Mr. Zhu Qiwu (2013-2014)

Mr. Zhu is in the process of setting up his own charity, one that both improves health for teenagers by encouraging outdoor activities and utilises them as innovative fund raising events for multiple charities alike.

From 2002,he started in Chinese Agape Foundation, an American charity and helped the work of setting up an orphanage for over 110 orphans in Yongshan, Yunnan. In 2004,Mark and his wife moved to Miyang, Henan, and set up another orphanage for over100 children. In the years that followed, the couple moved around the country and helped the local governments improve the work of orphanage and provide better care. Because of his abilities to communicate in English, he also helped international volunteers in educational programmes. In 2012, Mark joined Guangxi Andian Charity Centre and participated in the work of capacity building and network forming amongst nascent charities. He is also in charge of setting up a search-rescue networkin Guangxi province.   

Mark is an outdoor enthusiast. As part of his charity work, especially that in the orphanage, he had organised and/or participated many cycling trips, helping children who had never left their hometown to see the wider world. It was through these experiences he realised that outdoor activates e.g long cycling trips can serve both young people as part of the charity work and can beleveraged as a valid platform for the advocacy of volunteerism and civil society ideas. It is, in effect, a “cycling university”, and not just for those who are in need of help. Mark became fascinated by the potential such activities bring, and after studying similar programmes such as Trip For Kids,World Bicycle Relief, he was convinced that this is a valid niche, and an important one in China’s charitable sector. He always encourages himself by his motto “If not me, who? And if not now, when?”