China International Federation of Charity, a Hong Kong based charity, has been accused by volunteers of fraud.
At the end of November 2007, Chinese media reported that CIFC had been involved in illegal use of labor for its so-called "aiding the orphans and supporting the poor" project. Following the report, Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Department began an investigation of CIFC, but as told by a representative from the government to various media last week, due to a lack of relevant laws to regulate the behavior of Hong Kong registered non-government organizations in the mainland, it is difficult for them to proceed with the investigation.
The reports last year said that CIFC had set up two educational sites in Beijing in Changping Longmai Resort and Miyun Yunfoshan Resort, respectively, promising to provide "half-work and half-study programs" for orphans and poor children. However, nearly half of the 120 children at Changping Longmai Resort reportedly left within one year after they arrived and the remainder then expressed their frustration by going on strike and reporting CIFC's misdeeds to the police.
The same situation happened at CIFC's site Yunfoshan Resort. According to an unnamed child quoted by Xinhua from that education site, each week they only had one day to study and the rest of the week they had to work at the resort. The child said that they all worked for over 10 hours, and sometimes even 15 hours per day, and many of them had to work even if they were seriously sick.
Many volunteers of the CIFC also confirmed to Chinese media the problems associated with CIFC. Their main duties at the organization were to contact each of the welfare institutions and hospitals to seek cooperation opportunities for CIFC instead of educating the needy children. They said that CIFC often asked for aid from international charity organizations, but after they received the donations, they would give it to local institutions and share profit with them.
