop-offs and help:
Kaifa Jie, Houshayu, Shunyi
Tel: 13718777761 (Chinese)
13718053814 (English)
E-mail: thecharitystore@gmail.com
