Category: Taking Action

Run for the Poor

Written by Clara Chiu (Head of Partnership Development) I know Queenie through a marathon event. This year, CEDAR has participated in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2024 ‘Marathon Charity Programme’ and obtained 50 quotas for the ‘10 km race (Non-Challenge Group)’. We invited our donors and friends to participate and donate to CEDAR to support local and Afghanistan children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and their families. Queenie is one of the participants. She learned about this event through her colleague and immediately signed up when her colleague asked for participants. Looking at her slender figure, I initially thought she was a regular joiner in running competitions. However, she said she seldom runs because she prefers playing

Sharing on the Exposure Trip of Ethnic Minorities Church Life Experience in Northern Thailand

Written by Gloria Cheung (Senior Communications Officer) Contact with life has the most transformative power to change hearts. Last October, two colleagues from CEDAR joined eight pastors and members from Light Church on a journey to Northern Thailand. They embarked on an eight-day, seven-night ‘Exposure Trip of Ethnic Minorities Church Life Experience in Northern Thailand’ and visited four partners from churches representing different minority ethnic groups. These partners, each in their unique way, demonstrate the love of Christ by being the salt and light in their communities. The first destination of the journey was a visit to CEDAR’s partner Immanuel Foundation (IMF). IMF is dedicated to combatting human trafficking, providing essentials such as shelter, food and legal support

A Step of the ‘Love Your Neighbor’ Command

Written by Ken Wong (Communications Officer) The ‘Barefoot Walk’ is an activity that allows participants to experience the situation of poverty. Before the participants start walking, the staff of CEDAR Fund will first clean up the walking route, hoping that participants can experience the feeling of poverty through the ‘barefoot’ experience in a safe environment, thereby establishing a connection with the poor. In 2019, a volunteer named Brother Adolphus Yuen participated in the ‘Barefoot Walk’ for the first time and helped with crowd management on the day of the event. He was willing to volunteer, devoted his time, and donated money to sponsor participants joining the ‘Barefoot Walk’. When asked why he was willing to give both money

Creative Mindset in the Combat Against Poverty

Interviewee: Professor Chau Ying Editor: Ness Ma (Communications Officer) SIGHT (Student Innovation for Global Health Technology) is a platform in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) where students try to conceive of and implement solutions for a variety of medical issues in resource-deprived areas. Professor CHAU Ying is the project director who also teaches in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of the HKUST. She could have stayed in school to teach and do research like the others, but she would rather take her students to the field, into the slums and mountains of poor countries, and serve the locals with science, skills, and creativity. Why did she take this path? Photo from SIGHT

Happiness is Caring for Creations

Written by Ness Ma (Communications Officer) Caring for the created world is a significant and complex issue. We may have lost hope and motivation because of living in the Apocalypse. Nonetheless, our Chief Executive, Dr. Chan Pui Si, shared the encouragement and acknowledgement of her poverty alleviation and environmental protection work in an online talk, ‘Caring for the Created World in the Apocalypse Regardless of Success or Failure’, on 6 January evening. Pui Si noted that disasters happen every day and around us, and the difference is whether they are in front of us, in the news report, or not even reported. She exemplified the floods and droughts in India last year that anthropogenic climate change certainly plays

My Plastic Reduction Action – after the CEDAR’s Exposure Trip 2018

Banner Image: Sarah Hong (far right) Written by: Sarah Hong (Participant of CEDAR’s Exposure Trip 2018) The world God first-created was in a stable and balanced peaceful condition, which illustrated Shalom. He gave us the responsibility to manage the land. Yet, we failed our task, destroyed the land and its eco-system and caused a lot of problems, such as climate change. I joined the CEDAR’s exposure trip to Thai-Burmese border and rural northern Thailand in December last year. During the trip, my companions and I visited UHDP [1], CEDAR’s partner. UHDP understood God’s heart for reconciling relationships between human and other aspects, including the nature. Therefore, they adopted an agricultural principle that can sustain development, protect the nature and reconcile

The Love between a Grandmother and a Granddaughter

Banner image: Angela (second from the left), Kimberly (centre) and her grandmother Written by: Jady Sit (Communications Officer) “Snap!” A colourful image emerged slowly from the blur in an instant photo. A grandmother from an impoverished village in Zimbabwe saw herself and her granddaughter, Kimberly, in the picture and broke into a smile, which was rarely seen on her face. Suffering from AIDS, Kimberly was physically disabled. She was unable to speak or sit up, and had been abandoned by her mother when she was 3 years old. Since then, she had been cared for by her grandmother, who sold vegetables in front of their hut. Owing to her disability, Kimberly was sick very often. Since she did

When Poverty Becomes a Sin

Banner image: The author (far right) and other trippers visited ethnic minorities in northern Thailand Written by: Janice Cheng (participant of CEDAR’s exposure trip in 2018; church pastor) In December last year, I went to the Thai-Myanmar border with CEDAR to learn about their poverty alleviation projects in the area. The 8-day trip enabled me to understand more about the region. We visited some villages with CEDAR’s local partners and spoke to various individuals during our time there. The residents are mostly ethnic minority groups from the mountainous areas, and they all have their own predicaments to overcome. There are abandoned single mothers and minority groups who have been relocated to the border area in northern Thailand due

A Story of the $100-Red-Packet

Written by: Edward Lai “This year, will you be willing to donate your red packet money to the underprivileged people in other countries? “ “Yes, of course!” Fung Tin-lam answered confidently. Ting-lam, a third-grader, is like any Hong Kong boy we know. His daily routine includes school, homework, and playing his favorite toys before dinner. His life and his world, never overlap with those who live in developing countries away from Hong Kong. Even though Tin-lam has never met them, he has determined to save up part of his red packet money to share with them. 100 dollars may not be much to a lot of people; but to Tin-lam, it is a significant amount for a new toy

‘Let’s Go Barefoot, NOW!’

Written by: Ethel Sha (Participant of CEDAR Barefoot Walk 2017) A year ago, the chief executive of CEDAR commenced the event by sending out this command. Everybody in the hall took off their shoes and got ready to step out of their comfort zones to walk around Tseung Kwan O barefoot. Since then, I have never bared my feet to walk in the city, but to learn and be aware of the issue of human trafficking with a “barefoot” spirit. My memories of the Barefoot Walk last year are still vivid. From the moment I “applied” to work as a domestic helper overseas, to “being exploited” in labour, I discovered that I would lose power over my life