Changemaker Community Series: Book Swap with Women Changemakers

A safe place for women changemakers (and aspiring women changemakers) to meet one another;

A small-scale gathering where you can actually have intentional conversations with everyone;

A community you show up and participate equally as an agent of change;

A space to exchange stories and find inspirations to bring collective impact;

A tribe you can come back to every month as your support network and build authentic friendship.

This is what this gathering is about. For women changemakers.

On Oct 25 evening, we will have a book swap gathering with our cohosts, three women changemakers and powerhouses from Don’t Throw Me, Barbara Engo-Aranha, Erin Kim, and Andrea Springmann. Don’t Throw Me (DTM) is a green technology business that operates an online marketplace to buy, sell, swap and donate second-hand household products (including books!). We are inviting you to bring a book that inspired or nudged you for a change, and swap this book for another that inspired another woman changemaker in the gathering. It can be non-fiction, novel, poem, essays, memoir, or any book type. Let’s exchange some books, some thoughts, some ideas, over a happy-hour drink at ESG Innovation Lab.

“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you.” - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

What is this Changemaker Community Series about?

The idea of the changemaker gathering series started when Dorothy (Dream Impact) and Carmen (Girls Be Change) met last year, questioning and envisioning what an ideal community is and why we need to gather (so desperately). We need a safe place among women changemakers to have organic meetups, intentional conversations and idea exchange with social ease, find inspirations and encouragement from each other, and build authentic friendships and support networks. It is a gathering where everyone shows up as an equal participant, questioning and chatting. No panel. No presentation. No speech. Just intentional conversations.

This gathering is open only to women changemakers (and aspiring women changemakers).

Fee: Free for ESG Innovation Lab Members or Dream Impact Resident Partner/ HKD50 for Dream Impact Non-resident Parnters/ HKD100 for non-members

Ticket includes: Entry to the event, alcoholic & non-alcoholic refreshment

Language: English

Tickets are non-refundable.

Organizer:

Carmen Chan | Girls Be Change

Carmen is a people-driven entrepreneur. Since the age of 25, she has been running her own ventures, including her namesake jewelry brand, Carmen Chan Jewelry; creative agency, Studio C; and lately, her new social business, Girls Be Change.

Carmen Chan Jewelry celebrates the beauty of imperfection through jewelry and accessory design. Carmen was awarded as the finalist of Lane Crawford Calling Out For the Next New 2015 and highlighted in Facebook #SheMeansBusiness in 2016. Studio C is a creative agency that provides public relations, marketing, and design services with clients from a variety of backgrounds, including Taylor Swift, Marriott International, Hang Lung Properties, Hong Kong Design Centre, Affordable Art Fair, The University of Hong Kong and more.

Girls Be Change is a social business that enables and empowers girls and women to be changemakers and explorers of their worlds. Carmen spent years understanding the pain points and struggles of underserved women and refugees from East Africa and Southeast Asia, and finally decided to transform her expertise in problem solving throughout her journey of entrepreneurship into this new venture with the goal to eradicate gender inequality collectively.

LinkedIn

Co-host:

Barbara Engo-Aranha | Don't Throw Me

Barbara was born in Cameroon and relocated with her family to New York, where she completed her education and earned an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. Her diverse Operations background spans roles at Tiffany & Co, I/B/E/S, Thomson Financial (REFINITIV) and Goldman Sachs. Her professional experience includes managing global research operations and research data strategies in US, Europe and Asia, overseeing Divisional Risk Programmes across Asia.

Outside of the business world, she co-founded African Action on AIDS, a nonprofit that focuses on the education and health of young people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

DTM is a culmination of Barbara’s technical know-how and personal drive to give back to the community. At its core, DTM is about streamlined resource-sharing that minimises waste by diverting unwanted products to those who can still find a use for them. As part of this initiative, the DTM network not only unites shoppers but also charities and donors. Barbara’s vision for the company is to make it the go-to platform for people to share and swap items and insights, while turning a healthy profit to support its growing team. She is confident that by disrupting the highly wasteful traditional retail model through its partnership-focused model, DTM can push forward greater sustainability while also revolutionising how we interact with nonprofits and serve communities in need.

