Get an insight into our work and browse through encouraging stories, successful matches and illustrative statistics.
Connecting people in a worldof need
WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING?
The NGO we are shipping to has worked closely with more than 20,000 prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families in Zambia. To prisoners, they give counsel and support, as well as meeting material needs.
Then, for those who are released, they help with advice, counsel, and small business loans to help people start afresh. Children and families of prisoners are often left deeply impoverished, and sometimes shunned themselves. Our partners care for their needs with clothes, blankets and other necessities, as well as financial help for schooling.
This is Crossroads’ second shipment to these partners. They are now building a “halfway house” where former prisoners can find training in agriculture, metal fabrication, electrical skills and tailoring. Our shipment will include goods to support this new project, supplies of goods for distribution, as well as administration of their programmes.
This shipment will include:
- Computers for their administration offices
- Clothing and household accessories for the ongoing work with children and families
Besinate’s Story
Besinate is one of the graduates of our partners’ training centre. She’s gone from being fully dependent on her parents to being self-employed, with ambitions to grow her tailoring business, specialising in women’s clothes and children’s school uniforms. She loves providing this service to her community while earning an income that can lift her out of poverty.
This shipment will include appliances, furniture and other goods to equip programmes like the training centre that helped Besinate and hundreds of others.
Distribution of toys, clothes, and shoes to children of prisoners and ex-prisoners living in poverty.
Life in a Zambian prison can be a dismal experience. Our partners offer counselling, advice, medical care and support to the prisoners themselves and to prisoners’ families. Often families lose their primary breadwinner when a father and husband is imprisoned.
Sponsor other shipments like this: We need HK$50,000 to send any of our waiting shipments on their way. For a list of exciting projects needing help, email partnerships@crossroads.org.hk
Give goods: Got goods to give? We can help your company or group find projects that need your quality superseded goods. Email partnerships@crossroads.org.hk
Volunteer: We need regular volunteers in a huge variety of roles across the work, from manual labour to administration and specific skilled roles. Visit www.crossroads.org.hk/home/connect/volunteer-2
Reference No: S1358D
Zambia snapshot
Population: 19.47 million (2021)
Capital: Lusaka
Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, with a sub-tropical climate. More than 61% (2015) of Zambia’s population earn less than the international poverty line of $2.15 per day.
Some parts of the world have lived with conflict for decades. Northern Uganda is one where the suffering is almost indescribable. For twenty years, it was devastated by the Lord’s Resistance Army. During that time, most of the population had to move into camps for safety. We visited those camps and were stunned. There was no education. No medical care. Little water and an unreliable food supply. Fast forward to today and the area now faces two huge problems. First, those in their twenties and thirties have had no education. How, then, can their community start over? Our partners on the ground, NGO Salt & Light Uganda, are deeply connected into their community and have walked the entire journey with it. They have little by way of resources, though, because, once the war was over, many NGOs left the area.
We have been able to see them set up with a series of training programmes for the young people, themselves now parents with families to support. These programmes are manageable for those with little or no education. They include catering, dress-making, car mechanics, carpentry, bee-keeping, ox and plough provision and broader care. They have also set up a school for today’s children. Additionally, the founder of Salt & Light Uganda, David Livingstone Okello, recently lost a two week old son because the local clinic had unreliable electricity, and, with support through Crossroads, has now seen a solar system established in that clinic to keep all machinery operating at all times.
A second problem now faces this beleaguered community, however. The massive fighting in its northern neighbour, South Sudan, is seeing refugees pouring over the border and needing to draw, also, on the very limited resources in the area. We recently sent 3000 solar lights to the refugee community there as power is a major problem.
Again, Crossroads, from Hong Kong, cannot reach directly to these people who have suffered so greatly, but we can help others help others.
Annual Reports
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None of us can forget the terrible earthquakes that shook Nepal in 2014. We, here in Hong Kong, could not ‘reach’ the victims, of course, but we could support those dealing with the crises on the spot. At first, we rushed rescue supplies by an airline (which is too modest to be named) that took three loads per week. During that time, Hong Kong’s generous community positively flooded us with disaster kits which they brought to our gates in massive numbers, day by day. It was wonderful. Later, some people donated money for reconstruction purposes. We have carefully metered that out over the years with a major partner in Nepal as it is undertaking an excellent programme. (One huge problem after disasters is that, before long, they get forgotten and people can struggle with the aftermath for, literally, decades.) The group in Nepal has two major goals: it is not only re-constructing needed homes, but is also training the local builders in ways that will help these houses be more resilient in case of future earthquakes: ‘Building back better’ as the saying has it. Additionally, they themselves can multiply their knowledge by training others. Again, all of this would be beyond our direct reach in Hong Kong. That is why we love to help others help others.
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This shipment was, surely, a gift that would keep on giving. A group in Ghana put labour and love into the building of a much needed medical clinic. Their resources were few, but they managed to get the construction completed and then wrote to us. What does it take to furnish a clinic? More than one might imagine but, happily, items that we typically receive from the generous Hong Kong community. Medical provision, of course: surgical items, hospital beds, crutches, and the like. As well, though, a clinic needs tables, chairs, computers, office furniture and equipment, catering supplies (stove, pots, pans, crockery, cutlery), clothing for the patients, toys for the children’s section and even extra touches such as pictures for the walls, curtains for the windows. Additionally, as the electricity supply is intermittent in their area, we sent a generator. This clinic was literally empty one week and, just seven days later, was open for service. It is just one more example, of many, where we help others help others.
