The Pendeba Society Conferred 5A Grade Social Organization of TAR

In the afternoon of August 13, 2012, TAR’s Department of Civil Affairs held a meeting on progress report of State-funded social welfare projects and a ceremony to confer Social Organization Grade Evaluation certificates on outstanding social organizations of Tibet Autonomous Region. Mr. XIAO Bai, Vice Department chief chaired the meeting, and Mr. JIA Xiaojiu, Vice Director of State Bureau of NGO Administration, attended the meeting and gave a keynote speech. In his speech, Mr. JIA mentioned that social organizations are government’s right hand, and it signifies much to cultivate and oster social organizations. He also delivered six requirements to the organizations that received state grants to implement social welfare projects, namely, 1) projects need to solve the most urgent needs of local communities, and benefit local people; 2) implementing scale and scope of the projects should be well handled; 3) Subletting and inappropriate bonus rewards are prohibited; 4); all documents related to the projects should be well kept; 5) project closing should be well managed; and 6) let projects play a leading role in promoting social welfare.  Mr. JIA also introduced the background of the State Social Welfare Project Grants Program, and emphasized the importance of this program, which is in accordance to central government’s direction on cultivating and fostering social organizations. If this program has succeeded and reached its goals, and local people have really benefited, it is very possible that this grants program will be incorporated into the central government’s annual budget, which will ensure grants, and more local people, especially local Tibetan communities will benefit. 

Mr. Sonam Louguo, Director of TAR’s Bureau of NGO Administration, introduced the establishment of TAR’s social organizations, current challenges and future improvement measures. Mr. YU Yonglong, Vice Director of State Bureau of NGO Administration attended this meeting as well. Five social organizations from TAR that are conferred 5 A Grade (top grade) of Social Organization Grade Evaluation of TAR were invited to attend the meeting.  Representatives of these five organizations also presented their project progress to all the attendees. At last, Mr. JIA and Mr. XIAO conferred the 5 A Grade certificates upon the Pendeba Society, TAR Charity Federation, Tibet Ecology and Environment Foundation and other two organizations. They also encouraged these organizations to keep up with great work, and contribute more to better future of TAR. Mr. Tsering Norbu, on behalf of the Pendeba Society, received the certificate.  

The Pendeba Society feels very much honored to be one and the only organization that received the 5 A Grade Certificate from Shigatse Prefecture. This achievement cannot be gained without generous support from many of those who continuously care about environmental conservation and community development work in QNNP. This certificate also indicates a firm recognition of our work, showing the rising professionalism and public credibility of our organization. In this regard, we are appreciative of the SEED-SCALE approach we applied in our projects, with which we have gained very satisfactory outcomes that finally led us to this certificate. The SEED-SCALE approach, developed by Future Generations, is a set of key principles of successful community-based development and conservation programs. SEED is the process of activating empowerment at the community level and growing a local success. SCALE is the expansion of this activity, both in geographic coverage and across development sectors for sustained improvement in quality of life. For more information about the SEED-SCALE, please click here: SEED-SCALE