World Refugee Day!

Sixty years ago governments signed a legal document regarding the rights of refugees and the legal obligations of the states to which they flee.  June 20^th is the anniversary of the Refugee Convention.  The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has declared it World Refugee Day 2011.  In 2009, nearly 43.3 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to conflict and persecution. According to the latest statistics published by UNHCR, this is the highest number since the mid-1990s.  Each of us who are secure and busily getting on with our lives may well ask, "What's it got to do with me?"

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A cheerful heart is good medicine!

Willing volunteers are the backbone of Christian Action’s work in Hong Kong, and although many are already involved we always need more. We have two centres serving people who belong to ethnic minority groups, and right now, this is where we need help. We need five volunteer tutors per day for after school classes for ethnic minority children, including tutors to teach Cantonese classes. The classes are one of the many essential services ethnic minorities rely on to level the playing field and help them integrate into HK society.

Here’s a letter from one volunteer who responded to our advertisement for a Cantonese class.

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You Are Worth More Than Many Sparrows!

When you are a refugee you lose everything: home, friends, identity, country, your basic rights and sometimes family as well. Then, if you are not allowed to work in the country you flee to, you lose perhaps the most valuable thing of all: self worth.  Restoring the feeling of self worth to refugees is one of our aims at Christian Action.  Sometimes, all it needs is a ball!

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Making Changes

Last week I told you about Joyce, our Hong Kong Chinese social worker who enjoyed working in our Children’s Home in Xining on the Tibetan Plateau.  The Home is primarily staffed with government-employed carers, most of whom have no prior training in caring for disabled children.  Joyce was able to train the carers in recognizing the needs of children with different disabilities.  She was also able to help parents of the disabled children in their own community. This is the story of one of those changes.

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These are a few of my favourite things…

Working day after day in a Children's Home with disabled, orphaned children, and doing this in a remote location is probably not what the majority of people would enjoy doing. But according to Joyce, one of our Hong Kong Chinese social workers who served in Qinghai Province on the Tibetan Plateau, it was a very enjoyable job!

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