（Original article from Zhejiang Provincial Charity Federation, Zhejiang Provincial Internet Public Welfare Base Official Account Platform）

In order to thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, undertake the new mission and new responsibilities of charities in the new era, accelerate the philanthropy concept innovation, system innovation, management innovation, cultures innovation and method innovation, and continuously expand the regional philanthropy influence and to add new glory and achievements to the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China,

On November 12-13, 2019, the Zhejiang Provincial Charity Federation convened the 6th "West Lake Charity Conference" Forum in Hangzhou. Focusing on the innovation of philanthropy in the new era, high-quality development and expanding the impact of philanthropy, the forum aims to explore cross-border cooperation and carry out discussion and exchange, and continues to voice, express views and provide opportunities for philanthropy on a larger platform and wider perspective, to build carriers and platforms for the exchanges and cooperation between governments, social organizations and private capital.

The forum was jointly held by Zhejiang Provincial Charity Federation and Zhejiang Dunhe Foundation in the Thousand People Hall on the 5th floor of Hangzhou Zhijiang Hotel. Michael Hermann, the Cchief Rrepresentative of The Federation for Associations connected to the International HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Movement (Switzerland) Yunnan Representative OfficeInternational Humana People to People Movement (Switzerland)China Region was invited to the conference. The forum was attended by nearly a thousand officials and staff of the Department of Charity Promotion and Social Work of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the civil affairs bureaus charity divisionssystem of cities and counties in Zhejiang Province, and the relevant provincial civil affairs department’s charity divisionsystem  and many public charity organizations.

At the conference, leaders from various levels of Zhejiang Province delivered speeches one after another, and some of the invited experts, scholars and professors gave keynote speeches, and held round-table dialogue on "accelerating the building of influence in the Yangtze River Delta and promoting the high-quality development of regional charity"

Among them, Michael Hermann the Chief Representative of The Federation for Associations connected to the International HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Movement (Switzerland) Yunnan Representative Office,  delivered a speech at the roundtable dialogue. He said that first of all, cooperation should be strengthened, and the important design to integrate 3 provinces and 1 municipality into an integrated more people should be mobilized in the Yangtze River Delta Region would definitively engage more people into public wefare. Then he integration, which is a better design. mply shared the two projects as follows:

The first project is POF. In 2008, we began to do productionindustrial poverty alleviation in rural areas. We found that some of our farmers' children did not go topreschools. In 2008, the preschool enrollment rate in Yunnan was 30%. There was basically no preschool for children in poor and remote rural areas. We felt that this was not good for children's development. As an old Chinese saying goes：One can be seen the grown adult up in the child,  how his adulthood could be when ithe is 3 years old, and one can see the old person in the child, when it is 7 years old. We knew that early childhood education is the most important period for children. How could our organization solve this problem?

We initiated the establishment of more than 300 preschools since in  2008. Now there are 9,500 children in the preschool. Teachers choose to work here by themselves. The salary of the teacher is relatively low. Most of the teachers in the POF preschool graduated from junior high school. Most of the long-term stable population in rural areas graduated from junior high school. Very few of the On the one hand, we provide training for teachers hold a with bachelor's degree, so and on the other hand, we provide 680 hours/ 3 years training for teachers with junior high school degree to improve their ability. It is understood that there is a gap of 1 million preschool teachers and 900,000 childcare workers in China. Our focus is to train local teachers.

The second project is about environmental protection. At the Polish Climate Conference last year, experts proposed not to talk about global warming from now on, but global heating, which sounds is not as good as warming. One-sixth of the emissions are generated by agriculture. Maybe our education experts did not expect that there are emissions from rice and our traditional food, why? The decomposition of roots and leaves within 6 months under water can produce Methane. A model initiated by an African Jesuit Priest institution changes the production management, with alternate dry and wet periodsallows it to evaporate after one week, which can reduce 3-5 tons of CO2e emissions. This technology has been promoted and applied in Yunnan.

As the host of the round table conference, Wang Zhenyao, the Dean of China Global Philanthropy Institute, after listening to Michael Hermann’s speech, said that Michael Hellman had reminded him more than ten years ago that China has a lot of good experience and it is worth learning. In terms of public welfare and charity, what Michael Hermann said made a contribution to the Chinese philanthropy community just like Bethune. This is really amazing. I should pay tribute to Michael Hermann.

Mr. Wang Zhenyao suggested everyone to talk about their feelings on Michael Hermann's suggestion. Zhang Hua, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of Shanghai Charity Foundation, Zhang Dali, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of Jiangsu Provincial Charity Federation, Chen Xiaode, Vice President and Secretary-General of Zhejiang Provincial Charity Federation, Cai Xianwen, Secretary-General of Anhui Charity and Social Welfare Association, Tu Meng, Secretary-General of Zhejiang Transfer Foundation, and Wu Wei, Chairman of Zhejiang Future Smile Charitable Foundation, all expressed their personal opinions.

Zhang Dali, Vice President and Secretary General of Jiangsu Provincial Charity Federation, said that he was very touched after listening to Michael Hermann’s speech. Representing a German public charity organization, first of all, Michael Hermann loves China. He has done so many things for Chinese common people, especially the poor people, and thought deeply on many issues. I think it is amazing. We shall learn from him and pay tribute to him. I personally think that a government leading and a non-governmental organization implementing combination will be an important feature of the development of China's philanthropy. The hope of philanthropy lies with the people, the masses.

Cai Xianwen, secretary general of Anhui Charity and Social Welfare Association, said that he was very encouraged after listening to the lectures by Mr. Michael Hermann and the sharing of experts from two enterprise foundations in Zhejiang Province. He believes that the next step in the integration of philanthropy in the Yangtze River Delta and the development and promotion of philanthropy cannot be separated from the participation of caring enterprises and caring people. Without their participation, high-level and high-quality development of philanthropy integration in the Yangtze River Delta is impossible. I shall pay tribute to them as a charity worker, and thank for their dedication to charity on behalf of their beneficiaries.

Michael Hermann said that regarding the report of Chen Xiao De, the vice president and secretary general of Zhejiang provincial Charity Federation, he mentioned many positive programs, such as insisting on small and micro organizations raising projects, which reflected people-oriented. It is important to raise the awareness of poverty alleviation in poor areas and groups in difficulties. Finally, from the transformation of consciousness to the implementation of action, and to build capacity in people will solve the long-term development problems.

Everyone made a speech at the round table conference. Finally, the host Mr. Wang Zhenyao said that the round table conference had a top-down and bottom-up dialogue. Everyone praised and appreciated each other, showing the philosophy of charity people's minds about the world. The integration of the Yangtze River Delta is an important strategic decision made by the Party and the Country, and it is also a concrete manifestation of the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics in the new era. The Party Central Committee has ardent hopes for the integration of the Yangtze River Delta. We need to accelerate the integration of philanthropy from a strategic high-level to provide ideological motivation and action guidelines for the high-quality development of philanthropy.

The forum conference has high specifications, rich content and strong leadership. Michael Hermann, the Chief Representative of The Federation for Associations connected to the International HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Movement (Switzerland) Yunnan Representative Office listened carefully, learned actively, and took the initiative to communicate. He will integrate the spirit of the conference into local practice and implement into actual work, and continue to work hard to promote the development of regional philanthropy.