Training in China During the WTC Disaster
I arrived in China on September 1, 2001, 10 days before the attack on America. I was there as a volunteer teaching and training as a way to help build bridges of friendship with the people of China. I had no idea, when I arrived, how important this type of commitment for Americans is. I also had no idea how supportive the Chinese people would be to us in our crisis.
With China's entry into the World Trade Organization, China offers an exciting, pioneering business climate. I wanted an opportunity to utilize my training and consulting skills in China but also to find a way to “give back”. I found a group called Global Volunteers, which offers teaching and consulting service programs in 19 countries including Xi'an, China. Xi'an was the starting point of the Ancient Silk Road linking China to the rest of the world in the early centuries. In September, Xi'an was designated as the start of the New Silk Road at the 2001 Western Forum of China. The Forum was held because a region covering 70% of China's interior needs foreign capital and knowledge to help them out of poverty.
The Xi'an Business Incubation Center is where I was assigned to partner with Mr. Wang, CEO and Mr. Wei, head of training. XIBI is responsible for the start-up and guidance of Hi-tech businesses through the transition from a planned economy to a marketing economy. A performance assessment exposed a need for programs to benefit both the internal project managers and XIBI's clients. These included: Project Management, Human Resources, Communication, and Customer Service. All of these programs had to be designed and delivered with the goal of exposing participants to western concepts, respectfully integrating these concepts into the Chinese business culture, and Co-facilitating these concepts in both Chinese and English.
The rewards of immersing myself in a different culture for weeks came from:
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1) Knowing that I was helping people out of poverty through teaching English and business consulting. The Chinese people were enthusiastic, optimistic, and had a shy witty sense of humor. Laughter is the bridge of human spirits.
2) Helping participants understand concepts. When I asked if and how they would use the learning they would break into lively debates in Chinese about cultural applicability. Mr. Wei would enthusiastically translate “yes”. (XIBI presented me with a consulting award never given to a foreign company.)
3) Being in China on a volunteer basis for September 11, gave us a real sense of contribution to furthering world peace. At first, being so far away, we felt helpless to support our country. We could not help with the digging, donate blood, or comfort grieving families. Then we realized we were helping our country. We were in an area of China where many people had never seen someone from the US. We were putting a friendly, helping face on the image of America.
Contact Global Volunteers at www.globalvolunteers.org.
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