MilliCharity’s Registration
5th Anniversary Party
It seems like the official charity registration was only a couple of years ago. Time really does fly by when you’re having fun, and MilliCharity does a good job of making charity a fun activity.
The party was at KeYuan Garden, the same place as one of the outdoor photo shoots for my wedding album. As usual, there were a number of good speeches. There were 2 unusual things about the speeches. First, I managed to get my lovely wife to translate the major points of about half the speeches for me. Second, I gave a speech myself, with my wife reading a translation. This is only the second time I’ve been called on to give a MilliCharity speech. I’ll put that in a separate post.
Naturally, our founder, Uncle Zhang, gave the opening speech.
Uncle Zhang, Founder of MilliCharity, giving a speech.
I knew when MilliCharity got its charity registration (it was the first organization to do so without government sponsorship), but I’d always been a little confused over when Uncle Zhang began donating to support students. In this speech, Uncle Zhang covered that. September 1988 was his first trip to Feng Huang to support educating students (so now I have less than 2 years to prepare a better speech for the 30th anniversary party).
Uncle Zhang laid out the 3 primary principles which differentiate MilliCharity from other charity groups in China and elsewhere:
- Pick your own kids to sponsor: Some charities lump donations together and spread them among many children. Some pick out children for you. MilliCharity provides lists of children. If you see any you are interested in sponsoring, you can get a detailed information sheet. If you really want to take it to the next level, you can even go and find a school MilliCharity isn’t involved with and set up your own “mini-MilliCharity” to sponsor children there. Some members have really done this.
- Direct giving: Money for children goes from the sponsor to the child. It is not pooled and spread out. Since the sponsor sends directly to the child, there are no intervening steps where other expenses could take money away from the child or where corruption could take hold. Money can be delivered in person, sent by China Postal Bank transfer, or directly transferred to the child’s bank account (if the child has one).
- Sponsorship is a long-term commitment – until the sponsored child graduates high school or college: Some charities only cover primary school. Others might focus on high school or college students in need. At MilliCharity, there are students available anywhere from first grade to college, but sponsors need to realize they are committing until that child graduates. Some only graduate high school, others go on to college. The one part I found most amazing when I visited Feng Huang during my 2nd honeymoon was local teachers sponsoring children. Those teachers were originally sponsored by Uncle Zhang back when they were students.
Uncle Zhang has never done this to show off publicly. He doesn’t invite the press, but doesn’t chase them away either. They can come and report on what he and the rest of the group do if they like. This makes MilliCharity events and trips unpredictable. Sometimes, the press is totally absent, and sometimes, there’s a crowd of them. At this event, I only saw a few, but one of the radio stations took Uncle Zhang and a few others off for an interview later in the day.
MilliCharity rocks on Dongguan radio
Short speeches were made by the group’s second president, An Ge, and our current president, Lian Jie.
Former President An Ge agrees with me – Beards are cool!
MilliCharity’s current president, Lian Jie
Then it was mostly speeches from Millicharity board members (including one from a certified Lunatic 
) and a few people I hadn’t met. One turned out to be a long-time sponsor of children who was also was a former member of the Guangdong Provincial Congress (I may have the title wrong, but think it’s more or less the equivalent of a State Legislature member in the US). So, after all these years, I finally got to meet a politician above the village, town, and city level so I can ask silly questions at a higher level.
Another innocent politician bothered by an Escaped Lunatic.
Once all the speeches we stopped for the mandatory group photos were done (I should ask for a board resolution adding group photos as a 4th principle).
5th Anniversary of Registration – The Group Photo
We adjourned for a proper Cantonese lunch (big meals should be guiding principle #5). Lunch was at Guancheng Lao Fan Dian, one of Dongguan’s oldest traditional Guangdong style restaurants.
This restaurant is approved by Chairman Mao.
If you are interested in sponsoring a child’s education, visit MilliCharity.com (I hope you can read Chinese better than I can).
And, whether you can read English or Chinese, my speech is also the first bilingual post on the Escaped Lunatic Blog. Please read The Impossible Speech here.
