2010-2014 2015-2019 Change Making Other Change Making

Beijing Normal University: China Social Work Education Demonstration Program

China

To support the fledging development of China’s social work profession, ZeShan Foundation has since 2012 supported the School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University (BNU) to establish a national demonstration program for social work education.

The pioneering four-year program aims to build up the school’s social work teaching, research and advocacy capacity, with the ultimate goal of creating a sustained pipeline of local social work educators in China. Key features include setting up a Master of Social Work program, establishing practicum and distance learning sites across the country, training master trainers in Central and Western China, and publishing case books and textbooks. Read more below:

China’s Long Hiatus in Social Work
Although China can trace its social work profession back to the 1920s, the field suffered a hiatus lasting over half a century. It was only in the mid-1980s that social work was resurrected, to a large extent thanks to concerted efforts by Hong Kong social work professionals and mainland academics. But the development of national social work education infrastructure is still in its nascent stages, and the field faces issues such as a lack of high-calibre research centers with the capacity to influence policy; a severe lack of qualified social work instructors; inadequate research capacity; a lack of a practicum site network; and low recognition of social work as a profession. During China’s recent push to rapidly develop the field, the enormous gap in academic and intellectual leadership has made itself especially apparent.

Beijing Normal University: A National Leader in Education Reform
BNU is China’s top university for teacher training and an innovative trailblazer in higher education reform. As such, BNU has the capacity to play a pivotal role in spearheading the country’s social work education development. The demonstration program is sanctioned by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and authorized by the Ministry of Education, and is part of the national strategy to jumpstart China’s social work education development.

Demonstration Program
A core part of the demonstration program is setting up a Master of Social Work (MSW) prorgrame which integrates social work, social development, NGO development, and policy advocacy – a first in mainland China.

To facilitate knowledge transfer, BNU has assembled an international team of academics – including many from Hong Kong – to teach alongside their Chinese counterparts, partnering on a one-to-one basis.

Emphasis is also placed on evidence-based teaching and research, so as to ensure the indigenization of knowledge and integration of theory and practice. To this end, BNU will set up an extensive network of 100 practicum sites across the country, publish textbooks on a range of social work topics and an annual case book, and set up a national recognition program for best practices. The ZeShan Case Centre for Social Development was unveiled in 2013, alongside the launch of a ZeShan Scholarship for MSW students.

To leverage more resources, ZeShan encouraged an agreement between BNU and Capacity Building and Assessment Center (CBAC), China’s leading training and assessment organization, whereby CBAC will provide capacity development training and technical assistance to BNU’s establishment of practicum sites.

Beyond Beijing
The demonstration program is not confined to BNU. It also includes setting up regional distance learning sites in partnership with major regional universities, providing intensive training for 700 master trainers to meet the acute needs in Central and Western China, and setting up a fellowship program that will offer up-and-coming social work educators from regional universities to take up teaching or research residency at BNU.

Another unique feature of the demonstration program is its commitment to policy advocacy, so as to provide evidence-based recommendations to the government on such polices as improving the career development of social workers.

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Supporting Asian Liver Center

Stanford University School of Medicine, United States of America & Hong Kong

ZeShan Foundation has been supporting the Asian Liver Center (ALC) . Founded in 1996 by Dr. Samuel So, a professor of surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine, ALC is the first non-profit organization in the United States that addresses the high incidence of hepatitis B and liver cancer among Asians and Asian Americans. Since then, ALC has been at the forefront of educational outreach and advocacy efforts in the areas of hepatitis B and liver cancer prevention and treatment, providing valuable resource for both the public and health practitioners.

Partnering with the Hong Kong Hep B Free Foundation, APAVH and ALC launched the first World Hepatitis Day media campaign in the city on 28 July 2011, public service announcements were made on radio, newspaper, magazines and public transportation billboards. The message of getting tested and vaccinated was well received by the public.

