Leslie Forman
Leslie is Wokai's Marketing Director.
This has been a terrific day! Casey spoke at two events in Seattle: a legal roundtable and Microbrews and Microfinance. And today we're in...
Kristi Heim, whose column focuses on the Business of Giving, wrote an excellent profile of Casey and Wokai. It's called Microfinance: a mecca for 21st century idealism and it begins...
What can get a crowd of young, hip Seattleites more excited than an REI clearance sale or an afternoon of sun in January? You guessed it. Lending money to poor people. It helps, of course, that beer is involved.
The star of the bimonthly Microfinance and Microbrews event tonight is Casey Wilson, 24-year-old co-founder and CEO of Wokai, a non-profit that aims to expand small loans for the rural poor in China. In Chinese, wo kai means "I start."
I took some time out this afternoon to talk with her about the organization, which now has three chapters in the U.S., an office in Beijing and an army of highly motivated volunteers.
I asked her why start in China, a country wealthy enough to finance the U.S. national debt.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
If you're in Seattle, be sure to attend our launch celebration this Saturday at Spitfire. It's sure to be a good time!
And today...
posted the video of Casey's Tech Talk at Google in the top right corner of its homepage!
And, Ryan McLaughlin from ...
wrote a generous profile about Wokai. (For those of you that have never lived in China, "laowai" is a common and slightly pejorative respectful word for foreigner.)
Ryan's article begins...
There are few things that make me tingle like the principle of microfinancing does. I’d like to think I have a philanthropist’s heart (if not the wallet), and as much as I believe “give it and forget it” charities unarguably do amazing things for this world, microfinancing is just way cooler than traditional charity models.
It brings “charity” down to a more even level, where “givers” become lenders and “the poor” become borrowers. Not only is it financially empowering, but it is emotionally empowering as well. That Courtney McColgan and Casey Wilson (Wokai’s co-founders) have taken this and applied it to China’s impoverished deserves not applause, but ovations.
Thank you so much to Kristi, Eric Mu and Jeremy Goldkorn from Danwei, and Ryan! We can't tell you how much we appreciate your support.
Awesome media coverage! Congrats to Leslie, Casey, Seattle chapter reps, all...
You should send this coverage out to the chapters!
Posted by: Jess | January 17, 2009 at 11:05 PM
"slightly pejorative word"??? How many ignorant foreigners are going to perpetuate this idea?? It's absolutely not pejorative, but "laowai" fresh off the boat always think it is because that is the word Chinese use to talk about laowai, and laowai assume Chinese are not saying good things. "Laowai" is a term of respect -- get it straight!!!
Posted by: Laowai | January 18, 2009 at 05:10 PM
Jess, thank you so much for your kind words! I can't tell you how much we appreciate your support.
Laowai, thanks for the clarification. I've lived in China for a year and a half but I fully admit that my Chinese is subpar. I'll correct it in the blog post, and use this word with pride!
Posted by: Leslie Forman | January 18, 2009 at 07:33 PM