On 6 October, 2009, Li Dan, a social activist promoting knowledge about human rights and the human rights for AIDS orphans in China and the founder of Donzhen Nalan Cultural Transmission Center, gave a roundtable discussion at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard.  Li narrated his experience working with AIDS orphans as the founder of his non-profit organization, from establishing schools to children carrying HIV in Henan to his recent project to promote awareness of AIDS in Beijing.

Li informed the audience that he first came across AIDS-related work as an undergraduate in Beijing Normal University. While volunteering for the Red Cross Society of China, Li came across a child carrying AIDS from Hunan—Song Pengfei, the first publicly identified AIDS patient in China. Visiting frequently and befriending Song from 1998 to 2000, Li realized that AIDS orphans are no different from other children and deserve attention from society. His mind was made up upon a personal visit to a Henan AIDS village in 2000. Thus, in 2003, Li took a path unlike most other graduate students of astrophysics in the Chinese Academy of Science, and became an AIDS humanitarian activist urging for understanding and societal care for AIDS orphans.

In October 2003 Li founded a school for AIDS orphans in Shangqiu, Henan. Taking 20 AIDS orphans from surrounding areas, Li attempted to provide a home for these children left behind by a society where orphanages were unwilling to accept children carrying HIV. The establishment of the school was difficult: it required a license from the state. The best way to do so, according to Li, is to operate the school together with the local government. But this would have cost RMB 1.7 million—a figure almost impossible for self-started humanitarian activist like Li Dan. Thus, the operation functioned without license for a number of months, and was ultimately shut down by the government in 2004.

Li Dan did not give up his endeavors after this setback.  Attracting the attention of media both within China and abroad, Li made pubic many of the needs for AIDS orphans in Henan and criticized the government’s lack of action. In addition to his continued attempt for humanitarian work in Henan, Li made documentaries to let China’s situation in AIDS villages and orphans become known both domestically and internationally to become a subject of interest to Phoenix TV and Human Rights Watch alike. He was eventually awarded the 2006 Reebok Human Rights Award. Unfortunately, winning international acclaims could not help Li Dan’s work in Henan. Meeting numerous resistances from local government and villagers, Li was forced to abandon his original project to operate in Henan. In 2007 Li attempted to organize a conference in Guizhou on AIDS, inviting experts from both within China and abroad. However, the sensitive nature of its contents forced its cancellation, while Li Dan found himself temporarily detained by police.

Realizing the enormous difficulties in directly operating in an area highly sensitive to the government, Li Dan revised his strategies in 2007. He started to focus on human rights awareness, promoting knowledge among college students and those most susceptible to AIDS in urban settings. He has focused on this new approach until now. Li believes that once more people know about the problems, the government can no longer detain more from knowledge and prevent actions to solve these issues.

Li Dan’s case is an interesting grassroots attempt of humanitarian activism important to those interpreted in the development of non-profits in China. Like many other grassroots NGOs, Li Dan’s organization was unable to successfully register as a government-recognized non-profit organization under the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Instead, he was only able to register as a corporate entity, which caused many problems: it provided the organization no tax-exemption status, and no protection of law for any non-profit activities. The organization could have been shut down anytime by the government, according to Li Dan. Additionally, many potential donors were reluctant to fund a non-profit organization registered as a corporate entity.

Li Dan acknowledged that he did not think much about sustainability when he first set up his organization. He barely paid his staff in the organization’s first years of operation: it had no stable source of funding and stayed in debt until the prize from the Reebok award paid it off. Additionally, because the organization was then funded by foreign foundations, it met many difficulties in continuing its operations in China.

Li Dan’s case deserves much sympathy. Meanwhile, some audience questioned why some other organizations aiding AIDS orphans have the government’s support.  Some asked if he made any efforts in winning the government’s support.  Li Dan said since their organization was on the “black list” of the government, he did not think it was useful to try to win support from the official source. It is therefore one worthy of reconsideration: should a Chinese grassroots non-profit organization set itself as a sharp critic of government policies when it realizes that government support in many areas are inadequate? The gesture, though noble in nature, may be a sign too idealistic to fulfill the organization’s intended responsibilities in China. Li Dan’s emergence as an activist may have, ironically, hindered his very own ability to assist more AIDS orphans in need.

(By Hong of Harvard University)