Surely There Must Be Something We Can Do?

In early January 2022 Hong Kong experienced its fifth wave of COVID with the variant Omicron. The government imposed strict social distancing measures and the whole city was put on high alert. Unemployment, particularly among low income earners, soared.

I asked myself ‘surely there must be something we could do, to bless our service users over the Lunar New Year?’ Prompted by my friend, Kim Yeh, the idea of a Chinese New Year Blessings Bag came into my mind. It represents love, care and concern from the community to the underprivileged.

I immediately contacted friends, donors and corporations and invited them to help us make the blessings bags a reality and the response was overwhelming.

With in-kind donations from Celestial Asia Securities Holdings Limited, Pricerite Home Limited, Couverture by Multizen and with generous support from The Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club, the Yeh Family and our donors, I was happy that we could raise enough in donations to purchase over 1,300 Chinese New Year Blessings Bags filled with Chinese New Year Festive food.

In addition we partnered with a well-established local NGO by giving out 290 Blessings Bags to the street sleepers and poor whom they work with. Agent of Change, Lions Club of West Kowloon and the KY Wong Family also provided face masks. Lastly, Faith Comes By Hearing put a little QR card for those who need to obtain spiritual food from the audio bible.

Here are two feedback responses I would like to share with you:

Uncle Chin, a 71-year-old retired school bus driver lives with his wife in Kai Yip Estate. He said he was elated to receive a Blessing Bag as he could not afford any special festive items this year.

Mrs. Szeto lives with her family of 6 in a subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po and receives food from our Service Centre. Her daughter Hiu Ching has to walk 40 minutes to our Mongkok Food Centre for ‘After-school Child Care and Interest Classes’. When Hiu Ching took the Blessings Bag with her mother, she was so happy and kept saying “Thank you” for it. Her dream has come true for now her mother can cook mushrooms at the family reunion dinner, "Because we rarely eat mushrooms."

Even after this New Year Festive Season, I encourage you to continue to spread love, happiness and kindness to others, thinking of acts of kindness to complete each day and taking just one-step at a time. Do come and join hands with us to bless others!