Finding Gaps in Philanthropy: A Charity Worker's Reflection on “Sweat! Stop! Rewrite!” Project (Part II)

Author Bio: Ading, a staff member of a philanthropic foundation in Guangzhou. In 2020, she joined the “Sweat! Stop! Rewrite!” project, supporting community education practices and family mutual aid collaboration for migrant female workers. She has approximately 10 years of experience in supporting the establishment of communities for migrant worker families.

The “Sweat! Stop! Rewrite!” project aims to nurture proactive activists and foster the growth of social organizations. Emphasizing the importance of individuals in this initiative is a groundbreaking idea, and the project has developed unique and effective ways to achieve this goal. Many domestic foundations and NGOs lack imagination and deep understanding of activists, and thus struggle to drive meaningful change in communities.

In early 2020, I initiated a project in my institution to address the pandemic. I collaborated with various teachers on two writing courses, both focused on penning personal pandemic stories and life tales. I attempted to have these teachers recommend books to working-class families and explored the possibility of deeper collaboration with them. However, their restraint (reluctance to engage in in-depth, detailed conversations with participants, seldom offering genuine critique or strict requirements), high costs, excessive professionalism, or the control they were subjected to made me realize they couldn’t genuinely connect with this group. But the writing class led by Teacher K gave me the opportunity to meet Jing. Jing is a friend of Teacher K. She referred domestic workers she knew to participate in one of the writing classes, and that’s how we met. I quickly recognized that Jing’s inner zeal for authenticity was even more fervent than mine, and she possessed the ability to bring those sincere ideas to fruition. She noticed that I was different from many charity workers she had met before; I wouldn’t defend the charity sector without reason. It’s fair to say that we both focus more on human nature rather than blindly praising humanity.

After learning about Jing’s “Sweat! Stop! Rewrite!” project and realizing its alignment with my own philosophy, we instantly clicked and decided to take things up a notch. We organized a new writing class that lasted for over half a year. The primary aim of our collaboration was to facilitate interactions between different social strata and cultivate parents into proactive activists concerned about educational fairness and possessing public consciousness. The writing class consisted of three modules: movie-review writing, book-review writing, and personal free writing. This allowed participants to jointly confront and analyze the “objective reality,” encompassing classroom debates, group discussions, peer reviews of texts, and more. From its design, this course was not initially set up to “connect with each other through emotions.” Instead, it emphasized rigorous knowledge input, clashes of divergent views, and Socratic questioning. The staff would also engage in private chats, holding ongoing and in-depth conversations with a few students who faced learning challenges, based on their written work or real-life situations. The course was online, enrolling about 50 students per session. The participants came from diverse backgrounds. Professionally, they ranged from charity workers to core community volunteers. Educationally, they spanned from working mothers with junior high school education to urban residents with postgraduate degrees. As the course progressed, offline gatherings, salons, and visits also took place. We collaborated on two sessions of the writing class. The second session introduced a personal scholarship segment, encouraging outstanding students to continue their individual learning and community practice. Looking back at the entire process, some of those involved (including Jing, myself, students, and salon sharers) developed genuine friendships. This was a real “emotional connection” built on thoughtful contemplation and candid communication.

In the writing class, Jing’s keen observations and uncompromising critiques often thrilled me. Whenever she “saw through” someone, I would experience an ‘aha’ moment. I had been puzzled by some individuals before, but only she truly discerned what held them back, what made them hesitate and stall.

She told me early on about the films and books she showed to the female workers when she conducted writing workshops at some NGOs. At that time, I genuinely wondered: Could they understand them? Would they be interested? Would these truly help them in a tangible way? When she confidently assured me that they did, I was elated. She achieved what I had always wanted to do but hadn’t. I was eager to understand how she made it happen. So, when I witnessed this process, I was utterly captivated. The awakening of an individual is such a wonder, so beautiful! My own awakening was somewhat similar. It’s impossible to gain inspiration and strength from low-quality ideas, subpar cultural products, and insincere words and actions. Yet, I hadn’t earnestly engaged with those who perhaps needed such enlightening content even more, nor had I delved deep to discover how best to assist each person in their journey of awakening. She bolstered my courage and ignited my imagination. Without a doubt, this is how philanthropy should be done!

