October Featured People: Joshua Lange
Interview & Translation / yy Qian and Steffi Chen
1. Welcome to Xindanwei.com, Please introduce yourself. Could you tell us where you’re from and how you got started in the field?
I grew up in the U.S. state of Missouri. Prior to moving to Shanghai in 2010, I had been living in Hong Kong since 2008. That year, I was invited to join a group from a church in the United States who had funded a CWEF clean water system for a small village in Yunnan. I joined a team of people who helped to install the water system and meet the local people who would be benefited by the project. Since this first exposure to development work, I have been interested in getting involved on a more personal level. When the opportunity to work with CWEF in Shanghai arose, I jumped at the chance.
2. Can you tell me about CWEF, the non-profit you are the working for and what you do for them?
CWEF (Concordia Welfare & Education Foundation) is a Hong Kong based non-profit that works to improve the lives of the rural poor in China and Cambodia. We focus on two major issues that can help people pull themselves out of poverty: increasing educational opportunities and improving health conditions. To that end, CWEF provides scholarships and leadership training, funds libraries and teaching materials for local schools, builds clean water and biogas clean energy systems for rural villages, and conducts health and hygiene training.
In Shanghai, we are in the process of opening a representative office and have begun work to support the city’s migrant community, who have come to Shanghai from more rural communities all over China. CWEF is now working with two migrant schools in Shanghai to support education for these students whose families face a lot of challenges in their quest for a better life here in the city. In addition to supporting school fees for a number of students, CWEF is also partnering with the international community in Shanghai to provide supplemental educational activities at the schools.
3.What prompted the idea for your project and what excited you to make you undertake it?
CWEF’s work has been historically focused exclusively on reaching out to people living in poverty in the Chinese and Cambodian countryside. The expansion to Shanghai is a considerable step outside of our traditional ‘comfort zone.’
However, we know that China is changing: 2010 was the first year in history that more people live in China’s cities than live in the countryside. This is the result of the unprecedented migration of 250 million people from rural areas. Demographers do not expect this trend to slow down anytime soon; 500 million additional people are expected to migrate in the next three decades. As these migrant families arrive in the big city, though, they encounter many struggles, from finding stable work to providing quality health care and education for their children.
4.How do you define success as a development organization?
At CWEF, we have five principles which guide our project planning and are our measure of success: Sincerity in Action, Bridge Building, Commitment to Local Needs, Sustainable Impact, and Transformation. If we can accomplish all of these with our projects and continue to grow as an organization both in quality and in the quantity of people we touch through our work, I will be a happy man.
5.What are your future steps?
We are in the process of developing a leadership and life skills training program for middle school students in Shanghai. CWEF has been running a similar program for our high school scholarship recipients in Yunnan and Guangdong, which has been very successful and which we are planning to expand to more schools and more students in the future. I’m really excited about this project because it not only puts kids through school, it helps them develop a broader view of their education and think more critically about the world they live in. This project is also designed so that the local teachers are trained as adult advisors who essentially run the program themselves. This kind of ‘training of trainers’ program is more sustainable and helps further develop the local teachers as well.
6.Thanks again for providing Xindanwei.com this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?
CWEF reaches out not only to the marginalized people of Asia; we also seek to provide ‘servant learning’ opportunities for those who have been blessed with considerably more. We are always looking for more opportunities to partner with schools, businesses, and other organizations who want to become directly involved in our projects.
If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to send me an email at shanghaiservice@cwef.org.hk. If you’re interested in supporting our education and health projects in China and Cambodia, head over to www.cwef.org.hk/give. 感谢!
