A young Hong Kong widow, struggling to manage after losing her husband to cancer, told us she desperately longed to find a piano for her talented young son. A devoted mother, she had organised piano lessons, subsidised at a cheap rate, and bought him a little battery operated keyboard. “He plays it like he’s addicted to it!” she told us. Clearly, though, as he learned more, it could not support his need to practise. We don’t always have pianos in stock. The day before her visit, however, a piano had, as it happens, been donated to us. The timing was superb.

That’s one of the things we love about this work. Even a single donation, rightly placed, can be instrumental in another’s life. In this case, a young boy may see his talent flourish in ways that would otherwise be outside his reach.

Hope after incarceration: Zambia

“I was doing Grade 7 when my father was sentenced to life imprisonment,” recounts Bodiao. “Life came to a standstill as...

read more ...

Liberia: Youth empowerment

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? Liberia as a nation is still suffering deep social and economic wounds from a civil war that ended...

read more ...

Syria: Aid and empowerment for refugees

Shipment Feedback: The conflict in Syria continues to devastate lives and communities, with thousands of people still displaced and living in flimsy...

read more ...

Cameroon: Educating and rebuilding

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? When we first started working with our Cameroonian partners in 2010, they were planning and working on...

read more ...

It might not look like a treasure chest. But the 40 foot shipping container outside the only school in Kamwokya slum is filled with valuables that are changing Ugandan futures, one child at a time. Children in the densely packed, dangerous Kamwokya slum once had nowhere to go to school, while their parents went to work in surrounding neighbourhoods. Now, this school is a beacon of hope, educating 2,000 pupils, not just in academic subjects but in life skills, job training and children’s rights.

FABBAs container provides valuable storage space at Ugandan slum school ...

They struggle with very few resources, though. We responded with the shipment sent by Fund Managers, Asian Bankers and Brokers Awards (FABBAs). As a result, the school library in Kamwokya is now filled with text books, the boys’ soccer team wears uniforms, the students sit at new desks and chairs, and some of the poorest students, who previously slept on the floor, now have soft new mattresses and warm blankets. All have a new zeal to attend school each day.

 

It’s FABBAs – our largest single donor in 13 years – who made this possible. At their 2013 banquet, FABBAs raised a staggering HK$1.5 million for Crossroads’ operations and international shipments.

Give Now!

Donate to a shipment like this one.

DONATE MONEY

Donate Goods!

Want to donate goods for a shipment like this one?

DONATE GOODS

Uganda Snapshot

Population: 37.58 million
Capital: Kampala

Uganda is a fertile, land-locked country in East Africa, in the Africa Great Lakes region, with a tropical climate.

Great progress has been made in fighting HIV in Uganda, but 1.5 million people still live with the disease, and there are 1 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

39% of girls are married by the age of 18. 37.7% of people in Uganda live below the international poverty line of US$1.25/day.

A6

Hope after incarceration: Zambia

“I was doing Grade 7 when my father was sentenced to life imprisonment,” recounts Bodiao. “Life came to a standstill as...

read more ...

Liberia: Youth empowerment

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? Liberia as a nation is still suffering deep social and economic wounds from a civil war that ended...

read more ...

Syria: Aid and empowerment for refugees

Shipment Feedback: The conflict in Syria continues to devastate lives and communities, with thousands of people still displaced and living in flimsy...

read more ...

Cameroon: Educating and rebuilding

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? When we first started working with our Cameroonian partners in 2010, they were planning and working on...

read more ...

Unilever's global supply chain managers took part in the Struggle for Survival x-perience.

Unilever’s global supply chain heads make and sell paper bags to ‘survive’ life in the slum.

Unilever’s global supply chain heads became ‘slum dwellers’ for a morning when they took part in our Struggle for Survival x-perience in London in May.

A team from Global X-perience in Hong Kong and Global Hand UK threw the Unilever staff into their new roles as impoverished families in a slum, desperately trying to keep themselves alive by making and selling paper bags, escaping loan sharks, disease and other perils.

After the fast-paced simulation, the participants, in small groups, were tasked with coming up with solutions that would help Unilever care better for the communities they work in and source from.

Staff discussed how Unilever can better care for and work with the communities where their goods are manufactured.

Staff discussed how Unilever can better care for and work with the communities where their goods are manufactured.

