Creating New Memories

Starting anew may be difficult at times, but it also creates meaningful memories. Ever since we moved in May to the new headquarters at Choi Wan Estate, we have been busy with many activities. I want to share one significant development with you.

I believe that it's important to keep a part of the past as we move forward. As you know, we had an interesting and historical mural in our old headquarters at the New Horizons Building. The mural, titled, "Learn Today, Help Your Tomorrow," was painted by a North Vietnamese refugee back in the 80s. It not only encouraged Vietnamese children, but also inspired me to continue our hard work for the future of those we serve. So for our new headquarters, we invited local artists to repaint the mural along with former Vietnamese refugees, and the service users from our Centre for Refugees (CFR) at Chungking Mansions.

The repainted mural features new elements symbolising how CA, once a small agency for Vietnamese refugees, has branched out. The new mural features two women holding out a heart. It symbolises our love as we continue to serve the unserved. We also wanted to show people from different backgrounds who we serve. Everyone had a wonderful time painting the new mural. We were doing exactly what we hope to achieve, which is to embrace our diversified community, as people from different backgrounds work harmoniously together.

I particularly appreciated the presence of the fashion and textile designer, Nathan, one of our service users from CFR. Nathan came to Hong Kong with his family in 2015. They initially found it difficult, but when they approached CA, we helped to provide them with their basic necessities. When we found out about Nathan's passion for art and designing, we made sure that he had all the materials needed to further his craft, and we invited him to join the mural painting project. He was very excited as this was his first-ever mural-painting experience!

The past few months have been tiring, but we know that our new mural will now reflect the good work we are doing in this latest chapter of our journey. We are now even more fired-up to fulfil our mission of serving those in need. We are excited about officially opening our new home! I hope you will continue to pray for us in this new chapter. God bless you!