The mission of the Dutch Wavemakers (DWM) is to create awareness on the effects of climate change worldwide. The Wavemakers program is very successful in The Netherlands with support of students, top athletes, the government and corporates. Now they want to make the step to China to promote the unique Wavemakers campaign and 98 Sparks is there to support them.
98 Sparks believes that through our knowledge of water, our network and experience in China and our focus on empowering youth and talent we can add value to the DWM program.
98 Sparks and DWM share common goals such as:
- creating public awareness around global water challenges
- empower water innovations
- knowledge sharing
- mobilizing human capital for the water industry
98 Sparks will support DWM in there first steps in China. We are are very thrilled that one of those steps was to connect DWM to Jiachao Wang and he became the first Chinese Wavemaker, Jiachao Wang is a one-armed Chinese swimmer who won gold in the 4×100 relay race and 2 silver medals at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.
Gijs de Bruin, 98 Sparks’s Co-founder commented, “ our goal is to create 98 “sparks”, being successful ventures, entrepreneurs and other initiatives generating positive impact on the world we live. We very much support initiatives where we can use our expertise, resources and network to empower those sparks. We will use our 20 years’ experience in China as entrepreneurs, and the expertise & recourses of our daughter companies PureTerra Ventures (impact investment firm in disruptive water technologies) and CHC Expo (organizer of WieTec/Aquatech China), to support the Dutch Wavemakers campaign in China.”
98 Sparks and the Dutch Wavemakers also share a common believe in the power of sport. Gijs stated : “The partnership with Jiachao and the kind of athlete he is perfectly represents the 98 Sparks core values to empower talent, spark innovation and driven by challenges. His persistence, dedication, and drive are the kinds of attributes we look for in all of our partners. We are very excited to support Jiachao and can’t wait to see what he does in Tokyo.”
