Our Centre for Refugees Pulls Off Another Great Event

Just last week, on June 25th, we held an event at PMQ in Central to showcase the bravery, resilience, culture, and hope of refugees. Our Centre for Refugees (CFR) staff, volunteers, refugees and asylum seekers performed and held henna, tinikling (bamboo dancing), African Djembe demonstrations and handicraft activities. Our goal was to engender a greater acceptance of Hong Kong’s refugee community and their culture.

I attended the event with Mr. Julian Walsh, Christian Action’s Chairman and we found many local people had gone out of their way to attend! They were very interested in our client’s stories and one of them told me that prior to this event he knew very little about refugees. Experiences like this remind me how vital CFR is to Hong Kong!

Christian Action was previously known as Hong Kong Christian Aid to Refugees (HKCAR). It was established in 1985 to help Vietnamese refugees - known as "boat people". By 1997 all of the boat people had either been repatriated to Vietnam or sent to resettlement countries throughout the world. Meanwhile refugees from around the globe have continued to seek refuge here.

Once again, in 2003 we founded Hong Kong’s first refugee service centre to assist with integration and promote community awareness and acceptance of Hong Kong’s refugees. Hong Kong had nothing like this at that time and today it is the biggest organization of its kind for refugees.

I hoped that through this event, we would learn more about the plight of these amazing men and women and influence Hong Kong residents’ views and I believe our entire Centre for Refugees team pulled it off! If you would like to donate and support our work please click here or visit their website www.cfr.org.hk.

Siew Mei