HONG KONG (SE): “People getting the Chinese New Year gift bags may not believe in God. But it is not important, and we still need to make friends with them. When they know that many people care for them, and join some gatherings, they will gradually feel the love of God,” said Yuki Fung Kit-yu, coordinator of Footprint of Grace, a social media charity platform set up by laypeople. Together with Mercy HK, it distributed the gift bags on January 15.
Fung explained that this is the motto given to her by Oblate missionary Father John Wotherspoon, founder of Mercy HK. She said a constant friendship with the needy, built up with small gifts during festivals and gatherings, is more important. “What we worry about is that the needy may not know where to seek help even though many people around them are ready to give support,” she explained.
Around 150 Chinese New Year gift bags with traditional festive food and fruits were distributed by the two groups at the Mercy HK centre at Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei, to show care and concern for the needy, including the homeless, low-income families, old people living alone, asylum seekers and foreign domestic workers in the shelters run by Mercy HK.
Volunteers from the Doctor Jesus Centre and Mercy HK staff distributed coupons two weeks before the event. Those receiving the gift bags were already in close contact with the volunteers and often updated them about their lives. Some foreign domestic workers stayed to help with the distribution after receiving gift bags themselves.
Printed on the outside of the package were the words “peace and joy”. To help spread the message of the love of God, volunteers would say, “God loves you,” while handing them out.
Fung said the group distributed packages at big festivals like the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-autumn Festival and Christmas last year. Often they include toys or stationery items, bringing joyful smiles to the children of the families receiving them.
Gift bags contained goodies worth $50. She recalled that the fund-raising target was reached within hours when the need for donations for this Chinese New Year event was announced. “It happens whenever we need money, thanks to the kindness of donors,” she said. Some frequent donors are the friends of its late founder Camay Lam, who passed away in April last year, and the cancer patients who often join gatherings in Doctor Jesus Centre.
She added that when a small fund-raising target is reached, she immediately refuses donations to clear the financial records. She will then encourage people interested in helping the needy to initiate similar projects in their parish or as an individual group of laypeople.
Lam’s last charity project of was the sale of Chinese New Year envelopes embellished with the Chinese calligraphy of Father Nicolas de Francqueville to raise funds at the Holy Redeemer Church, Tuen Mun, in support of a youth centre and Church constructions in Laos as well as Mercy Hong Kong [Sunday Examiner, 13 March 2022].
