“I don’t want to live my life just for myself” – how Bonnie continuous her volunteerism in China and what positive effects a Tsunami catastrophe can have.

Bonnie Wang, Student, Beijing Sports University, Beijing, P. R. China

We had the pleasure to be guided by Bonnie through the Forbidden City in Beijing, one of the most spectacular at-tractions in this large and fast moving Chinese capital. Walking along the pala-ces of former emperors and trying things we have never seen before in a typical Chinese snack bar, we listened to Bonnie’s views on the improving situation for Chinese journalists and her first experiences in volunteer work.
Inspired by American friends who helped to improve the situation of the Tsunami catastrophe at the end of 2004, Bonnie now tries to integrate in her day to day life as student of journalism some environmental activities - like collecting batteries or writing articles -, and some in the social area - like supporting orphanages and mentally ill people. With her friendly and optimistic way of going through life, Bonnie influences her surrounding in a posi-tive way and hopefully can expand her impact as a suc-cessful journalist in the near future.

Enjoy reading more about some of the things we dis-cussed with Bonnie and her thoughts in the selected quotations below. You may be able to read more in our book “MyImpact”.

Bonnie Wang’s selected quotations:
“I have always been interested in environmental issues; I am a member of Friends of Nature and I engage in activi-ties around environment protection.”

“My friends from the USA explained to me the whole idea of volunteering and showed me that you can be helpful anywhere, even if you are not rich or famous. That really inspired me and gave me a new perspective on many things.”

“I do a lot of volunteer work; I love that!”

“People in China do not have a very high awareness of the environmental issues, in the industry but also in day to day life. I feel bad and guilty when I see certain things happening.”

“A lot of my friends do not understand me; they are busy listing music or shopping.”

“My American friend told me after working for two weeks in the Tsunami flooded areas of Thailand: “‘Tsunami hap-pen everyday and everywhere, you don’t have to jump to an airplane to be helpful, there are still a lot of people in your place who need your help. And the reward is the smiles.” I knew that I was on the right track to continue my volunteer work.”

“Sometimes I feel that something is not right but we do not have the solution to deal with the situation. For ex-ample, I keep collecting used batteries but there is no dis-posal facility for them in China. Still, we need to push for solutions.”

“I don’t want to live my life just for myself; I want to im-pact other people. I would wish to improve people’s awareness around environment protection.”

Some background on Bonnie Wang:
Bonnie Wang was born and grew up in ShenYang, LiaoNing Province before moving to Beijing to study at the university.
20 year old Bonnie describes herself as a spirited and initiative explorer who loves photography and coo-king. Her photos have won some recognition including the “young photographer award” and she has a passion in cooking, especially excel-ling at north-east Chinese cuisines. As third-year journalism major Bonnie loves meeting people from different cultures and backgrounds.
During the past years, Bonnie has initiated several voluntary projects like “Kindergarten Envi-ronmental Education” in her community and “Recycling on the Campus”. She did some volunteer work in non-govern-ment organizations like “Chinese Student Green Forum” and the renowned “Roots and Shoots”. Bonnie is particularly passionate about promoting China’s public awareness of environmental protection and the volunteerism. She has received one of the 15 Chinese “Bayor Young Environmental Envoys” Awards in 2004.
Bonnie experienced work as an environmental researcher on an urban ecology field trip to the wetlands of Hangzhou and the work in the social area as a volunteer working for an orphanage in Shunyi district, as well as a tutor in a blind school. She also helped “TakingITGlobal” as regional re-searcher for the East Asian region to identify people for the “Youth and ICT Awards”. For the future she has various ideas how to continue her social and environmental engage-ment in China. We wish her all the best.

If you would like to engage with the work of Bonnie Wang please contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.