This year Study Links donated £300 to our nominated charity OFund. Previously this money would have been spent on sending physical Christmas cards to our friends and partners however, like last year we chose to abolish the use of paper and send all the cards via email instead, with all savings donated to Ofund

The OFund non-profit organisation (Chinese Overseas Students Children’s Fund) was set up by our old friend Tony Luo who was a former guardianship student of Study Links. From 2003-2006 Tony studied at Ackworth School’s International Centre before completing his A-levels at Ackworth School.  He then went on to read Geography and Political Science at London School of Economics (LSE), and completed his Masters in Public Administration at Cornell University in the US.

Tony has had experience working at the UN Secretariat, Ashoka, Inter-American Dialogue and other organisations.

During his studies at LSE in 2007 Tony founded OFund.  OFund has an elite volunteer network joined by more than 1,000 top-ranked university students from all around the world. They have established branches in many top universities such as Cambridge University, Oxford University, and London School of Economics. The primary agenda of OFund is to increase charitable awareness among college students around the world, and to bridge the gap between these elite students and the under-privileged young generation in rural areas of China. In the past, OFund have successfully organised a series of charity events, ranging from volunteering trips to local schools in the Sichuan Tibet area, Charitable auctions, and deliver educational materials to the target schools regularly.

Most importantly, they are devoted to finding innovative and effective ways to advocate for the imbalanced social status in China and help the underprivileged population. Study Links are privileged to support OFund and we wish Tony and the Ofund team all the best in the important work they are doing.

In addition to his responsibilities at Ofund, Tony is Secretary to the Board of One Foundation (founded by actor Jet Li).  He began this role in 2013 and is responsible for major donor fundraising and affairs of the board.

Tony has also recently established an after school programme in China, with another Study Links and Ackworth School Alumni -Joe Zhou. The programme focuses on critical thinking and ‘out of the box’ thinking. We look forward to learning more about this programme in future.

For more information on OFund please go on to http://www.ofund.org.cn