China Health Villages

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By Patricia Fiske

Here is how the China Health Villages Project came to be.  It is Rotary Serendipity all the way!

As President/CEO of Worldwide Partners, Inc., a global marketing communications company, I began going to Shanghai for business in the early 90s.  Each trip was fascinating. I stayed in Chinese-owned western-style hotels, ate many a banquet-style feast, and the advertising agency I was working with wanted me to see all that was the best and the brightest of modern Shanghai. After 5 or 6 such trips it was easy to think of China as I thought of Shanghai.  My impressions were that China's economy was booming, people looked well fed and happy, and growth and change were the by-words of the time.

In 2007, D5450 selected me to lead a GSE Team to Shanghai.  (Melanie Gentz was an invaluable member of that team.)  Again, we saw the best and the brightest of Shanghai until a thoughtful Shanghai Rotarian, Frank Yih, invited us to go with him to ShangShui in Henan Province to dedicate a school that his HuaQiao Foundation was building in a nearby agricultural village which was known as an AIDS village.

In the early 1990s, poor Chinese farmers contracted HIV through a government-sponsored blood collection program, which paid them $5 for their blood.  Chinese are typically reluctant to donate blood and a national shortage was plugged by roaming blood banks. The blood stations would put the blood in a big tub, extract the plasma and then pump the remainder back into the peasants.  As a result, HIV/AIDS became the prevalent disease in this and many other farming villages in Henan Province.

It was in Henan Province that I first saw the poverty of China which I equated to the poverty I saw in India, Nepal and Africa.  It was heart-rending.

I just googled Frank Yih and found my GSE report online.  Here's what I wrote to TRF:

"Rtn. Frank is now devoting his life to providing education and health services to the poor of China. Through his private foundation, HuaQiao, he made it possible for the team to become part of China during a visit Henan Province - one of the poorest provinces in China. Each member of the team joined the RC of Shanghai and HuaQiao Foundation in making a contribution to the building of an elementary school in ShangShui, a farming village, where the little children walked for two miles to the nearest school. We attended the ground breaking ceremony and laid the foundation stone which includes the inscription GSE D5450 2007. Later, the team met with the leaders of the village, accepted their gratitude and learned of their plight and plans. Rtn. Frank's private foundation is also supporting AIDS orphans living with aging grandparents in straw and mud houses with no ventilation, plumbing or electricity.

During this and my prior visits to Shanghai and from my reading, China's growth and prosperity seemed ubiquitous and it appeared that this vast country of 1.3 billion people was capable of being self-sufficient. That impression changed dramatically after Rtn. Frank arranged to take us to Henan Province. Rotary can make a significant difference in the relationships of populations of the developed countries and this land of need with its water, health and hunger and literacy initiatives. It is important that GSE continues with the RC of Shanghai and begins with the RC of Beijing. It is important that the visiting teams have the opportunity to see the poor provinces as well as the industrialized cities...for it is in the poor provinces that our work needs to be done."

As you know, Rotary Serendipity happens all the time.  Denver Mile High and the Villa Park Neighborhood Association, had initiated a 9Health Fair in Denver's Villa Park neighborhood.  The following spring I hosted 3 members of Russia's Open World Program who were in Denver on a health mission. (Open World facilitator, Marina Kharlamova,  stayed with me and has since become a World Peace Scholar in England...more Rotary serendipity!)  We toured 9Health Fairs where I met Steve Yoshida and Will Files from the World Health Fairs Rotary Action Group.  Grant Wilkins had also shared a lot of information with me about the health fairs he and the Denver Club had instigated in Russia.  Upon leaving the HIV/AIDS village, I suggested to Frank Yih that we bring health fairs to China.

It takes Rotary to make an idea reality.  The paths of many have converged to make China Health Villages a reality.  Many contributed and here a few that truly stand out.

Rtn. Frank Yih - whose leadership is legend.  His HuaQiao Foundation has been the organization behind the success of the health fairs.  There is a whole paper to write just on Frank Yih and all he does with funding and education of student volunteers for the poor of China.

Rtn. Edwin Ngoi - who led the 2007 China GSE Team to D5450, returned to Denver to spend a week exploring the 9Health Fairs model in April, 2009 and is the co-chair of China Health Villages.

Rtn. Jim Goddard - President of 9Health Fairs, who opened the 9Health Fairs book of best practices to Edwin and advocated with the Denver Club to contribute to the matching grant.

Rtn. Steve Yoshida - founder and spokesman for WHFRAG.  On a journey through Denver, Steve and Jim met with me at my house to give traction to the wheels that were turning to create China Health Fairs.  Steve has shared his knowledge of World Health Fairs, been an ardent advocate attending the educational workshop in October, 2009, the LinCang and LongChuan fairs.

Rtn. Will Files - President of WHFRAG who coached me through the grants process and raised money from clubs in Alaska to overcome the TRF matching grant shortfall.

Rtn. Linda Sue Shirkey and Rtn. Terry Fiske who travelled to China in October 2009 to introduce the LinCang and LongChuan clinicians and government health officials to the concept of health fairs.

Rtn. Roberta Simonton who participated in the first China Health Fair in LinCang in April 2010.

Rtn. Martin Postma who championed the MG contribution from Westminster 7:10 and is playing a very large role in the LongChuan Health Fair coming up in October.

Rtn. Susan Henderson who has been an advocate and will also play a large role in the upcoming fair in October.

The important message in the founding of China Health Fairs is the serendipity of Rotary.  Yes, it takes a champion but without Rotary and its never-ending-interweaving- happenstance,  China Health Fairs would never have happened.

Click here to see the full report to Rotary International of project 71064 . . .