“I guess working for an NGO, accepting a much lower salary than in the private sector, is probably a ques-tion of values.” – what comes after founding a NGO and what an antelope has to do with a bus.

Zhang Hehe, Project officer, Friends of Nature, Beijing, P. R. China

There are a number of great international organisations that campaign for different types of social or ecological projects and issues. Many of them were founded by great leader personalities with a strong vision and ability to convince others to commit to the shared goals and to invest their time and money. But who are these other ones? Who are the people within a NGO orga-nisation who actually manage the day to day activities?
We had the chance to talk to Hehe, who is one of them; Hehe is a young, intelligent woman in Beijing who com-mitted to the vision of the international NGO “Friends of Nature” and spent the last few years working for them as a project manager. One of her current focus areas is the education of children on topics of environment. She ma-nages a mobile classroom with the nice name “Antilope Car”, an idea adapted from Germany. Very often she is on the road herself to teach children around China’s capital.

Hopefully the following quotations will give you an impres-sion of what we discussed with Hehe and you may be able to read more in our book “MyImpact”.

Zhang Hehe’s selected quotations:
“In 1997, when I was still at the university, Friends of Na-ture became famous in China because of their campaign on the protection of the Tibetan antelope. I was impres-sed.”

“I used to want to be a doctor but I did not have the necessary score at the entrance exam. Since I was al-ways interested in environment and nature, biology was somehow a natural second choice.”

“I guess working for an NGO, accepting a much lower sa-lary than in the private sector, is probably a question of values. The main value in our society at the moment is economic development, improvement of the material living standard. My personal values lie more along responsibility, fairness, idealism; material things are also important but not first priority.”

“At Friends of Nature I see and get to know more diffe-rent issues and solutions than I used to. We have access to great information, can communicate with our peers internationally, and get different opinions and perspec-tives.”

“In my everyday work I manage the different schools’ requests for the “Antilope Car”, I design the teaching contents, manage the staff and often go along to give classes.”

“We try to focus on children of migrant families; if people move from a different province, they still don’t have the same rights as the local people and the children’s edu-cation often suffers.”

“I think I will do similar type of work also in the future. Maybe I would like to focus more on playing a bridging role between China and international NGOs – that’s were my strengths are.”

“My dream would be to really do something substantial for the nature, like Jane did for the chimpanzees.”

Some background on Zhang Hehe:
Hehe was born and studied in Beijing. She graduated in biology and was thinking about fin-ding work with animals, in a zoo. Instead, she started teaching at a special school a number of specially designed subjects and did that for 21/2 years.
She has been a member of Friends of Nature (FON) for a long time, she volunteered and had a part-time job with them. Three years ago she then took a full-time job with FON and is now managing the “Antelope Car” and some other pro-jects.
At the beginning of this year Hehe also took the respon-sibility to establish TUNZA North East Asia Youth Environ-ment Network in China. This gives her another opportunity to play an active role to do something good for the envi-ronment.

Some background on FON – Friends of Nature:
FON – Friends of Nature is a Chinese environmental NGO, formally registered in March 1994 as the Academy for Green Culture. FON is a non-profit, public welfare organi-zation funded by membership fees and public support. Its mission is to promote environ-mental protection and sustain-able development in China by raising environmental aware-ness and promoting a “green culture” among the public.
FON China currently has a strongly growing base of 2000 members from all walks of live.

Some background on TUNZA North East Asia Youth Environment Network:
TUNZA North East Asia Youth Environment Network (TUNZA-NEAYEN) is a youth network set up in January 2005 with consultation and support from the UNEP Regio-nal Office for Asia and the Pacific as a part of the UNEP’s global youth strategy. It aims and functions at sub-regio-nal level to mobilize youth and youth organizations in the countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and Mongolia for environmental protection activities under the principle of sustainable development, in collaboration with the other sub-regional youth networks in Asia Pacific Region.

If you would like to engage with the work of Zhang Hehe or get to know more about FON please visit www.fon.org.cn,
If you would like to know more about TUNZA-NEAYEN visit www.neayen.org,
or, for more specific opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.