The price of sight: A few cents and a few drinks

Jim Boyce (far right) keeps the fun and the booze flowing for the charity campaign Maovember. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Maovember raises money in three key ways: first, by selling Maovember pins, each at 50 yuan at bars, restaurants and shops in Beijing; second by hosting events, where revenue from everything from drinks to food to activities like quizzes, bingo tournaments and hockey shootouts goes to charity; and third, through personal donations that can be made directly to the charity Orbis through its website.

Venues selling pins include the Belgian bar and restaurant Beer Mania, Home Plate Barbeque, Jing-A Taproom, the Irish sports pub Paddy O'Shea's, the trendy pizzeria Ramo. But if you make a special trip to buy one, you may want to check before you go to ensure some are in stock.

A French psychobiologist who calls himself Paul R., who runs the popular Irish sports bar Paddy O'Shea's in Beijing, is a big supporter of Maovember.

"Nowadays, people are constantly begged for charity," he says. "So people ask for transparency and they don't want to be just begged to. So the idea of having fun at the same time is better.

"I think charity starts by bringing happiness around you then you can start to think further and build something bigger."

Paddy O'Shea's has organized a special quiz night with a lucky draw and is going to host the Maovember closing party on Tuesday, with all proceeds going to Maovember.

"The closing party will be an open mic night," Paul R. says. "We will have live music, hockey games, special drinks. ... Besides selling Maovember pins, every Wednesday for the quiz night you can enjoy a special pickleback shot for a ridiculous price, and money goes to charity."

To make the campaign fun and worthwhile, Maovember has had a volunteer group this year with the three bars that gave the most last year: Jing-A, Irish Volunteer, and Paddy O'Shea's, and with a few individuals who also gave the most during last year's campaign.

None of the volunteers was paid. "I know there are professional charities," Boyce says. "And they have staff and they have budgets. But ours are like volunteers covering their own costs such as meals and taxis and enjoying themselves. Spending our time and money doing this is part of the donation as well."

Boyce says this year's goal has been to collect 80,000 yuan. "Now we have over 50,000 yuan. We can raise more than this. But our goal is not about breaking records. I want it to be fun and natural. Last year it was not so much fun because there were more and more events, and we kind of went crazy in terms of raising money. Last year we also got some big donors. There was one guy who gave 10,000 yuan."

Boyce says he spends three to four hours a day on Maovember, including updating the official website maovember.com and planning events.

He does all that even as he works as a consultant to the Ningxia government on the region's wine industry.

He is picky about venue partners for hosting Maovember events, he says. A restaurant or bar is good for donating 1 yuan or 10 yuan for every drink it sells, but for Maovember, some tricks, some plan for something fun and special are required, Boyce says.

For example, he says on Nov 18, a Magnum P.I. party was held at Bungalow Tiki Bar, and there was a limbo contest. People "got friends lei'd" by buying a garland for 20 yuan, and prizes for being the "Most Magnum" and "Most Hawaiian" person in the joint.

George Smith, managing director for Orbis North Asia, says Orbis gets support from many corporations such as Standard Chartered Bank, Jebsen, Accor group and L'Occitane. But Maovember is very special because "it is very grassroots fund-raising that gets so many people involved".

"It is important because not only does it raise funds for these needy individuals, but it also raises awareness throughout the community about the critical need to support prevention of blindness in rural China."

More than 400 people bought Maovember pins last year.

"We had fantastic support," Smith says. "The money was used to subsidize surgeries in our project in Heilongjiang province. The hospitals that we work with over the five-year project are given this money to fund surgeries for the older men who cannot afford it."