Fire! Fire!

August 29 was a sad day for us. Our Christian Action Centre for Refugees (CFR) on the 17th floor at Chungking Mansions was engulfed in flames. Thankfully no one was hurt. But one week later, despite our best efforts to clean the office and resume serving the refugees, the walls and ceilings were still black, electronics were down and I could still smell burned plastic.

Kalyan Rai, our caseworker at the CFR, did an excellent and heroic job saving others from the fire. He was the only staff member on duty at the time. He said, “Within five minutes of turning on the air-con, I looked up and saw flames coming out from underneath it. The office was filling with dense black smoke and the smell of burned plastic. I hardly had time to think! I left the office, knocked on the neighbours’ doors, and told them about the fire. There was a language barrier, but they understood when they saw the fire extinguisher I was holding.” Thank you, Kalyan!

The CFR has been a safe place for refugees since 2003. Many of them rely on us for food, daily necessities, education, medical referrals, counseling, and loving friendship. For many refugees and asylum seekers, we are their only family in a foreign city.

To help get the Centre for Refugees resume it's services we’ve started the Rebuilding CFR campaign. When you give it helps toward rebuilding the one-third of the Centre that was burned down. It also funds the replacement of the remaining old and potentially dangerous electrical wiring and structures in the other two-thirds of the Centre. Click here to donate. Thank you!