Wokai: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:58, 20 December 2010

Revision as of 13:55, 23 January 2011

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==History==

Wokai was founded in March 2007 by Carlos Mendes and Courtney McColgan after they met studying at Tsinghua University in Beijing.<ref name="Newsweek">[http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/chinacalling/archive/2009/04/01/facebook-for-china-s-farmers.aspx China Calling : Facebook for China's Farmers]</ref> As of November 2010, Wokai has a leadership team of 5, a Board of Directors and an Investment Committee in addition to its 11 chapters of volunteer representatives in Beijing, Boston, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Nanjing, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Toronto and Washington, D.C. (with upcoming chapters in Atlanta, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Kunming, London, Singapore, Taipei and Vancouver).<ref name="Team">[http://www.wokai.org/f/about/index.php?page=team "Team" on Wokai.org]</ref>. Wokai also maintains a fellowship program called "Wokai Fellows", which allows selected individuals to work directly with one of Wokai's field partners in rural China. Wokai has raised almost $380,000 in loan capital through over 6,800 contributions from 46 countries in order to distribute 504 loans.<ref>[http://www.wokai.org/ "Home" on Wokai.org]</ref> As of November, 2010, Wokai is still the only online, P2P microfinance platform servicing rural China.

Wokai Blog, found on the company website, features updates from the field through Wokai Fellows, profiles of Wokai volunteers from around the world, personal glimpses of rural Chinese life, and commentary about current developments in rural China and the microfinance sector.<ref name="Wokai Blog">[http://www.wokai.org/blog]</ref>