Please join the New York Chapter of Wokai for our Launch celebration!

WHAT:  A fundraising event celebrating the launch of Wokai’s peer-to-peer microfinance donation platform, featuring wine/beer open bar, hors d'oeuvres, a silent auction, and a presentation by Wokai Co-Founder and CEO, Casey Wilson

Event Program

8 - 9 PM: Hors d'oeuvres service

9 - 9:30 PM: Presentation by Casey Wilson, Wokai Co-Founder and CEO

10 PM: Final bids for silent auction items

Ticket includes wine/beer open bar for the duration of the event

WHO:  Over 200 socially-conscious young professionals

WHERE:  BLVD - 199 Bowery (at Spring Street)

WHEN:  Wednesday, May 27th from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

WHY:  In China, approximately 200 million people live on less than $1 a day, and China’s income gap is one of the most severe among developing countries worldwide. Microfinance, commonly defined as providing loans to poor people to help them start small businesses, offers one of the best solutions to global poverty. Wokai is a 501c3 non-profit organization that enables Chinese people to lift themselves from poverty. Wokai is Chinese for "I start," demonstrating our commitment to helping the impoverished help themselves.  Through our website, we connect contributors worldwide with entrepreneurs in rural China to help them start small businesses. For example, a seamstress might borrow money to buy a sewing machine.  This business generates stable income, which gives the seamstress and her family access to healthcare, improved housing, or perhaps most importantly, education.  By empowering people to take control of their own lives, microfinance differs from the cycle of dependency created by previous methods of poverty alleviation.

RESERVATIONS:  http://wokainyclaunch.eventbrite.com/

Please note that a limited number of tickets will be available at the door for $60. We will accept cash, check, or credit card at the door.

As a portion of each ticket is tax deductible, please consider requesting a matching gift from your company so that Wokai can benefit twice from your generosity.  Thank you!

SPEAKER BIO: Casey leads Wokai’s business strategy and development, Field Partner due-diligence evaluation, and public outreach. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University with a BA in Economics. While at Wesleyan, Casey focused on economic development and its applications in the Chinese context. After graduation, Casey completed a course of study at Tsinghua University and the University of California at Berkeley’s Inter-University Program (IUP) for advanced Chinese. Prior to studying at Tsinghua, Casey spent two summers studying Chinese at the Middlebury College Intensive Chinese School in Vermont.

For additional information about Wokai, please contact us at newyork@wokai.org.

Looking forward to seeing you there!