The event kicked off an international meeting for the supply chain heads. They  were already scheduled to meet when Unilever’s chief supply chain officer was so moved by Crossroads’ Struggle for Survival X-perience at the World Economic Forum in January that he invited our team to run it for his staff at this gathering in May.

“It had such an impact on me even within a 90 minute session,” said one of the staff after the simulation. “It generated loads of empathy, ideas and positive action,” commented another.

Would you like your company, club or organisation to do one of our x-periences? We’d love to talk about how we might work together! Email partnerships@crossroads.org.hk

Hope after incarceration: Zambia

“I was doing Grade 7 when my father was sentenced to life imprisonment,” recounts Bodiao. “Life came to a standstill as...

read more ...

Liberia: Youth empowerment

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? Liberia as a nation is still suffering deep social and economic wounds from a civil war that ended...

read more ...

Syria: Aid and empowerment for refugees

Shipment Feedback: The conflict in Syria continues to devastate lives and communities, with thousands of people still displaced and living in flimsy...

read more ...

Cameroon: Educating and rebuilding

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? When we first started working with our Cameroonian partners in 2010, they were planning and working on...

read more ...

Fiji village schoolchildren are ready to learn but struggle with few resources.

Fiji village schoolchildren are ready to learn but struggle with few resources.

Behind the perfect beaches and five star resorts, much of Fiji’s rural population lives in poverty, with many unable to meet the basic needs of their families. Village life can be idyllic, but people here, like anywhere, want to see their children able to learn, thrive and stay in school.

One Hong Kong school in Shatin has been working with a community in Fiji for some years to revitalise and refurbish their local school, to help more children stay in school longer.

Crossroads' shipment includes more than 100 school desks to help upgrade classrooms.

Crossroads’ shipment includes more than 100 school desks to help upgrade classrooms.

“Parents there want their children to succeed and get into high school,” said the project’s coordinator, a teacher at the Shatin school, but, he said, the ageing buildings and lack of resources place the children at a constant disadvantage. Only one school building has electricity, there are very few books, or basic supplies such as chalk and they don’t have enough school furniture to cater for all their students. “Half of the classes are held on the floor,” the teacher said.

Crossroads is shipping bathroom fittings like basins and toilet bowls to upgrade school facilities.

Basins, toilet bowls and other bathroom fittings from Hong Kong will upgrade school facilities.

Teams from the school have visited Fiji as part of their community service curriculum and have helped to renovate and refurbish parts of the school, but there were supplies and equipment that they didn’t have, which they knew could make an even greater difference. They asked Crossroads to help put together a container of goods, and, joyfully, the Hong Kong teachers themselves came to Crossroads to load the shipment! It is, however, the community members in Fiji themselves who are the greatest drive behind the school’s revitalisation. “Despite everything, these are the happiest people you will ever meet,” staff wrote.  “All four villages around the school are so excited about the container and fixing the school up.”

We’re thankful to the school for making this shipment happen, and to countless other schools around Hong Kong who’ve been equally generous with their hands, hearts and pockets, partnering on other shipments. If your school would like to work with Crossroads on an international shipment, or on a project right here in Hong Kong, we’d love to talk. Email partnerships@crossroads.org.hk

Give Now!

Donate to a shipment like this one.

DONATE MONEY

Donate Goods!

Want to donate goods for a shipment like this one?

DONATE GOODS

Fiji Snapshot

Population: around 850,000
Capital: Suva
Population living below the national poverty line of US$3.3 per day: 45%

Compared to its neighbours, Fiji is relatively well developed, though it is the 61st poorest country in the world, comparable with the Philippines.

Fiji consists of 332 islands, of which 110 are inhabited.

Fiji’s main island is known as Viti Levu and it is from this that the name “Fiji” is derived.

S3906 Fiji Project Profile_EDITED-11

Hope after incarceration: Zambia

“I was doing Grade 7 when my father was sentenced to life imprisonment,” recounts Bodiao. “Life came to a standstill as...

read more ...

Liberia: Youth empowerment

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? Liberia as a nation is still suffering deep social and economic wounds from a civil war that ended...

read more ...

Syria: Aid and empowerment for refugees

Shipment Feedback: The conflict in Syria continues to devastate lives and communities, with thousands of people still displaced and living in flimsy...

read more ...

Cameroon: Educating and rebuilding

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? When we first started working with our Cameroonian partners in 2010, they were planning and working on...

read more ...