FOR many people in China, volunteer work is nothing more than a one-time visit to a senior’s home or to a local school, chatting with seniors, teaching migrant kids or making a donation. Then they leave, forget it and never come back.

But for 15-year-old Jiang Zhengzhi, it’s different.

Jiang is working on a campaign to eliminate the indifference among people after returning from two recent volunteer trips, one to a village in Kenya, the other to a village in Hebei Province.

Both volunteer trips were organized by Me to We, a social enterprise that provides “better choices for a better world” and donates half of its net profit to Free the Children, an international charity and youth movement.

During Me to We’s trip to Kenya, participants worked on everything from school-building to a clean water system. During his 14-day stay in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya in the volunteer trip, Jiang carried bricks, visited local families to see how they make a living and experienced locals’ life. But for him, the most memorable thing was carrying water with locals.

He carried half a bucket of water and walked for hours under the scorching sun, only to learn that such an amount of water was almost nothing.

“After we arrived at the destination, feeling like our neck was broken due to soreness, we were told that a bath takes 30 to 50 buckets of water,” he said.

Locals have no water system, so they use the same water for drinking, bathing and washing vegetables, and every drop they use is carried in such a way, Jiang said. Such toil is done by women and children, who carry water three to four times a day, with each trip taking three to four hours.

“Then I know how happy I am to have water to use,” said Jiang. “For us, drinking water is such an easy thing within several steps and I can get as much as I like. But for them, they need to spend hours carrying water with their neck ‘broken’ every day, and the water is still far from enough. Then I started to realize the whole world is not what I think.”

Smile-to-smile action plan

After participants returned, they had to work out an action plan. Participants could design any program based on their interest that could be useful for others. Jiang created the idea of a smile transmission plan.

“When you go abroad, if you say hello or greet people there, they will respond with a warm smile. But in China, if you do the same thing others may think you have mental disorder,” he joked.

The idea originated when he met his neighbor, whom he did not recognize and believed was tracking him. Both behaved nervously, but finally found they were neighbors and ended up feeling embarrassed.

It seems that not everyone is willing to communicate, but at the same time people feel lonely, and everybody is glued to their mobile phones, he added.

“I want to try to change the attitude and encourage face-to-face talks. I don’t want to change the people in a whole city, but I can change those who are willing to change and I can share my thoughts. If I can influence one, and he could pass on the idea to another, then it’s the strength.”

He plans to print some small cards and has established a Weibo account detailing his idea, plans and motivation about the campaign. Its name is “Who said I cannot change the world?”

Jiang said if someone can give him feedback when he says hello to others, he will give them a card about the plan with the hope that they can share the idea to more people. He even plans to establish a group dedicated to this.

Jiang views Chinese NGOs differently from foreign ones.

“Some of my classmates formed a group to visit seniors’ homes regularly, but I won’t participate in such program,” he said.

“Me to We attracted me because they don’t just construct a school or donate some books, but change the concept, and they help construct a water system, a safe food system and teach locals how to improve life and build a medical system.”

Me to We opened a market for locals in Kenya who had no sales channel for their handicrafts, and thus no income. This move helped change a community to make it self-sufficient.

“Volunteer work does not mean you just go to a senior home, or take a photo, and tell others you have been there. From the experience, I learned that changing the world may sound too grand or unrealistic, but it is not that difficult. The power of the individual is not big, but we can spread it and get others involved, and if everybody can do something, then we can change.”

He said such a trip is totally different from domestic organizations, where participants are likely to take a photo and tell others they were there. They can polish their resumes and finish the task more like a formality.

“But the trip is like a start, and what’s important is how you continue the action plan in the following time,” Jiang said.

Free the Children came to China in 2002, while 10 years later, Me to We followed its path to China. In 2012, Me to We organized 50 students in China to go to Kenya, while this year, it had about 300 students participating in its volunteer trips. In 10 years, Free the Children built about 30 schools in China, in provinces such as Sichuan, Hebei and Gansu.

Through Me to We’s customized leadership training, youngsters learn about the responsibility of being a volunteer, the spirit of teamwork and appreciating each other, broadening their minds.

“Children have the power to do many things, which can bring some changes to the world, but whether you give them chances to do it and whether they can stick to the path is the key,” said Annie Zhang, managing director of Me to We China.

Lack of awareness in China

Challenges remain.

“The concept of volunteerism and charity is not well established in China as there is no proper education on it,” said Zhang.

Zhang said when Me to We came to China in 2012, people could not understand what they were doing because they weren’t aware that youngsters participated in volunteer programs.

“We want to break that barrier, and now it is gradually changing in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing,” she said.

In addition, some foundations in China have problems in accounting, lacking third-party auditing, which conveys a bad message. Moreover, lack of trust toward each other is common, Zhang said.

Free the Children aims to change the situation of whole villages. It starts from education, then restores the water system, improves health care and prevents diseases and helps locals get sustainable income in a decent manner. It takes about 10 years to turn the poorest village into a self-sufficient village that no longer needs help.

The problem is that after agreements are signed on projects to build schools in China, people in lower layers of authority don’t execute them well or cooperate.

In China, many NGOs easily perished amid all these problems.

“I believe the biggest problem is their system is not complete, their staff is not well trained and they don’t have professional teams in management and operation and a very clear and sustainable goal, although they have passion,” Jiang said.

Their passion often turned into frustration and finally they gave up, she said. She believes education from the government is of great importance and can provide some chances of study and training for local NGOs.

People often go to schools in rural areas to teach students, but whether they are qualified remains a question. Donations brought to the schools by charities often don’t match what students need, and they can’t refuse to receive the things with dignity and equality, she said. Some organizations conduct activities just two or three times, then give up. After they ignited the hope of these children, they ignored them again, which may trigger stronger feeling about the unfairness of the society, she said.

She said volunteers need to bring change to the face of a society.

“Volunteer and charity does not necessarily mean helping the poor, but should be linked with the progress of the society,” Zhang said.