Hello! This is Morris Ho from Hong Kong Branch.

In East and Southeast Asian cultures, Red Packet is a monetary gift given during holidays such as Lunar New Year or for special occasions such as a wedding, or the birth of a baby. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is a symbol to ward off evil spirits. Although Red Packets were popularised by Chinese traditions, other cultures also share similar traditional customs.

During Lunar New Year, Red Packets are usually given out to the younger generation who are normally still in school or unmarried, most of whom are children. They are also given in workplace from a person of authority (supervisors or owner of the business) out of his own fund to employees as a token of good fortune for the upcoming year.

Same as many financial institutions in Hong Kong, SMTB Hong Kong Branch would distribute the envelope of Red Packets with our branch logo printed at the back to our dearest customers. Instead of making at printing company, SMTB Hong Kong Branch engaged with The Salvation Army as a partnership for their red packet design and printing service, with a printed message “In Support of The Salvation Army”. It contributes to the 17^th goal of SDGs, “Partnerships for the Goals”, to support The Salvation Army’s all kinds of programme for every person, of every age, in every country, that in need.

The Salvation Army is an international charitable organisation. It brings salvation to the poor, destitute, and hungry by meeting their “physical and spiritual needs”. It presents in 132 countries, running charity shops, operating shelters for homeless and disaster relief, and humanitarian aid to developing countries.

(For reference: Global website of The Salvation Army: https://www.salvationarmy.org)

Besides, heading to year 2022, Hong Kong has been facing the fifth wave of the COVID pandemic, which is the most serious wave since 2020.

Under that situation, Social Value Committee of Hong Kong Branch created a new two-slide screensaver, launched in mid of March. The first slide includes the message of Social Value and Well-being, connecting to both the Branch growth and the staff growth; and the second slide is a heart-shaped photo album, designed by Olivia Keung and Rick Leung (both are from Business Promotion Department).

Through this photo album, we hope that we can have a year-end review on all the happy and memorable moments we had through different kinds of Social Value Committee activities in the past year; and look forward to overcoming the pandemic soon, and have more events together with the Social Value and Well-being Committee in fiscal year 2022.