Over the last week or so, in between design projects and getting set for my impending return to studenhood, I’ve been helping flesh out the design of a great China charity project – the China Dreamblogue (or Blog of Dreams – I’m still not sure why it has two names).
The extremely ambitious project has been put together by Professor Lonnie Hodge (aka OneManBandwidth) and David DeGeest in an effort to help people not just reach for, but grasp their dreams, particularly as it relates to increasing their educational opportunities.
The project breaks down into the following four parts (from the site):
- Traveling: First, [Lonnie and David] will be traveling to the 22 provinces of mainland China over the course of the next 12-16 months. [They] will visit and interview at least one person from every ethnic group and from every province to find out about their lifestyle, their beliefs, and their hopes and ambitions for themselves and others. [They] will post these interviews on the Dreamblogue for you to read.
- Free Scholarships: [Lonnie and David] are giving away scholarships that will allow students to study abroad in the UK and the US.
- China information: [They] will be posting regular information about China on this blog. [They’ve] found that Westerners’ understanding of China is often darkened by news reports that focus on the negative parts of China. [They] will be putting up information on the blog that seeks to find the interesting, curious, good parts of Chinese culture and highlight them.
- Money for Charity: [Lonnie and David] are raising money for two charities, Thomas Stader’s Library Project and Terry Dougherty’s Reading Tub. [They] will be raising money by selling advertising on the Blog of Dreams and giving away the advertising money to Thomas and Terry directly through a Feedburner account. [Lonnie and David] will never touch the money.
Considering most of us (read: me) in the English-language China blogsphere fill more than our fair share of posts bitching and complaining about the negatives, it’s refreshing to see someone attempting to put this medium to a good and positive use.
The aforementioned Tom Stader is a good friend of mine, and his Library Project is something I think is awesome. It’s great to see his cause being picked up by innovative folks like Lonnie and David.
Currently the two are on their way back from their first Dreamblogue trip – to Dalian of all places. I’m looking forward to what they have to say about the city I called home for my initial year and a half in China. Be sure to check out the Dreamblogue (and let Lonnie and David know how pretty you think the design is ;-)).
