More than 200 representatives from Chinese and African non-government organisations will gather in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi from Aug 29 to 30, 2011.
The China NGO Network for International Exchanges (CINE) announced yesterday.
The meeting is part of the China-Africa People’s Forum, the first non-governmental exchange China has co-hosted in Africa. NGO representatives will discuss climate change and food security, NGOs’ credibility and transparency, and the relationship among governments, non-governmental organizations, businesses and communities. The group will also explore cooperation methods to fight AIDS in China and Africa.
Fifty representatives from China, 100 from Kenya and 50 from 18 other African countries will attend the gathering.
“The best thing about NGOs is that people can have private conversations,” said You Jianhua, CINE’s secretary general.
CINE has been organising training sessions in China for Chinese and African NGO leaders since 2009. The participants were curious about what their counterparts had been doing, so they asked, “Why don’t we get together?” Jianhua added.
Working with Kenya’s non-governmental organisations coordination board and a number of devoted individuals, CINE was able to co-organise the forum and bring 18 Chinese NGOs to Africa for the first time in history.
In addition to the forum, CINE will hold an AIDS prevention workshop with local young people and a photo exhibition of people-to-people exchanges between China and Africa.
To help fight against the current drought and famine in Kenya, CINE and a Chinese enterprise have helped the local residents dig a well in a school community and named it China-
Africa Friendship Well, according to the organisation.
During the forum, entrepreneurs from both China and Africa will sit together to discuss business opportunities. They will also make various donations to the local people, including medicine, clothes and computers.
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