Barbara has lived in Hong Kong with her family for the last 15 years.

LinkedIn

Erin Kim | Don't Throw Me

Erin is a trained fashion designer from Parsons School of Design in New York who has worked for brands like Helmut Lang and Club Monaco and has led her own luxe lifestyle brand, Airess, for over 15 years. Airess is focused on chic essentials that transcend seasonal trends, her design philosophy emphasizes timeless beauty and craftsmanship. Passionate about combating throwaway culture, Erin co-founded Don’t Throw Me to empower/inspire people to take part in a more sustainable way of life.

Combining creativity with practicality, Erin shows accessible ways to adopt sustainable lifestyles, emphasizing adaptability through imaginative upcycling and resource-swapping. Her nomadic upbringing, as the daughter of a South Korean diplomat, cultivated a global outlook and an instinct for adaptation.

DTM is another step in Erin's mission to promote producer responsibility and sustainable practices. By leveraging her extensive network, she fosters a community focused on swapping, repairing, and restyling goods instead of discarding them. An avid second-hand shopper and upcycler, Erin applies a no-waste approach to her wardrobe as well as her home. Through DTM, she aims to shift attitudes towards pre-loved goods and promote stylish, sustainable living.

LinkedIn

Andrea Springmann | Don't Throw Me

With over two decades of experience in tourism management, Andrea is an expert in uniting stakeholders and local communities to elevate destinations for both residents and tourists. As one of the co-founders of DTM, she is motivated by a profound vision of large-scale empowerment and transformative impact. In an era marked by urgent challenges such as resource exploitation, waste, and climate change, Andrea passionately advocates for collective responsibility in protecting our destinations—action is essential, and it starts with us.

Growing up in a quaint village on a wine estate in Germany's Black Forest, she developed a lifelong love for the natural world. After earning her Master’s in Tourism Management from the University of Chambéry in France, she specialised in eco-tourism and natural area management, forging robust networks among local producers, businesses, and conservation organisations to promote sustainable tourism.

Andrea’s journey didn’t stop there; she has excelled as a communicator, networker, and consultant on various sustainability tourism projects. Concurrently, she has dedicated herself to education, lecturing on tourism management and sustainability at institutions like the City University of Hong Kong. In 2019, she furthered her expertise with an ESG degree from HKU Space College of Business and Finance, solidifying her commitment to sustainable development.

She has been in Hong Kong for over 16 years with her husband and two kids.

LinkedIn

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About Girls Be Change

Girls Be Change is a social business that enables and empowers girls and women to be explorers and changemakers, through expeditions and community building.

About Dream Impact | ESG Innovation Lab

A driving force in building and growing Hong Kong’s impact ecosystem, Dream Impact is the largest network of social enterprise and impact ventures in Hong Kong, bridging resources for social startups to accelerate growth in both business and social impact.

ESG Innovation Lab serves as a bridge to close the gap between social enterprises, impact ventures and corporations to create intentional and measurable impact. Through Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) innovation, exploration, collaboration, and investment, we set out to change the landscape of corporate-social ESG solutions, from the bottom up.

About Don’t Throw Me

Don't Throw Me Limited (DTM) is a Hong Kong-based company, founded in 2020 by Barbara Engo-Aranha, Erin Kim, and Andrea Springmann. DTM is a Green Technology Business with a holistic solution that promotes sustainable consumption, waste reduction, community engagement, and corporate social responsibility in Hong Kong's circular economy.

DTM operates an online marketplace to buy, sell, swap, and swap & donate second-hand household products. DTM also offers a Fix Directory that features local artisans skilled in repairing and restyling pre-loved items. There is a Donate Page for local charities to broadcast their specific needs to the community; and for corporates and educational institutions, a suite of Sustainability, Action & Impact workshops.

www.donttthrowme.com

Host or Publisher ESG Innovation Lab, Girls Be Change