Daily Archives: February 7, 2013
Oxfam Lai See donation campaign
Posted by Peter MUIR
This year DC is joining the Oxfam Lai See donation campaign. Please consider making a voluntary Lai See donation during Chinese New Year to share blessings with disadvantaged people in the region. Oxfam Hong Kong will use the funds raised from this campaign to continue their efforts in providing the basic necessities and improving the livelihood of disadvantaged people in China. 13-year-old Yang Song is one such individual that Oxfam has supported. Here is his story:
Yang Song, 13, and many of his neighbours in the village of Mawo, Guizhou, used to spend at least two hours a day to collect water for their home and their crops. They walked seven kilometres each way. Water is heavy, and Song sometimes stumbled with a full bucket, but he is strong for his age. He also walks over a hill every day to get to school, and also walks back and forth at lunchtime for the noon meal. Song’s whole family work hard. Their land is so rocky and eroded that their harvests tend to be a third of what they are elsewhere. Their last harvest only provided food for six months and they had to borrow money to buy the missing food for the other half of the year. In 2011, Oxfam and a local partner in Guizhou began an environmental and sustainable livelihood programme in Mawo. The initiative includes supporting the building of water storage tanks – four large ones for community use, and a smaller one for each family – plus agricultural training, seedlings and tools. Song’s family now has water right near their door, and is expecting a better harvest next season. Now that Song no longer has to collect water far away, he has more time to devote to his studies. His parents hope he can go to university someday. They all hope for a live without poverty.
Many people in Mainland China do not have a sustainable water supply. Your donation will enable people like Song and his family to have access to water and a better livelihood.
Needed – Organisers for the DC ORBIS Blindfold Lunch
Posted by Peter MUIR
DC is hoping to this year host an ORBIS Blindfold Lunch, and is looking for astudents to organize it. To be held before May 2013, the event will involve our some of our primary students experiencing what it is like to eat food they can’t see. The event aims to increase participant’s understanding of the difficulties facing millions of preventably blind people worldwide and why they need to safeguard their own eyesight.
Last year over 3,000 students across Hong Kong participated in the event, raising their own awareness as well as over HK$120,000 for the sight saving work of ORBIS.
The DC student organisers would be involved in planning and running all aspects of the event. Resources will be available form ORBIS to assist event preparations. This is open to students in Years 9-12. Ask Mr Muir for more details on how you can be involved. Otherwise click here to sign up today, or sign up on the DC Community Engagement sign up page.
