Behind the "deduction" of love donations: Urgent need for standardized management of civilian love donations
Recently, a donation event that occurred at the Central School of Shan Jie Hui Ethnic Township in Long Hui County has sparked controversy due to improper handling, causing quite a stir. All parties involved feel aggrieved. After investigation, the reporter keenly feels that there is an urgent need for standardized management of civilian love donations.
Student feedback: Love donations were deducted
At the end of 2011, our newspaper received a report from a student:
"I am a junior high school student at Luo Bai Nine-Year Compulsory Education School in Shan Jie Hui Ethnic Township, Long Hui County. On December 14th, I received a live donation from Ms. Su from Hong Kong. I saw 500 yuan in cash inside the red envelope, and I was extremely happy and grateful. However, as soon as the donation ceremony ended, my homeroom teacher collected our red envelopes. I felt very upset, almost shedding tears. Later, when the teacher returned the red envelope to me, there was only 200 yuan left inside. The teacher told us that the remaining 300 yuan had been handed over to the central school."
"Could Ms. Su be deceiving us? Afterwards, I asked classmates from the Shan Jie School, and they experienced the same situation as me. All students who received 500 yuan had 300 yuan taken away. Where did this 300 yuan go? On the afternoon of December 16th, the teacher again required us to sign for the receipt of 200 yuan. We were very confused. We already received the on-site donation, so why did we still have to sign? Although we are poor, we also have dignity. We cannot let others take our scholarship funds. We sincerely invite all media outlets to pay attention to us, these pitiful impoverished students, and not taint Ms. Su's kindness towards us."
Why did the school do this? Another reader reported that before the donation, the Shan Jie Central School held a meeting with middle-level leaders. At the meeting, the head of the central school said: According to notification from higher-ups, this donation would differ from previous ones, as it would be a live donation directly distributed by the donor to the assisted students. Since certain expenses were incurred during the process of securing these love scholarship funds, including some labor fees, after the donation ceremony, the red envelopes from the assisted students would be collected. There were 60 students across the township each receiving 500 yuan, and 300 yuan would be extracted from each, totaling 18,000 yuan for labor fees and various expenses. On the morning of December 14th, Ms. Su came to the scene at the Shan Jie Hui Ethnic Township for the donation. After the donation ceremony ended, the class teachers from both Luo Bai and Shan Jie schools followed orders to collect the red envelopes, extracting 300 yuan from each student's donation, totaling 18,000 yuan, which was then submitted to the central school. After the students reported this, due to media inquiries, the head of the central school quickly issued a notice requiring Luo Bai and Shan Jie schools to create additional student lists, giving out 100 yuan to each student. The remaining money was distributed to two kindergartens' students.
School response: No deductions, just redistribution to help more people
In mid-January, the reporter visited the Shan Jie Central School in Long Hui County for an interview. The school's responsible person explained that the school indeed collected part of the students' donations, but it was not intended to use these funds as expenditures. This fundraising effort was organized by the county overseas Chinese association, and the school itself did not incur any expenses for this purpose. The reason for collecting the donations was mainly to redistribute them to assist more people.
The responsible person stated that the Shan Jie Hui Ethnic Township belongs to a provincially designated impoverished ethnic minority township. The entire township has 1,186 impoverished students, among whom 582 are extremely impoverished. Recently, Ms. Su from Hong Kong held a live donation event at the school, distributing 500 yuan to each of the 51 extremely impoverished students and 100 yuan to each of the 150 impoverished students, totaling 201 assisted students and 40,500 yuan donated. Due to the large number of impoverished students in the school and the significant disparity in donation standards, parents of unassisted students expressed strong demands and opinions. To assist more impoverished students, after obtaining agreement from relevant leaders of the county overseas Chinese association, the school expanded the number of assisted impoverished students from 201 to 354, and accordingly adjusted the standards, reducing the extremely impoverished students' 500 yuan to 200 yuan. The reallocated donation amount of 15,300 yuan was distributed to another 153 impoverished students, with each receiving 100 yuan.
Relevant officials from the Shan Jie Hui Ethnic Township Party Committee and government informed the reporter that after receiving reports of students' donations being deducted, the Shan Jie Hui Ethnic Township Party Committee and government took it very seriously, immediately organizing township discipline inspection, supervision, and relevant personnel to investigate the distribution of the student scholarship funds. It was determined that the situation was indeed as the school described. The main reason for the misunderstanding was due to the rushed nature of the event, where the central school did not conduct detailed publicity and explanation work among the school faculty and students.
Call for standardized management of love donations
At this point, pursuing the original intentions of the school's recovery of donations holds no meaning. However, the reason this incident caused such a stir, revealing problems, is thought-provoking: The school's redistribution of donations aimed to help more people, but does the school have the authority to arbitrarily change the donor's wishes? How can we ensure that the generous donations made by loving individuals truly reach those in need? Currently, with the increasing popularity of civilian love donations, corresponding supervision and management mechanisms have yet to be established. Moral integrity and goodwill alone are far from sufficient; love donations call for standardized management, otherwise, they risk being deducted.
Long Hui County is a national-level impoverished county, receiving much care from all sectors of society, with various forms of love donations continuously arriving. This is originally a good thing, but during interviews, some officials also shared their difficulties: Concerned about donations being deducted, many loving individuals do not transfer their donations to the accounts of relevant departments but instead personally deliver them to designated recipients. Government departments, to show respect for these loving individuals, must welcome and bid farewell to them, sometimes even inviting media for promotion, thus indeed incurring considerable manpower and resources. Once, for arranging a donation activity, relevant departments spent over ten thousand yuan on meals and accommodations alone. With more occurrences like this, even good deeds become difficult to handle.
People are calling for the establishment of a standardized management mechanism for love donations, clearly defining the rights and obligations of donors and recipients, establishing a supervisory mechanism for the delivery and use of raised funds and materials, standardizing administrative supervision and redistribution mechanisms for civilian love donations, and stipulating legal responsibilities for all participating parties, etc. Only in this way can civilian love donations develop healthily and warm more people.
Reporters: Ou Jin Yu, Shi Xue Hui
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