Hello! This is Morris Ho from Hong Kong Branch.

Since the establishment of Social Value Committee (SVC; former name of Social Value and Well-being Committee (SVWC)) in 2020, we have organized different kinds of activities related to donation and recycling. Firstly, we have added the recycling bin for the plastic bottle and aluminum cans at our pantries. Besides, we have organized food donation, keyboard and mouse donation, clothing recycling, new year red packet recycling, etc. No matter donation or recycling, we believe that it is important to make good use of the existing resources that we have, to help others, at the same time, to reduce waste of the earth.

In April, there was donation activity organized by SVWC, that is a face mask donation to Caritas Hong Kong (“Caritas”). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, HK Branch purchased boxes of face mask to protect our staff’s health. Nowadays, we are at the stage of post COVID-19 era and at the situation of new normal, wearing face mask is no longer a mandatory measure in the public area. But still, there were some unused stock of face masks left in our office.

After our discussion with the branch management, to dedicate and commit to our corporate social responsibility, we decided to donate our face masks for charity purpose. We have sourced a charitable organization, Caritas. Most of the Hong Kong people should be familiar with this organization as they have been established in Hong Kong for almost 70 years. Caritas would collect the face masks donation and distribute to those people who are working in the cleaning service industry, as their work environment is under a comparatively higher risk of bacteria and virus.

Apart from our unused stock at the office, it is grateful to know that many of our staff have also given out their own unused boxes of face masks for this donation activity.

Caritas is a charitable organization founded in 1953. The primary purpose of its establishment was to offer relief and rehabilitation services to the poor and the distressed, with the aim of addressing some of the social hardships and inequalities in Hong Kong. It is committed to a united world without poverty, societies without divisions, equality among communities and a civilization of love and solidarity.

Caritas now turns to a multi-service non-governmental organization rendering help to different sectors of the community in response to Hong Kong’s changing needs. The wide-ranging services provided by Caritas include social work services, education, medical care, community development and hospitality, etc.

We believe our donations will definitely help the people with needs, and we would say we are more blessed to give than to receive.