Amity Foundation

Further information: Protestantism in China

The Amity Foundation Headquarters, Nanjing, China

The Amity Foundation (simplified Chinese: 爱德基金会; traditional Chinese: 愛德基金會; pinyin: Àidé Jījīn Huì) is an independent Chinese voluntary organization.^[1] As of 2010 it is the largest charity in China.^[2] It was created in 1985 on the initiative of Christians in China,^[3] with the main objective of helping poor areas of the country to develop.^[4] Amity's headquarters are in Nanjing. The organization includes the Amity Printing Company (APC, also sometimes called Amity Printing Press),^[5] the largest Bible producer in China.

Ideals

Amity Printing Company, Nanjing, China

Amity sees itself not as a faith-based but a faith-initiated organization and works with Christians, members of other religious communities and atheists alike. Its president is Bishop K. H. Ting. Partner organisation have praised the work and activity of the charity.^[6]^[7]^[8] Recently the chartitable organisation has been highlighted in both domestic and international media for its action and prompt relief work in China in response to natural disasters.^[9]

Activities

Disaster relief
Support of church-run social work
Support of medical education in China's poorest areas
HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention training
Education in the countryside and for the children of migrant workers, including the Amity Teachers Program^[10]^[11]
Special education (e.g. work with deaf or disabled children)
Taking care of orphans
Environmental protection^[12]
Integrated development (e.g. providing basic health care, schooling, clean energy, agricultural skills training and microfinance to a village community)

Amity Printing Company (APC)

The Amity Printing Company (APC, Chinese: 爱德印刷有限公司) in Nanjing is the largest producer of Bibles in China, and one of the largest in the world. Partly in cooperation with the United Bible Societies, since 1987 it has published Bibles in Mandarin and in several ethnic minority languages, as well as in many other languages for export.

The APC has so far published more than 100 million Bibles. Most of the Bibles printed are the Chinese Union Version (Chinese: 和合本, 1919), the Chinese Bible translation used by the Protestant churches, or the less commonly accepted but more modern Today's Chinese Version. Recently Pastoral Bible used by the Catholic churches has also been printed here. All Chinese Bibles are distributed not by the state-run bookstore chains (such as Xinhua Bookstore), but through the network of officially registered Protestant churches.

Sources

↑ "Reference in Chinese Charity overview". Chinacsrmap.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
↑ Breaking a circle of ignorance and crime, Beijing Today, January 13, 2010
↑ Connection to Three Self Movement. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
↑ Amity website
↑ "Welcome To Amity Printing CO.,LTD". Amityprinting.com. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
↑ "Christian Aid backs the work of Amity in quake-hit China". Ekklesia. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
↑ "Amity Foundation expands social outreach in China". Archives.umc.org. 2006-11-06. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
↑ "Amity Foundation Aids China Earthquake Victims". Globalministries.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
↑ Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Thomson Reuters Foundation | News, Information and Connections for Action". Alertnet.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
↑ "Amity Teacher blog". News.haverford.edu. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
↑ Back to School Program
↑ Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Thomson Reuters Foundation | News, Information and Connections for Action". Alertnet.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amity Foundation.