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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 005798 
 
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TAGS: PGOV EAGR SOCI PHUM CH
SUBJECT:  Journey to the West:  Habitat For Humanity's Will 
to Do Good in Guangxi 
 
Ref:  A) Guangzhou 5778 and previous, B) Guangzhou 4043 
 
(U) THIS DOCUMENT IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE 
PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.  NOT FOR RELEASE OUTSIDE U.S. 
GOVERNMENT CHANNELS.  NOT FOR INTERNET PUBLICATION. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Consulate Guangzhou is assisting Habitat 
for Humanity's Guangxi branch to continue its projects 
there through a partnership with Guangxi University's 
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture which can 
provide legal cover for Habitat since it cannot register as 
a non-governmental organization (NGO) under Chinese law. 
Habitat's proposal is currently under consideration by the 
University's administration.  Habitat does excellent work 
in Guangxi, as the Consulate witnessed in visiting one 
project in Wuzhou City in a village that suffered damage 
during the June 2005 floods (ref B) and a second one 
further south in Fusui benefiting 10 leprosy patients 
living in an impoverished, isolated rural area.  End 
Summary. 
 
It Isn't Easy Doing Good 
------------------------ 
¶2. (SBU) Habitat for Humanity (HFH) wants to and is doing 
good in Guangxi, despite some difficulties and setbacks.  A 
look at two of their projects by Congenoffs justifies this 
conclusion.  The Habitat project in Wuzhou had been in the 
planning phase since the June 2005 floods but ran into 
funding difficulties.  The project was originally supposed 
to be funded by a Hong Kong business and was to build 
hundreds of homes.  Unfortunately, the Hong Kong business 
pulled out at the last minute, preferring instead to donate 
its funds to Guangdong Province where it has business 
operations.  In the end, Habitat's International office 
came through with a loan program that would build eleven 
homes.  The loan is a five-year loan with a 2% per year 
inflation adjustment.  The eleven homes are going to eleven 
families.  The families benefiting from the project in 
these villages build the homes themselves.  Although 
several volunteer teams were scheduled to assist with the 
build, many dropped out because of the fear of bird flu. 
Each home is approximately 80 square meters with four or 
five rooms and is consistent with housing in the 
countryside.  The owners have designed the buildings 
themselves, often including the future possibility to build 
an addition on the flat roof.  Despite several financial 
setbacks, the project was completed in time for the 
families to move into their new homes in a semi-finished 
state before the Chinese New Year. 
 
Assistance to Leprosy Patients 
------------------------------ 
¶3. (U) En route to southern Guangxi, we visited a second 
Habitat for Humanity (HFH) site, located at a ten-person 
leprosy rehabilitation site in Fusui County.  The leprosy 
housing site is located thirty-five minutes off the main 
highway, on a bumpy dirt road that passes through one town 
and several villages of varying degrees of development. 
Local officials pointed out that Fusui is one of the more 
agriculturally developed areas in the prefecture, but we 
noted a very low proportion of motorized vehicles, many ox- 
drawn carts, and manual labor that in other underdeveloped 
areas would have been done by machine, thus demonstrating 
the poor and backward nature of this area of Guangxi.  Many 
agricultural carts were being pulled by hand. 
 
¶4. (U) Before the leprosy housing site was created in the 
1950's, these 10 leprosy patients, all of whom are now 
elderly, were forced to live in simple cave homes they had 
dug in nearby hills.  The government then built a 
leprosarium, but this building has since fallen into ruin. 
Government funding for the site withered over the years and 
rehabilitation is nonexistent, but local officials revived 
financial and official administrative support for the 
people living there once HFH showed an interest in the 
site, though local farmers living in the area have not been 
supportive.  Most HFH projects are funded through 
homeowners' incomes and are built by the homeowners 
themselves, but because virtually all of these leprosy 
patients have lost limbs, and all have only limited use of 
their hands, UK-based Leprosy Mission International is 
providing the majority of the funding for the project.  The 
 