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2010-2014 2015-2019 Change Making Strategic Philanthropy

Family Philanthropy

ZeShan Foundation, Hong Kong

The ZeShan Philanthropy Forum Series is part of ZeShan’s mandate of promoting philanthropy and an extension and continuation of its “Family Philanthropy: Values and Strategy” Forum in 2009. The series, taking place periodically throughout the year, creates a unique platform for like-minded donors to exchange ideas, share experiences, stimulate thinking and network in a peer setting. Past events include:

2011

January 18: Ms. Melissa Berman (President and CEO of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors)
September 2: Mr. Bernard Chan and Ms. Christine Fang – Consultation on Charity Law for Hong Kong
December 22: Recent Developments in Philanthropy in Mainland China

2012

February 14: Dr. Peggy Dulany (Co-founder of Global Philanthropists Circle)
June 19: Meeting with American philanthropists
July 11: Dr. Zhuang Ailing (CEO of Shanghai Rende Foundation)

2013

November 19: Dr. Melissa Berman (President & CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors) – The Theory of the Foundation Project

2015

April 20: Ms. Samantha Gilbert (Vice President of Talent and Human Resources at the Ford Foundation)
July 15: Prof. Anthony J. Spires (Centre for Civil Society Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong)
September 25: Dr. Mary Ann Tsao (Chairman of the Tsao Foundation) – Philanthropy as Catalyst in Improving Elderly Services [ See more below]

Singaporean Perspectives on Elderly Care

Dr. Mary Ann Tsao, chair and founding director of Singapore’s Tsao Foundation, shared her family foundation’s pioneering work and insights on advancing elderly care at a ZeShan Philanthropy Forum Series luncheon on September 25, 2015.

The luncheon aimed to bring in overseas experience on elderly service innovation and partnership, and was chaired by Ms. Annie Chen, director of ZeShan Foundation. Participants included 26 family principals and executives of private foundations as well as ZeShan’s key NGO and academic partners in ageing initiatives, and is a prelude to ZeShan’s upcoming conference on public-private partnerships for ageing population in November 12-13, 2015.

Tsao Foundation
The Tsao Foundation, a Singapore-based but regionally-oriented operating non-profit family foundation, was founded by Dr. Tsao’s grandmother in 1993 to enhance the quality of life for the elderly. The foundation has been under the leadership of Dr. Tsao – a US-trained pediatrician born and raised in Hong Kong – who was until June 2007 also the foundation’s CEO.

The foundation has been at the forefront in developing innovative and duplicable community-based elderly care models, which have been demonstratively successful and adopted by the Singaporean government.

Its key initiatives include the Hua Mei Center for Successful Ageing (community-based care for ageing in place), Hua Mei Training Academy (capacity building in ageing care provision and self-care), and International Longevity Center (policy advocacy, research and promotion of interagency collaboration). The foundation’s latest initiative is Community for Successful Ageing (ComSA), a community-wide, systems approach demonstration project

Philanthropy as Catalyst
Dr. Tsao shared with the luncheon participants her foundation’s governance, core values (innovation, excellence, catalyst for constructive change), key principles, as well as shifting strategic focus in response to evolving social needs – which is reflected by changes in the foundation’s taglines, from “ageing with grace and dignity” to “for successful ageing” to “longevity is opportunity”.

She also shared the development process and challenges of the foundation’s projects, such as engaging and convincing policymakers, the importance of documentation, low literacy rates and prevalent use of dialects among older people, and how to truly understand the elderly’s feelings and motivations. She spoke of the importance of persistence and boldness in using philanthropy to push for mindset and systematic change. After her sharing, attendees raised questions on such issues as the strategic role of family foundations and engagement of private sector in a community-wide effort for social change.

ZeShan Philanthropy Forum Series
The ZeShan Philanthropy Forum Series is part of ZeShan’s mandate of promoting philanthropy and an extension and continuation of its Family Philanthropy: Values and Strategy Forum in 2009. The series, taking place periodically throughout the year, creates a unique platform for like-minded donors to exchange ideas, share experiences, stimulate thinking and network in a peer setting.

