Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, also Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered an important speech during his talk with the new leadership of the ACWF, in October 2023. To study and implement the guiding principles of that speech, and to implement the guiding principles of the 13th National Women's Congress of China, the Human Resources Development Department and the Social Liaison, Exchanges and Cooperation Center, both under the ACWF, recently released the list of 50 projects, with characteristic features, organized by women's social organizations across the country, and the list of 10 cases, with characteristic features, of women's federations connecting with and guiding social organizations. Here is one of the cases.

Case: High-Quality Development of Women's Social Organizations in Shaanxi Province

Organizer: Shaanxi Women's Federation

During recent years, Shaanxi Women's Federation has attached great importance to the work related to women's social organizations. 

The federation has made good use of two platforms, Shaanxi Women and Children's Social Organization Incubation Park and Shaanxi Women's Social Organization Public Welfare Alliance, and it has rallied the strength of women's social organizations, throughout the province, to promote the high-quality development of women and children's causes.

Preparations

Shaanxi Women's Federation has conducted research into the key issues restricting development in the work of women's social organizations in recent years. The federation has screened the province's social organizations, whose focus are on women, children and families, to obtain a clear understanding of the actual situation of women's social organizations in Shaanxi. 

The federation has also implemented several activities aimed at optimizing the environment for the development of women's social organizations. 

Improving Services 

In 2018, Shaanxi Women's Federation established a provincial-level incubator park, to provide services, resources and support to women's social organizations, and, in turn, to promote the organizations' healthy development. 

"Since the establishment of the incubator park, the province's women's federation has 'incubated' six provincial-level women's social organizations. Every organization has the functions of contacting, serving and managing other social organizations that are in the same category, and in the same field. The federation has helped women's social organizations receive 5.6 million yuan (US $788,732) in funding, donated by various foundations. It has also held more than 70 training and salon activities. So far, the federation has made connections with more than 300 women's social organizations," says a cadre of the federation.

To better connect with and provide regular services to women's social organizations, Shaanxi Women's Social Organization Public Welfare Alliance was established in 2023. The alliance has 165 member units, and 55 expert members. The alliance provides a platform for women's social organizations to strengthen communications and cooperation, and to achieve common development. 

Project's Implementation

Children's Nurturing Plan is a brand project aimed at providing early childhood education to infants, under age 3, who live in rural areas of Shaanxi Province. Beneficiaries are not only children and their parents, but also the young mothers who work at the project's children's activity centers. The project teaches the young mothers how to nurture and look after children, and it helps them increase their incomes, all while they are looking after their own children. 

"Thanks to the project, I have changed the way I educate my child. I hope the project will continue, so rural children can get more help, and grow up happily," says Liu Yun, an employee with the project's site in Chang'an, a district in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province. 

Shaanxi Women's Federation has purchased services from women's social organizations for five consecutive years. Since 2020, the federation has spent 6.8 million yuan (US $957,746) on purchasing public-welfare projects, launched by women's social organizations, in the fields of volunteer services, rural revitalization, family education guidance, and the construction of platforms for women's social organizations. 

The projects have directly benefited more than 300,000 people. More than half of the city-level women's federations in Shaanxi have established platforms for women's social organizations. 

In 2023, women's federations in Shaanxi spent a combined 3.6 million yuan (US $507,042) on purchasing services from social organizations. Social organizations have helped women's federations provide specialized and refined services to women, children and their families. 

Leading Role

Shaanxi Women's Federation has excelled in its role as a bridge connecting the Party and women's social organizations; as such, it has helped the social organizations rally closely around the Party. 

The provincial women's federation has organized several activities aimed at selecting outstanding women's social organizations, outstanding leaders of women's social organizations, and brand services and projects related to women, children and their families. 

Nearly 200 social organizations or social workers have participated in the selection process. In addition, the federation compiled a book, to publicize the women's social organizations' outstanding public-welfare projects that have served women, children and their families.

Photos from interviewees

(Women of China English Monthly September 2024)

Editor: Wang Shasha