Wokai, a microfinance NGO founded by Americans Casey Wilson and Courtney McClogan lends small amounts of money to help poor farmers in rural China start their own businesses. The organization is busy planning to expand in 2010 and recruiting new staff.

Zhang Sheng (L), director of China Operations, and Casey Wilson (M), CEO in Inner Mongolia in?Jan. 2008 [China.org.cn/courtesy of Wokai]

Wokai says its mission is to help "Chinese micro-entrepreneurs start small businesses, start change in their own lives, and lift themselves and their families out of poverty". Founders Casey and Courtney traveled around China while studying Chinese at Tsinghua University and were shocked by the huge income gap between cities and rural areas. Realizing that just a few hundred dollars could transform people's lives, they set up Wokai in spring 2007. The name means "I open a business" in Chinese.

Wokai's Beijing office is a traditional courtyard house in Dongcheng District, one of the oldest areas in the city. There are 5 full-time staff and about 30 volunteers and a further 150 volunteers in branches in Hong Kong, San Francisco, Seattle and New York. They hold parties, lectures and other promotional events to explain their vision and raise funds.

Wokai cooperates with Chinese NGOs to lend the money to poor farmers. Their field partners are Chifeng Zhaowuda Women's Sustainable Development Association (CZWSDA) in Inner Mongolia, and the Association for Rural Development of Yilong County (ARDY) in Sichuan Province. CZWSDA and ARDY select clients and Wokai puts their stories online to solicit donations. Donors receive regular updates on the progress of recipients.

Sara Jane Ho, Wokai's 24-year-old Asia Development Associate, told China.org.cn that they have so far raised US$146,000 and helped 288 families. "Each recipient receives between 300 and 600 dollars and repays it within 12 months. 100 percent of repayments are on time."

Ho was an investment banker in New York before joining Wokai last year. She raised US$8,000 within a month last year as a volunteer. "Then I quit my job and came here. I wanted to do something in China. I established the Hong Kong chapter last August and organized a bunch of activities. We didn't have an office but some volunteers kindly lent us their boardrooms. People are passionate about this organization," she said.

According to Wokai's 2009 annual report, most loans fund animal husbandry (55 percent), retail businesses (15 percent) or arable farming (10 percent). Zhang Sheng, director of China Operations and the only staff member who receives a salary, said, "Under normal circumstances an applicant will receive their money within a week or a month at most. If we can't raise the full amount immediately, our partners advance the money. Farming businesses are time critical and often they can't afford to wait. We reimburse our partners later when the loan is 100 percent funded."

Does Wokai's microfinance help farmers realize their dreams? Zhang Sheng thinks so. "Microfinance encourages farmers to work for a better life. They have to earn as much as they can to repay the loan. A couple in Sichuan borrowed 3,000 yuan (US$439) to plant mushrooms at the beginning of last year. When we visited them in December, their 10-square-meter greenhouse had grown to five times the size."

China does not allow foreign funds to be re-exported after they enter the country, so donations to Wokai are recycled among recipients. "They can apply more than once if they want. Our partners' offices are on the spot in small towns and villages and are very popular with local people," Zhang Sheng said.

Wokai's staffs are confident about the future. "We're planning to raise US$1 million and recruit an additional 10,000 donors in 2010, and we hope to expand into more provinces in China. We are looking to recruit three marketing and technology professionals to take Wokai to a new level," Ho said.