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2010-2014 Health & Well Being Hepatitis

CCTV: Public Education Campaign

China Central Television, China

Recognizing the impact and reach of national television networks, ZeShan in 2010 underwrote the production of a documentary on the prevention of mother to child transmission of hepatitis B by the China Central Television’s (CCTV) Population program, under the auspices of the National Population and Family Planning Commission. The documentary was recognized with a special award in November 2010 at the Fifth National Conference on Public Health and Media, co-organized by the Ministry of Health and Tsinghua University. It was premiered on CCTV Channel 1 on November 18, 2010. Plans are underway to develop an extended version for wider distribution to provincial television networks.

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2010-2014 Health & Well Being Hepatitis

Scaled-up iPMTCT Demonstration Programs

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, China

To build on the success of the pilot initiatives, ZeShan stepped up support for integrated prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) prevention in 2010. One of the programs being implemented takes place in high prevalence and low income regions of Hubei, Hebei, Xinjiang and Shanxi provinces, and is expected to screen 24,000 pregnant women for HBV, HIV and syphilis, while providing 42,000 people with pre-marital medical screening in the next two years. Emphasis is on building capacity in integrated prevention for local maternal units in partnership with Chinese CDC’s and infectious disease departments. A comprehensive training manual with participation from WHO China is currently in trial use.

Another program, a scaled-up initiative in Yunnan, will continue to integrate HBV, HIV and syphilis in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission in 26 counties of Yunnan province. The effort is expected to provide screening on HBV and syphilis for up to 146,000 pregnant women. Spouses and children of those tested positive will also receive screening and counseling services.

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2010-2014 Health & Well Being Hepatitis

Supporting Asia-Paciﬁc Alliance to Eliminate Viral Hepatitis (APAVH)

APAVH, Asia

ZeShan Foundation was a founding contributor to the Asia and Paciﬁc Alliance to Eliminate Viral Hepatitis(APAVH), a global initiative co-founded by the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University, US CDC and WHO in 2008. The first global effort to work towards the elimination of viral hepatitis, APAVH aims to create a sustainable public and private partnership to eliminate the transmission of viral hepatitis infection and reduce the stigma and complications of chronic viral hepatitis infection.

Hosted by ZeShan in April 2010, APAVH’s first regional meeting entitled “Learning from China to Enhance Prevention and Control Efforts in Asia” was held in Hong Kong. Experts shared best practices and lessons learned in China, and how APAVH could address the remaining gaps, from vaccinating susceptible populations that include college students, healthcare workers and migrants, to providing antiviral treatments for the estimated 35 million hepatitis B patients. The first APAVH 2010 regional meeting report has been published as a reference guide to demonstrate China’s leadership role in the Western Pacific Region.

As a demonstration project, APAVH has formed a partnership with the Shandong CDC to develop an evidence-based online training course to raise hepatitis B awareness and improve healthcare providers’ knowledge and practices. The course consists of three modules covering hepatitis knowledge and vaccination, safe injection practices and physician-patient education. The online education tool was opened for enrollment in July 2011 at http://knowhbv.org. Pilot test to evaluate the effectiveness and value of the course has been conducted and a preliminary qualitative analysis shows significant improvement in hepatitis B knowledge.

And as part of the advocacy and education act, the official APAVH website has been launched, providing a centralized resource for global viral hepatitis and liver cancer data, reports and publications. Researches on hepatitis B and related liver diseases in countries in the Western Pacific and South East Asia regions have been conducted and country profiles are developed and available on https://www.stanfordapavh.org/. And the first WPRO website on hepatitis B was created in late 2011; meanwhile brochures and posters promoting hepatitis B vaccination were produced and distributed in 8 countries in the region.

With prevalent infection and vast high risk groups, misunderstanding of hepatitis B and discrimination against hepatitis B carries were common in China. Teaching and learning materials for Chinese citizens would benefit many. APAVH completed the development of an online animation in Chinese to better inform people in the country about hepatitis B. The animation covers common questions the public have about the disease, such as ways of transmission, prevention and treatment. The material can be accessed through APAVH China website and is an important means to clear misunderstandings and discriminations.