I arrived before dawn in Wuhu, Anhui. The city, although the most prosperous in Anhui, isn’t serviced by an airport, so I made the 1000km trip from Hubei Province by overnight train.

Anhui Province, in eastern China, is the region where Pacific Environment’s partner Green Anhui works. They’re programs stretch from the north, where they work on the Huai River, to the south, where they’ve just launched a program on environmental health from their new Wuhu office.

I’m here, not only to meet with Green Anhui, but to facilitate a water pollution network meeting. Green Anhui is one of a dozen groups that Pacific Environment works with to address water pollution in China. This is the third time we’ve brought together this network for two days of sharing ideas, developing strategies and building stronger partnerships. We’ve worked ahead of time with Green Anhui to develop an agenda and invite our partners; all told, over 20 participants have traveled from across China for the meeting.

The first day, our main meeting day, each group gave presentations about their work, using power-point to outline their programs and showed pictures and maps. After lunch, we dove into deeper discussions on what people’s biggest challenges were, if we can develop shared strategies, and how Pacific Environment can be a more effective partner.

On the second day, we took a field trip into the rural regions of southern Anhui to Peach Blossom, the home of a famous Chinese poet; and the military base of the 11th Infantry Army and the site of the Anhui Incident. Ultimately, this day was an equally as important part of the meeting. It helped solidify relationships and it gave people the space to talk informally and feel a little more “at ease” and connected in their work. This is crucial since many of our partners work independently.

Finally, it was encouraging to be somewhere beautiful where people freely swam in the clear waters and walked barefoot in the grass. I think this gave us all hope.