SURFING AT THE MARGINS : The Dilemma of Popular NGOs Providing Services to Children with Disabilities in China

Abstract: In China, services provided to children with disabilities are mostly assuming by government. After 1978 reform, the government began to transfer certain functions of welfare providing to non-governmental organizations. Then, many popular NGOs emerged to provide services to children with disabilities. However, after a few years operating, many of these popular NGOsclosed down. The aim of this research is to explore the dilemma of popular NGOs which providing services to children with disabilities to gain further development and what are reasons of these barriers.To achieve the aim, findings that conducted from two typical model popular NGO --- Chunmiao and XZXY will be applied to examine what barriers do popular NGOs which working with children with disabilities have and analyze what arereasons of these barriers, Anheier‟s Organizational Life Cycle and Greiner‟s Model of Organizational Growth will be used during the process. Findings show that popular NGOs which providingservices to children with disabilities have limited autonomy, low social awareness, inefficient internal management system and theyarerestricted by the government. Popular NGOs working with children with disabilities in China need to find a neutral position between strong government control and the autonomyofnon-governmental organizations.