The tensions that arose between Jing and some charitable organizations due to differing philosophies marked significant moments. These tensions mirrored the issues we’d consistently identified in our discussions about philanthropy, art, and current affairs. I genuinely observed these challenges manifesting among those close to me, even among some partners I once trusted. It’s evident that when some people lack a genuine understanding of reality, are deficient in critical thinking, and have weak spiritual and action-driven wills, they display blatant ignorance, insularity, and stubbornness. During one conversation, we discussed how we’ve grown into the people we are today and delved deep into our core beliefs, particularly those concerning people. We both believe in human potential. However, we don’t equate an individual’s potential with their current state. Therefore, we’re committed to helping individuals realize their full potential. In doing so, we’re also actualizing our own. It’s a delightful, creative, and beautiful journey.

In her work process, Jing classified and forecasted her students not based on conventional class, cultural, or economic classifications, but on an individual’s drive, learning capacity, and actions. Her reports would detail what had been done, why it was done that way, and the next steps. Far from being clichéd, her words resonated with genuine emotion, reflecting actions that sprang from deep within her heart. I felt that she dedicated her entire being to care for the destinies of these individuals and to uncovering their potentials. Just like true artistic creation, she gave her all, seeking to bring unique value from the hidden world to the visible one.

Moreover, during the writing instruction, Jing’s teaching method made me realize that we need a deeper understanding of students’ knowledge structure, the origin of their ideas, and their thinking habits, rather than making blind assumptions and vague pronouncements. Therefore, during the second writing class, to address critical issues, we held two public lectures: one on the movie “A Time of Departure” and another on a certain scholar’s knowledge and value production. Both sessions were eye-openers, causing quite a stir. It became even clearer to me that to truly understand someone, one must observe how they treat knowledge, culture, power, and what’s often termed as the ‘lower’ or ‘ordinary’ people. In fact, many individuals’ inner decisions, quality of thought, and emotional patterns are traceable in daily life. The writing class provided an excellent platform, allowing us to capture those moments when the “truth surfaces”, causing ripples within the group. We were forced to revert to basics: What is reading? What is writing? Who am I? This pushed us to delve into general education, media literacy, and critical thinking training. Reading and writing remain crucial mediums, but they’ve taken on a form quite different from my initial imagination. “Effective feedback” became a crucial component. Jing also identified excellent learning materials and methods, genuinely depicting what an individual sees, how they see it, and the possibilities that lie ahead.

Jing didn’t specifically talk about how to “write.” Instead, she constantly guided her students to think and engaged in constant dialogues with them. I found such an approach to teaching writing very interesting and stimulating. While most writing teachers often say that writing is a spontaneous act and is a reflection of one’s inner thoughts and feelings, only Jing delved so deeply into understanding these “feelings” and “thoughts.” Through persistent inquiries, interactions, and discussions, students naturally wrote more and never found themselves at a loss for words. Their writing became more precise and vivid, effectively conveying their thoughts and emotions. They also started to develop critical thinking skills and cultivated a meticulous writing habit.

Jing also asked me multiple times about my reasons for wanting to do such work. I replied that my work objective is to nurture individuals and find ways to support their growth and transformation. Once these individuals develop public awareness and leadership skills, they can connect with the H Foundation’s collaborating communities and institutions, thereby influencing more people and initiating more projects. Whether or not they have a direct relationship with the H Foundation, as long as they take action, they are partners. I believe that after students go through this process of reflection and exploration, they can either venture into philanthropic projects or step out of the philanthropic sphere to work in more interdisciplinary fields with more transformative goals.

I’m heartened by Jing’s genuine concern for the intrinsic meaning behind these activities and her interest in the potential paths for her students. Owing to her genuine care, the writing class transformed into a catalyst, sparking a series of subsequent events. Some students continued their journey into critical literacy studies, participated in village residency programs, or became teaching assistants for new learning projects. More and more students became “wanderers”, making individual and community transformation possible.