The Small Grants Program Committee of the World Bank Office, Beijing recently approved grants to eight Chinese NGOs in support of their civic engagement activities. The recipients and their activities supported by the grants include:

· Changchun Xinyu Volunteers Association  to organize the Four Seasons Forums and publish the Light of Life Newsletter designed to facilitate information sharing and participation of the disabled and service organizations for the disabled, promote the engagement of the disabled and enhance public recognition and support for the efforts to help the people with disabilities.

· Community Participation Action  to publish the Community Participation Action Newsletter designed to disseminate participatory approaches and ideas and share information and experience in participatory community development.

· Women's Federation of Henan Province to carry out HIV/AIDS prevention activities by disseminating information on HIV/AIDS prevention to the targeted groups,  promoting the use of condoms and other intervention, setting up advisory service stations to provide HIV/AIDS advice and health information, and providing financial assistance and caring to the poor people infected with HIV/AIDS.

· Yueyang Association for the Promotion of  Wetland Protection of Hunnan to create a wetland protection education and promotion center; publish a book entitled Wetland, Man and Bird; and organize an annual information and experience sharing event participated by organizations engaged in wetland protection.

· Kangda Pig Farmer Federation of Inner Mongolia to create a network of poor rural women who are eager to get out of poverty but short of finance and skills, provide them with knowledge, skills and assistance on pig farming to create a  income generating source, thus promoting women's development and poverty reduction through women's participation.

· Qinghai Old Professors Association to prepare, publish and translate into Tibetan language 100 Questions and Answers on the Ecological Protection of the Origins of Three Major Rivers aimed to disseminate environmental information and raise environmental awareness of the local people and promote the protection and rehabilitation of the ecological systems around the origins of China's three major rivers (Yellow River, Yangtze River and Lancang River).

· Women's Federation of the Xinjiang Uygur Nationality Autonomous Region to carry out activities aimed to raise legal awareness among ethnic minority women living in Xinjiang by disseminate basic legal knowledge, training of trainers, developing promotional materials and translating related materials into Uygur and other ethnic minority languages.

· Yunnan Foundation for Awarding Teachers of Primary and Middle Schools and Kindergartens to implement the Poverty Reduction through Education Program designed to help promote basic education development in poor areas by organizing experienced teachers and education specialists to visit poorer counties and share teaching experience, ideas and information with local teachers, provide on-site training and couching and discuss their needs and concerns.

The World Bank Small Grants Program aims to support the empowerment of citizens to have greater ownership of development processes, thereby making these processes more inclusive and equitable, through promoting dialogue and dissemination of information and enhancing partnerships with key players in support of the development process. The intended beneficiaries of the Small Grants Program are NGOs engaged in initiatives for this purpose. The Program is administered from the World Bank Office, Beijing.

(China.org.cn June 4, 2004)