Shanghai Charities: BEAN

I moved to Shanghai in June 2009 and began what seemed like an unending networking spree. I met some great people and saw some wonderful sights but after a few months I began to want something more.

I started searching for volunteer opportunities in Shanghai and luckily there were many. However working a full-time job, taking Chinese lessons as well as running in the occasional Hash House Harriers run, I wasn’t able to dedicate the time that most charities & NGO’s required. Some groups were solely networking based; others had opportunities to volunteer but just seemed to be lacking the passion or energy that I was looking for.

I attended my first BEAN event in December 2009 – the Overdressed Christmas party. Overdressed in my Christmas themed outfit I hoped to get a feel of the organization and see what BEAN was all about. It was a quiet event as a lot of BEAN regulars were home for the holidays but it was a great chance to meet some of the top BEAN officers like Sheila Seiler, President of BEAN.

She explained to me the things that make BEAN great: social & volunteer events to get involved with, the variety of events offered within those 2 areas, and no long-term commitment is required –just come to events when you can.

It sounded great so I kept in touch with Sheila and later on found out that BEAN was going to be ‘adopting’ a migrant school and that they could use some help developing an English curriculum. I had had experience teaching English in China and thought this might be a great opportunity to learn about migrant schools and continue developing my skills as a teacher.

That was back in February 2010. Since that time I have become a BEAN officer myself, developing lessons for our bi-monthly visits to Fenfa migrant school in Minghang district. We’ve painted 5 classrooms from top to bottom, painted murals in all the classrooms to help develop a positive learning environment, taken the kids on field trips, and through the help of The Library Project, built 2 new buildings on school grounds – a 30 student classroom and a new library.

I have also really enjoyed the social aspect of BEAN as well. Of course there are the networking nights on Mondays, but I’ve also learned how to play Mah Jong, enjoyed a fabulous concert during Dance for Haiti, gone on a bus pub crawl of Shanghai and have met just the best people in Shanghai.

On November 25th, BEAN will be volunteering at Rocksgiving “Because Giving Rocks”, (at the newly opened Lune) a benefit concert for CWEF scholarship for girls at Mengshan Middle School in Jinshan district. Also on the November docket are some of our staple volunteer events: interact and play with orphans at our monthly orphanage visit, play with cute cats & dogs during our SCAA trip, play Mah Jong when we visit our elderly care center, or even teach migrant students with us at Fenfa.

If you are interested in volunteerism in China or you just want to meet some people outside of your normal social circles I would definitely encourage you to try out BEAN