These six charities
welcome kids to get
involved.
1
Kirsten’s Zoo
is an
animal sanctuary
that looks to find homes
for dogs, cats and other
animals it protects. Click
kirstenszoo.com.
Get involved:
Kids aged
12 to 15 can help out
with adoption days, care
for the animals, play
with them and handle
questionnaires from
potential adopters.
2
Box of Hope
asks
children to pack a box
with essentials at Christmas
for less fortunate children.
Click
Get involved:
Children
aged three and up can
help design and pack
boxes, which are collected
each November from set
drop-off points – often
schools. While the closing
date has passed for this
year, the charity is keen to
expand collection points.
If your school is not on their
list, why not approach
them and ask them to
become involved in time
for next year’s collections?
3
IMC Sunday School
looks to foster cultural
interchange and open
worlds for underprivileged
children in Hong Kong.
Click sundayschool.hk/
index.php.
Get involved:
Children
aged 12 and up (or
younger, if they’re
accompanied by their
parents) are invited to
attend public workshops
where Sunday school
children might require
assistance interacting
with the public in English,
such as in interviewing
tourists. They are also open
to sharing visits, where a
child might share cultural
differences about his
or her life, like the way
Christmas is celebrated.
4
Kids4Kids
non-profit
organisation looks
to empower today’s
children with creative
opportunities to give
back. Click
kids4kids.org.hk.
Get involved:
Kids
aged eight and up can
participate in any of their
regular programmes,
including Buddy Reading,
Art for a Cause, Writing for
a Cause and Music for a
Cause, as well as newly-
devised events.
5
Angels for Orphans
funds projects
for children in need
in Hong Kong. Click
angels4orphans.hk.
Get involved:
Kids are
welcomed at any of the
charity’s tables at local
fairs; they can donate in
lieu of birthday gifts; and
can attend any organised
events as volunteers. The
charity is on the look-out
to build the number of
ways children can get
involved.
6
ICM or International
Care Ministries
runs
programmes in five
locations in the Philippines
and readily welcomes
families. Click
.
Get involved:
Kids
aged about six and
up (depending on
the project, and
accompanied by parents)
can join a trip to build
school buildings, paint
church buildings or tend
a community garden, or
attend the spring kids’
camp as a counsellor,
where your children are
invited to participate
along with the locals.
Sign ’em up
talk to me, I could share our whole
objective,” she says.
Potential volunteers sometimes
assume they know what a charity
needs, but after talking to them find
out they require quite a different set
of skills or people. Some charities
don’t have funds to advertise new
programmes, others don’t have
staff in position to reach out.
Others say programmes develop
through volunteer interaction and
opportunity. IMC Sunday School, for
instance, says it particularly values
family volunteers, where a parent
and child take part in an experience
together.
Ankrish Gidwani, the 17-year-
old impresario and one half of the
rising star baking company Baking
Maniac, donates ten per cent of what
the company makes to charity. He
says he was brought up with the idea
of giving at home by his business
partner, his mum Renuka. She says
she wanted her children to recognise
their own good fortune, and wanted
them to value what they had. She
looked for charities that would involve
two things the family cherished and
would therefore look forward to being
involved with: children and food.
“I think it is very important that
kids do not think that charity is just
donating money, and so I taught mine
by example. We would bake together
to donate, or we would go shopping
together, buying packs of noodles,
food tins, bread, and cakes to donate.
I’d personally go and donate it with
my children,” she says. Over the
years the family has worked with
Dreamflight, Mother’s Choice, Giving
Bread, Cancerfund, Children’s
Medical Foundation, and St. James’
Settlement.
Now Ankrish has begun
masterminding his own initiatives,
holding cake decorating classes and
sponsoring events through cake sales.
He says he finds each experience
meaningful and feels happy that he
can make a contribution in his “own
small way.” He says, “I feel so amazed
how a small, tiny cupcake can bring
so much joy into a person’s life.”
December 2013
49
