US donation letter

Dear Friends,

I am writing to ask for your support for the 1st Chinese LBT leadership training camp. Your donation will make a difference for this unprecedented international joint effort.

The La La Camp 2007 is an intensive 4-day organizing training program to be held in southern China this July. Participants are selected from applicants who show commitment to queer activism, LGBT visibility and community building in Chinese-speaking communities.

The mission of the summer camp is to help foster informed, skilled, and resilient new leaders for our communities. To achieve this, we must create a safe learning environment for inquisitive new activists to explore their interests, to address their concerns, to provoke new ways of thinking and to develop strategies for winning change in their respective communities, to exchange best practices and to build a support network for sharing resources.

To support la la camp efforts, please make the check out to "Make the Road by Walking" and note on the memo: la la camp project. Please mail the check to Institute for Tongzhi Studies 532 La Guardia Place #595 New York, NY 10012. All donations are tax deductible. Please mail check this month if possible and email lalacamp@tongzhistudies.org to let us know the check is coming so we can start sponsoring students to the camp.

We have received funding from Astraea Foundation and pending replies from two additional funders. Your support will help us bring in additional trainers and students internationally. As a follow up to your donation, we will forward your a detailed report after the camp. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. For camp info or application form to attend the camp, please go to: http://lalacamp07.blogspot.com .

Warm Regards,

Mai Kiang
lalacamp(at)tongzhistudies(dot)org

La La Camp Convening Groups
Common Language (Beijing)
Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan (Taipei)
Women Coalition of HKSAR (Hong Kong)
Institute for Tongzhi Studies (New York)
Q-wave (New York)
Lavender Phoenix (US)


Background:

In November 2006 a small group of mandarin speaking lesbian and trans activists from Beijing, Chicago, Hong Kong, New York, and Taipei representing six gender and sexuality groups met in Dallas. In part, this meeting was made possible by the invitation to attend the 2nd Astraea Foundation Giving and Activism Retreat. After sharing regional studies and organizing experience with one another, this group has come to a realization that leadership training is a priority for gender and sexuality rights movement in our communities. We also re-affirmed our belief that Mandarin speaking lesbians (la la) and transgender people are some of the most invisible and underserved populations in all Chinese-speaking communities. Therefore we began to form a working group aim to bring about a collaborating infrastructure to serve and support our communities worldwide. The first project for this working group is to organize leadership summer camps, the first to be held in southern China summer 2007.

Make the Road by Walking is the US fiscal sponsor for la la camp project. It is a nonprofit organization in New York which promotes economic justice, equity and opportunity for all New Yorkers through community and electoral organizing, strategic policy advocacy, leadership development, youth and adult education, and high quality legal and support services. 95% of the donation will be used for supporting lala camp eager students in need of financial support to travel to the camp.