SHARING SKILLS: Jia Dehua (middle), a skillful Qiang embroiderer in Beichuan City, Sichuan Province, is sharing her skills with her folks (CHEN JIANLI)

Young social entrepreneur

Ni Kaizhi is a young entrepreneur trying to apply a business approach to philanthropy. At the age of 25, Ni turned from a marketing manager in an IT company to a full-time philanthropist after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Three days after the earthquake struck, Ni took a month leave from his job and arrived at the disaster-stricken area to work as a volunteer.

After a month as a volunteer, he made the decision to remain in the Wenchuan area and work to improve the income of farmers. He joined NPI, a Shanghai-based non-profit organization founded in 2006, which aims to support other small and medium-sized non-profit organizations. After spending one year helping others to start up NGOs, Ni decided to start one himself.

Ni learned about social entrepreneurship at training programs run by the British Council. His first project involved contracting local farmers to plant crops, raise livestock and make artifacts, and sell their products at an online fair trade platform. He started the project because he found that individual farmers had low bargaining power with purchasers and did not have sufficient access to information and marketing channels. By buying in bulk and taking over marketing, Ni hoped to help farmers overcome these obstacles, but his project wasn't as successful as he had hoped.

Ni then adjusted his strategy and began to work on voluntourism. Voluntourism, as the word itself indicates, combines vacation travel with volunteering at the destination. For instance, travelers can pick up trash on their way, take care of injured animals, or help people in need.

Ni has contracted farmers to provide lodging and food to travelers. So far, his organization, China Rural and Urban Community network (RUC network) has signed contracts with about 100 households in various places around the Wenchuan area.

The RUC network is responsible for marketing the tours and 70 percent of travelers' payments go to the farmers, 20 percent is spent on administrative overheads including car rentals, and the remaining 10 percent is used to fund Ni's organization.

During the week-long National Day holiday in October 2010, a peak travel season, RUC network organized a two-day tour, which brought an income of 1,950 yuan ($300) to each contracted household.

Beautiful business

Yan Junhui, director of the Qiang Embroidery Employment Support Center, also became a social entrepreneur after the Wenchuan Earthquake.

After the 2008 earthquake, Yan and her husband Gao Tunzi went to the disaster-stricken area with friends to distribute medicine to victims. The area is inhabited by Qiang people, an ethnic minority in southwest China.

The earthquake seriously damaged Qiang communities, and Qiang women were particularly vulnerable. Yan, who owned a handcraft business in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, wanted to find a sustainable way to help the Qiang people. She knew Qiang women excel in embroidery, so she set out to find a larger market for their embroidery products.

Yan received support from the One Foundation which was founded by film star Jet Li. On July 24, 2008, the Qiang Embroidery Employment Support Center was officially launched. The One Foundation offered to cover the costs of materials, transportation and human resources until the center became self-sufficient.

The center recruits and trains Qiang women as professional seamstresses, which gives them the opportunity to make money by working at home.

Yan runs the center like a company, emphasizing design and marketing.

To solicit good designs from professional designers, the center has partnered with art institutes and design firms. Yan and her design team want the products to have both aesthetic and practical value. They have designed embroidered shopping bags, purses, wallets and car accessories.

The center won big orders from large state-owned companies such as Mengniu Diary, Lenovo and China Mobile. It has also opened retail shops in Chengdu and other places in Sichuan Province.

In late 2008, Yan and her team learned a hard lesson when dealing with big businesses. One company placed a 3-million-yuan ($460,000) order, yet because the center could not deliver the products on time, the company cancelled 40 percent of the order.

To make the center more efficient, Yan hired professionals to improve its management. Tighter cost controls were introduced and more incentives were given to good salespeople.

Now the center works with 8,000 seamstresses, who usually make 300-1,000 yuan ($46-154) per month depending on their time commitment and skill level.

"I make more than 1,000 yuan ($154) per month by embroidering. With this money, I have bought a television and fertilizer. It is a double blessing that we can make more money and preserve our Qiang culture at the same time," said Guo Jianxiu, from Mianfeng Village of Wenchuan County.