Annual Reports
Get an insight into our work and browse through encouraging stories, successful matches and illustrative statistics. ...
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NGO St Stephen’s Society has, for decades, brought people with drug dependency back into fulfilling lives. They begin with the immediate withdrawal and then move to ‘half way homes’, apartments all over Hong Kong, which are staffed by people who help them re-enter normal lives. Crossroads began providing furniture for these homes soon after we started, in 1995. In 2015, we asked St Stephen’s how many of these homes we had furnished. They said, “We really couldn’t count them all, but you have supplied furniture for pretty well all of them!” As the saying has it, this has truly been a gift that has kept on giving! St Stephen’s has seen people not only freed from drug dependency, but go on to help others within Hong Kong and in other countries around the world. Our partnership with St Stephen’s has been a delight and is, again, proof that, while we may not be able to help people facing addiction ourselves, as we don’t have direct contact, we can help others help others.
Annual Reports
Get an insight into our work and browse through encouraging stories, successful matches and illustrative statistics. ...
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In South West China, mountains make it difficult for some to earn regular income. We routinely partner with the Chinese Relief and Development Foundation, an NGO helping disaster victims, people in medical need, the elderly, families struggling with poverty and ‘left behind children’ whose parents have moved long distances to other parts of China for employment, leaving the kids in the care of grandparents or institutions. With the constant drain on their resources, they have received donations of 1,694 pairs of shoes, 15,000 pieces of babies and children’s clothes, 15,466 pieces of adult clothing, along with a range of equipment and accessories. This group has networking throughout the local area and beyond: assisting people whom we, ourselves, could never reach. We help others help others.
Annual Reports
Get an insight into our work and browse through encouraging stories, successful matches and illustrative statistics. ...
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A young man in Cambodia, born into poverty, battled all odds to reach tertiary education. With that knowledge empowering his own life, he wanted to pass it on to others in his impoverished community. He started a school under a tree, the only resource available. We learned of his dedicated and excellent work and put together a shipment to equip a full school. Afterwards two of our team visited and saw the kids in uniforms, at desks, with text books, school equipment, sports equipment, a daily hot lunch cooked in the newly stocked kitchen and more. “Everything you see came from Crossroads” said the teacher. Now he can give the kids proper schooling and they can go on to pass it to the next generation. That school has now been operating for over a decade. All it took was a carefully tailored shipment to this man who was well placed to make a huge difference in his community. We help others help others.
Annual Reports
Get an insight into our work and browse through encouraging stories, successful matches and illustrative statistics. ...
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WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? In a slum on the outskirts of a South African city, a community group reached out to...
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Cyclone Idai has triggered a “massive disaster” in southern Africa affecting hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, the UN has said. The region has been hit by widespread flooding and devastation affecting Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi called it “a humanitarian disaster of great proportion”. The death toll is in the hundreds, with hundreds of thousands more affected, and cholera is starting to spread, thanks to compromised drinking water. There is an urgent need for aid.
Image: Climate Centre
What Crossroads is doing
April 2019: Zimbabwe Rugby Seven team helps deliver relief goods
As we prepare a full shipment, another small consignment of relief goods has already made it to Zimbabwe, carried by the mighty Zimbabwe Cheetahs Rugby Sevens team! The delegation (pictured below with Crossroads’ staff), who were in Hong Kong for the annual Sevens tournament, was generous enough to carry home with them 2,500 pairs of medical gloves and 100 mosquito nets, which have already been delivered to our partners on the ground, ready to help those affected by the cyclone and cholera epidemic.
June 2019: DHL offers pro bono shipment to Zimbabwe
Our second shipment of disaster relief goods has arrived in Zimbabwe, thanks to DHL. Crossroads worked closely with a trusted partner in Zimbabwe to prepare this second shipment of goods that included mosquito nets, shelter kits, medical supplies, blankets and clothing. We are very grateful for the support of DHL, who delivered the goods pro bono to help affected families. And a huge thank-you to everyone who has already donated towards our Disaster Fund.
How you can help
You can still give to help people rebuild and recover: If you would like to donate towards our disaster response to southern Africa, please use our Disaster Fund specify Cyclone Idai in the form there. Thank you for caring for those in need in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi!
Donate Now!
If you would like to donate towards our disaster response to southern Africa, please use our Disaster Fund specify Cyclone Idai in the form there.
Thank you for caring for those in need in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi!
Annual Reports
Get an insight into our work and browse through encouraging stories, successful matches and illustrative statistics. ...
South Africa: Investing more in slum communities
WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? In a slum on the outskirts of a South African city, a community group reached out to...
Sierra Leone: Investing in the nation's future
After the end of Sierra Leone’s extended civil war, a group of people who wanted to help the country rebuild decided...
Ukraine: The poor help those even poorer
Crossroads’ Ukrainian partner has, for many years, been working to bridge the gap between rapidly developing cities and rural communities that...
