Wokai Blog: Wokai chapters, drinking for a better world, and enchantment: Wokai China Microfinance Blog

I've been doing chapter president's calls this week, have presented at Drinks for a better world, and put up with people laughing at my Chinese name and job title- it's been busy!

So Wokai has eleven chapters at the moment- but what is a Wokai chapter? I would define them as groups of motivated and driven professionals and students in cities in North America, Europe and East Asia who believe in Wokai's mission of poverty alleviation in rural China and, crucially, want to make a difference. They are action oriented. They raise awareness of Wokai and encourage people to contribute through holding events, speaking at other people's events and generally talking to their networks about what we do. It's been great catching up with what a few of these chapters are doing, and also hearing from people in other cities that want to set up new chapters- there are another eleven of these. If you want to join a chapter, click here to find out how.

Presenting at Drinks for a Better World- well, this is Chapter related too. Every two months the Beijing chapter holds an event for current members and people interested in Wokai, and the more general NGO environment in China. As it was my first one as Chief of Staff I was asked to present, along with the charismatic Nathan Zhang of Brand Nu. I really enjoyed meeting people afterwards and hearing what everyone was up to, but the presentation was as nervewracking as usual… just in case you missed it, here's the link.

And finally, my name and title. Well, a while ago (I'm not sure when) I started writing my surname the wrong way and used the Chinese character '迷' rather than ‘米’for my surname. The original character means 'rice' and is apparently a very acceptable surname, but my newer one (which is now in all my ID documents so I'm stuck with it) means something between 'enchantment' and 'confusion'. As if this weren't enough, my job title in Chinese is 参谋长, which is the name of the rank one down from a general in the Chinese army. So my business card basically says that I am a very senior military officer called Confused Spring Dawn, working to alleviate poverty in China. No wonder people laugh!