Opinion | China NGOs turn to WeChat to aid quake rescue

When retired journalist Zhou Xiaoxiang started a WeChat group on Friday, he had no idea it would set in motion rescue efforts for an earthquake the next day. 

Half a week later, more than a hundred charities, activists and donors have joined the conversation, which has turned into an umbrella organisation for NGOs and co-ordinates local donations for earthquake victims in Sichuan.

"I never expected that we'd have this earthquake the next day," said the Chengdu-based executive director of an NGO that helps miners with lung diseases. "In the first two hours after the quake, all the phone lines were down, we could only talk on WeChat. This was our opportunity."

The WeChat group consisted of about 50 welfare organisations, 30 funds and 20 media organisations, Zhou said. Several government departments are also part of the closed group, but "they are just watching what we are doing, they are not interfering".

Zhou's group has created a civil movement offering help to quake victims. Its mere existence would have been unthinkable in the aftermath of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, Zhou said. It happened only because of the changes in social media over the last years.

The WeChat group, Chengdu Public Welfare Circle, was originally meant to bring together social welfare organisations in the city and train them in using microblogs and WeChat, an instant-messaging application for smartphones.