GUANGZHOU 00005798  002 OF 003 
 
 
project includes ten homes as well as an additional 
building that will act as an examination center and 
activity center.  The housing is very simple and consistent 
with housing in the area, its small size reflecting the 
poverty in the area.  Each house consists of a single-story 
structure consisting of a flat roof with two rooms, one a 
combined sleeping and living room and the other a kitchen. 
During the visit, student and faculty volunteers from 
Shekou International School were on-site.  They completed a 
perimeter wall and leveled the uneven ground.  Contractors 
have been hired to build the actual houses, though Habitat 
experienced many delays due to poor local management of the 
workers.  The local dermatological institute, the 
government organization responsible for care of leprosy 
patients, owns the land that the building site is located 
on. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Though a variety of officials from Nanning, 
Congzuo and Fusui who were present during the Consulate's 
visit expressed enthusiasm over the project (perhaps 
because of the presence of the Consulate party), local 
farmers whose crops bordered the village were not 
supportive of the new buildings and accused HFH of 
encroaching on their land.  The Habitat representative 
noted that local farmers have historically discriminated 
against the leprosy patients by stealing their few animals. 
The farmers also are resentful of both the attention being 
paid to the leprosy patients by Habitat as well as the land 
owned by the dermatological institute used to house the 
patients, which they regard as theirs and which probably 
was, in fact, taken from them when the original house were 
built.  As a result, the farmers have sown crops up to the 
back wall of the HFH project and periodically have come by 
to shout protests against the project.  Habitat will 
install locked doors on the old houses that are being 
vacated to enable leprosy patients use them as stables and 
barns to protect their small number of livestock and 
chickens. 
 
Lacking Legal Status: Cutting Through Red Tape 
--------------------------------------------- - 
¶6. (SBU) China does not officially recognize Habitat for 
Humanity as an NGO.  Without this recognition, funding 
options are limited.  The lack of legal status also makes 
routine tasks such as providing receipts to volunteer 
groups and other vendors difficult.  The organization does 
not feel optimistic that it will gain legal status given 
China's complex NGO registration rules and historic 
distrust of NGOs.   Unwilling to remain in limbo over its 
status, Habitat is trying to become affiliated with Guangxi 
University in Nanning as an education organization 
exploring the use of low-cost, user-friendly, and 
environmentally-friendly building materials, such as earth- 
concrete bricks.  Under this proposal, Guangxi University's 
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture would provide 
administrative support and limited funding while Habitat 
would retain control over its funds and would have the 
freedom to do research into materials and construction 
techniques, conduct experiments (build houses), and provide 
training (to volunteers and homeowners). 
 
¶7. (SBU) Habitat has submitted a proposal to the University 
to establish under the College of Civil Engineering and 
Architecture a center for research into low-cost and 
environmentally-friendly building materials.  An example of 
preliminary work is a brick made from 90% dirt and 10% 
concrete that can be manually produced by farmers using a 
simple compression machine.  The bricks can be used within 
seven days though they reach their full strength after 25 
days.  The bricks are interlocking and do not need mortar 
between their joints though mortar is poured around rebar 
supports down vertical holes that line up through all of 
the bricks.  The proposal has been approved by the College 
but is awaiting final approval from the University itself. 
 
Consulate Assistance 
-------------------- 
¶8. (SBU) Habitat asked the Consulate to support its 
proposal with the University.  The Consul General took 
advantage of a visit to call on the University Vice 
President and its Foreign Affairs Office director to raise 
the topic of Habitat's proposal.  The officials were 
 
GUANGZHOU 00005798  003 OF 003 
 
 
familiar with the proposal and the Vice President said she 
had attended a committee meeting the previous evening to 
discuss the proposal but that no decision had been made. 
Habitat's representative, when told of the advocacy, was 
very appreciative of the Consulate's low-keyed expression 
of interest and expressed hope that this would be a boost 
to getting the proposal acted on. 
 
Comment 
------- 
¶9.  (SBU) The future of Habitat for Humanity's Guangxi 
office remains in a state of flux.  As of the date of the 
transmission of this message, Guangxi University has still 
not made a decision on Habitat's proposal.  Habitat's 
representative in Guangxi expressed great concern over the 
future of the organization if the agreement with the 
University falls through.  Habitat's international office 
has already drained all of its funds and resources for this 
fiscal year on relief efforts for victims of Hurricanes 
Katrina and Rita in the United States.  Habitat's overall 
strategy for bypassing China's reluctance to grant NGO 
status to the organization is for its offices to become 
research centers.  If the Guangxi University proposal 
fails, it is likely that the Guangxi branch will fold and 
become a part of the much more financially stable Hong Kong 
regional office.  We also understand that Habitat may 
reorganize itself into a "business consultancy" 
headquartered in Hong Kong but operating through branches 
in China, thereby skirting the legal restrictions on 
foreign NGOs while essentially maintaining its operational 
model, sort of a Habitat for Humanity with Chinese 
characteristics. 
 
¶10.  (U) The next message in our "journey to the west" 
series is on our last stop in Guangxi, Behai -- almost 
literally the pearl of the region. 
 
DONG