The Missing Apple

As a fresh graduate, the first humanitarian aid work I did was helping the Vietnamese settle in England in the 1980's, so the plight of refugees has been close to my heart for a long time. Ten year- old Dai Le, who left Viet Nam with her family in the 70's and came to Hong Kong on an old fishing boat, expected to be greeted with an apple and a coke. Instead, the sight she saw when they arrived almost four decades ago was not of fresh apples and cold cokes, but of thousands of rickety boats like theirs crowded into Hong Kong harbor. It was a disappointment she would remember the rest of her life. Recently, Dai Le finally received that apple!

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Santa in the Marine Corps!

"Shopping and eating!" may well be a prompt and honest response from the average Hong Kong'er if you asked what their hobbies were, especially over the Christmas period. But there are sections of the population for whom shopping sprees and attending family feasts are impossibilities - a heartbreaking situation for single parents who would love to feed their children and buy gifts without worrying about what tomorrow would bring.

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Portrait of a Tough Life

One of Rasta's winning shots

In 2012, in order to finance future art programmes at Chung King Mansions Service Centre for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, a talented young man’s photographs were sold at the Soul in the Metropolis exhibition.

That young man's personal story is as dramatic as his photography.

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Angels in Disguise

There is no way to completely resolve or cure arthrogryposis multiplex congenita. That's a very sad prognosis to hear about one of the little children in Xining Children's Home, but where there's life, I believe we must persist in helping a child be the best person they can possibly be. And that persistence and assistance comes in many forms. Sometimes it's in the form of an angel who is a medical foster parent!

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