ways for children to get hands-on
experience with a charity certainly
narrows the options. In 2008, mums
Nicole Woolhouse and Harriet
Cleverly set up their charity Box of
Hope. Based on similar schemes run
in Britain and the US, Box of Hope
asks children to donate a small box of
new useful and educational gifts, like
hair clips, crayons and calculators, to
be donated to less privileged children
in Hong Kong and Asia.
The idea for the charity came
about when Nicole and Harriet were
looking for ways to get their own
children involved in giving but came
up short. “Hong Kong is incredibly
philanthropic, but for kids it seemed
only ever about giving money,” says
Harriet. “We wanted to encourage
them to be really involved in the
physical act of giving.” Choosing a
charity that involves giving to other
children felt immediately accessible,
says Harriet. As children involve
themselves in making selections and
packing their boxes, they will be
asking why a child might not have a
toothbrush or own a colouring book,
and drawing comparisons with their
own lives.
Clearly, Box of Hope strikes a
chord. In 2008, the charity collected
1,200 boxes. Last year, that number
rose to almost 18,000. “We know
about one small boy who obviously
hadn’t even spoken to his parents
about it. He’d taken an old shoebox,
coloured it in and filled it with some
coloured pencils. The teacher told me
she just gave him a hug and told him,
‘They’ll love it.’ The fact that he’d
done it himself was so sweet.”
Taking the lead
That act of taking responsibility
seems to be a pivotal way for children
to get the most out of giving, and
so choosing activities that interest
them or cater to their skills is a
good way to inspire and involve
them. “It is about them being able
to organise something, to own the
project,” says Harriet, be that a
bake sale or organising a sponsored
swim. Nowhere is that ownership
more visible than at Kids4Kids, a
charity launched specifically to get
children creatively involved in their
community to help underprivileged
children. Events like Market Days or
Share for a Cause, a sporting goods
donation initiative, are conceived by
their teams of teenage volunteers,
who also join regular programmes
like Buddy Reading, which invites
kids as young as eight to sign up to
become storytellers reading books
to groups of less privileged children.
The organisation encourages regular
involvement.
Initially, says the organisation’s
project manager, Bertha Lo, when
volunteers join they’ll start to
encounter some of the issues and
harsher realities some youngsters
living in Hong Kong face. With
regular time, volunteers see how
their time, energy and creativity
can make a positive difference to
society. That can be inspiring for
everyone, she says. Youth volunteers
are asked to clock up about 100 hours
of time before they can become an
“advocate”, which then sees them
working in teams to devise and create
charitable drives, events and forums.
“They are like people working in a
corporate environment,” says Bertha
of the kids who assign and delegate
roles to take each event from idea to
actuality. “They are really able to
tap into their talents to help other
people.”
Finding the right footing
Parents can check past newsletters,
testimonials and annual reports, as
well as ask colleagues or peers to
gauge a charity’s track record. After
that, don’t be shy about popping by
or calling a project head or director,
says Lilian Sze, project manager with
IMC Sunday School, a charity that
seeks to broaden needy children’s
perspectives, self-confidence and
experience in English, and is run
through the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs
Association of Hong Kong. The best
way to assess suitability is to talk to
someone in charge. “If you were to
December 2013
47
