NO GO GALA
Twelve months on and here we are again, with an invitation very like the one many of you received from us then. As it happens, this is our 25th anniversary, but we can’t help feeling, as we did last year, that a festive celebration would somehow be wrong with so many people in pain. Last year, that pain was in Hong Kong. This year, it is around the world. What an extraordinary year 2020 has been.
How are you during this pandemic?
Speaking of this pain, may we start by asking how you are? Our hearts go out to you if you have lost loved ones or if you are battling the illness yourself. Even if not, you may be impacted by Covid’s knock on effects: job loss, businesses at risk, educational challenges and more. We are so very sorry if this has been your experience.
How are we during this pandemic? Quick update.
We are feeling Covid’s impact, yes. Here’s how we’ve fared.
Normally, we offer four arms of service as we serve people in need. Two of those (our fair-trade marketplace/café and simulation x-periences) had to be largely closed during the worst of the pandemic in Hong Kong and are only partially open now. As it happens, those two usually generate part of our annual income so we have ‘felt’ that loss every week. Our two other arms, distributing aid to people in Hong Kong and internationally, never closed. (They don’t generate income, of course, though!) As well, general donations are down. So, short story, we have much less funding than normally.
Some have asked what Crossroads is doing during this time?
We are still:
- receiving donated goods.
- getting them to people in need within Hong Kong. (Our new app, GoodCity, kept our remote service going, even during Covid’s worst.)
- shipping humanitarian aid from Hong Kong to people in other countries, some with Covid challenges.
- Seeing humanitarian aid placed in other parts of the world, remotely, through our online service, Global Hand, www.globalhand.org.
While this work is continuing, albeit with limitations, this humanitarian aid does not generate income, and it ‘costs’ in many ways.
So, truth told, we’re battling. And general giving, for many NGOs including ours, has been lower during this Covid season. Funding is therefore down. Our labour resources are down too. Normally we have 6,000 volunteers a year but, this year, we’ve had just a handful, some months. We continue to serve, but, after this most unusual year, we’d treasure any help possible!
Our ‘event’ invitation: 25th Anniversary
We asked ourselves what this ‘event’ should look like, in 2020. Last year, as many of you know, we held a “No Go Gala”: one which nobody attends! We therefore wondered what we should do this year. We know, of course, that circumstances are now forcing everybody to hold online events. We felt, however, that a “No Go Gala” might be the ideal one to host again. As last year, we invite you to the event, and hope you might give the gift you would have given had we held a more formal event. Meanwhile, though, you relax at home. We won’t be seeking to invade your space with a conference call or a Zoom meeting. Please just put your feet up with your favourite glass or cup of something in hand. (And send us a photo, if you like.)
We’d love to place our needs before you. Before we do so, though, may we first say that if Covid has impacted you in ways that make it impossible for you to help, please know we understand. Feel free just to read about them but have no sense of obligation.
If you are in a place to help, though, here is where Covid has hit us.
- Support our Hong Kong aid distribution to families in need: HK$500
- Support a Hong Kong NGO: HK$5,000
- Sponsor a shipment of aid, particularly to locations struggling with Covid: HK$50,000. Getting shipments out the door has been hard with reduced funding and labour.
- “Where most needed.” We do love this phrase. It helps us meet life’s basics.
At this time of year, we typically need at least HK$3 million. This year it is closer to HK$4 million
WHEN? Our ‘gala date’ is December 20th, 2020. We would love your gift by then.
HOW? Click on donate now. Information on tax deductibility in various countries is here.
Despite the fact this year has brought monumental upheaval, our goal, as ever, is to continue serving people in need. We’d love your help.
Thank you for all the ways you have walked beside us as we have taken our 25 year journey. We could never have done this without you!
