about
About Altruistic Alcoholics (Alt-A)
Alt-A was founded in late February 2007 by a group of young foreigners who all met on the That’s Beijing forum (http://www.thatsbj.com/forum). They come from all over the world – Belgium, Canada, the UK, Morocco, Australia, the US, Germany, France, and of course, China.
The group came together after a story was posted on the That’s Beijing Forum about one person running into an autistic street kid that he had met several years ago. The members of the forum started discussing the problem about street kids in Beijing, and wanted to find a way that would help these children.
After a bit of research, the forum users found one organization in Beijing that they felt they could support. A forum get-together was announced, with an open invitation to meet for drinks – if each forum member donated at least the price of one drink, the money they raised could be a significant contribution to CMC. That night, the forum members raised over 600RMB. The money went to that Charity the very next day.
Plans quickly expanded – if the members really pulled together and did this on a weekly basis, more money could be raised to help the many different NGOs that are in China to help street kids.
The group came up with the name Altruistic Alcoholics – a tongue in cheek nod to the group’s desire to help others and the desire to have a good time.
Evelyne Letawe, from Belgium, serves as their president. Andrew Tait, from the UK, is the vice president. Phoebe Storm Gluyas is the events coordinator, responsible for putting together the party on Saturday night. Badr Benjelloun , from Morocco, serves as the IT guru and Finance person.
Some of the founding members of Altruistic Alcoholics:
