From War to a Cause

The world watched helplessly when thousands of refugees recently fled war zones in the Middle-East. At an age when 15-year-old girls are often chasing boys, Jocelyn began to chase a dream. There had to be a way she and her classmates could help those refugees.

After Jocelyn and her class visited a refugee centre in New York City, she began to research the refugee situation at home, in Hong Kong. And she discovered that the only drop-in centre for refugees in our city is in Christian Action's Chungking Mansions Centre.

After asking lots of questions about opportunities to get involved, she was challenged by Justin Murgai, our Centre-in-Charge, to connect her passion for running with her desire to do something for refugees.

From that starting line, she contacted former classmates, Tobias and Chris, from Christian Alliance International School (CAIS), and found that they too had been impacted by the refugee situation. They began to brainstorm and came up with 'Run for a Cause' - a charity run to raise funds for Christian Action's Centre for Refugees.

They organised the fundraiser and promoted it on a public event platform where interest grew among friends and family. When the event took place on 16 July, at least 27 people were involved - 19 of those were runners who paid an entry fee to participate in either a 2km or 4km race... in the summer heat!

The team raised more than HK$5,000 in support of refugees who use our services. The team was surprised to discover that they had raised enough to send a refugee child to school for a whole year - or provide 500 meals at our centre!!

Now that she's had a practice run, Jocelyn would love to do it all over again on a much larger scale! They all want to share this message: "There are reasons why refugees must leave home and find a safe haven. They have not come to rob us of our benefits, but we can all have enough if we share with one another." Oh, that we would all have that heart!