WELCOME
On behalf of the Directors, we would like to welcome you to the August issue of our Newsletter, M.E.F. The summer months are usually the slowest for us for delivering birthday happiness with most Centres used for other purposes like Drop-in-Centres. However, we are still busy looking for new Partnering Organisations to deliver more birthday happiness with them from October onwards. Despite delivering less birthday happiness than we wish, there is still great interest in us. A WiX analysis of the traffic to our website has seen a 78% increase in traffic despite being between Webmasters and fewer than desired joyous parties.
HK STANDARD ARTICLE
On the last day of July, we were featured in half page article in the HK Standard. Mr. Adrian
Wong interviewed our Director, Mr. Peter Manktelow and Co-Founder, Mr. Edward Fernandes. He interviewed them on how the Founder, Marilou formulated the principals underpinning the philosophy behind Birthday Happiness Asia and used a photo from the joyous party at the Tung Wan Mok Law Shui Wah School in Tuen Mun. At that joyous party our special Guest and Volunteer was the South African Consul General, Mr. Mojalefa Mogono. If you missed the wonderful article, please view it at
https://paper.thestandard.com.hk/index.php?product=THESTANDARD&issue=20230731&vol
=2023073100&token=049eef647534f26c&page=8
The article has generated a lot of interest with inquiries on how to help us deliver birthday
happiness with a cosplayer offering to attend joyous parties in superhero costumes
BRUNCH WITH NOREEN
Following the article in the HK Standard, many people and organisation have contacted us.
The host of ‘Brunch with Noreen’ Ms. Noreen Mir, immediately contacted us and wished to
have a Facebook Live interview with the Co-Founder, Edward Fernandes on her morning
show. The show reaches over 500,000 loyal listeners in Hong Kong. Her listeners come from
every sector of society. Noreen has been blessed with children and knows the value of a
birthday party. She likes the idea of delivering birthday happiness to less fortunate children
and she has agreed to become a Volunteer at future joyous parties. If you missed the interview, please go to:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=notif&v=194848723347517¬if_id=1690945981
246554¬if_t=live_video
JOYOUS PARTIES IN JULY
In the month of July, we had only 2 joyous parties both on the same day. In the morning, we
were at a new Partnering Organisation, Tung Wan Mok Law Shui Wah School in Tuen Mun.
The School helps boys who have behavioural problems and are sent to the School to complete their education. However, when the Celebrants and their Guests came in they were so well-behaved standing in neat rows. It took a considerable amount of persuasion for them to relax.
Our special Guest/Volunteer was the Consul General of South Africa, Mr. Mojalefa Mogono
and his colleague. They were at the joyous party because Ms. Olga Crouse at the South
African Association had spoken to the Consul General about us. When he lived in South Africa, Mr. Mogono used to take less fortunate children to school at his own expense. When Olga approached him to help us, he immediately agreed to help us deliver birthday happiness. Olga had also arranged for the Association to organise a drive amongst the Members for Goodie Bags that were distributed to the Celebrants and their Guests. Although the Consular General had to leave early because of a last minute urgent meeting he and his colleagues had a wonderful time and agreed to be our Volunteers at future joyous parties. The joyous party began with games Pass the Parcel, Musical Chairs and finished with a Piñata kindly donated by Monica Kashish and HK Fiesta Time. The yummy cake was kindly donated by Ms. Radhika Vishwanath. The Celebrants loved their cake and the food kindly sponsored by Ms. Viveka Mansukhani. She arranged for the Chef, one of the best in town, in the United Services Recreational Club to prepare mini-burgers, fried chicken, fruit sticks and cookies to be served at the joyous party. Everyone had a great time, especially the Celebrants who got 2 presents one from us and one from the Association. The School appreciated the love and kindness shown by the Volunteers that they will arrange for us to come back when School resumes in October.
Our second joyous party saw us return to Home Care for Girls. This joyous party was led by
Ms. Eva Lo and her all-female Volunteers are either her business associates or partners.
Nearly all the prizes and gifts were kindly donated by Eva’s Associates and friends. The beautiful cake was kindly donated by Ms. Mabel Chan. Eva led a truly joyous party and the Home has agreed to invite us back to deliver more birthday happiness when the ladies return
from their summer holidays.
Last year Birthday Happiness Asia was approached by the Zubin Foundation
(https://www.zubinfoundation.org/) Their mission “is to improve the lives of Hong Kong’s
ethnic minorities by reducing suffering and providing opportunities.......
Our target audience comprises of low-income ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. Most are Hong Kong Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalis and Filipinos.” They were interested in our mission to deliver birthday happiness to less fortunate children in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, they were not able to host joyous parties until their new Centre in Austin kindly sponsored by the MTR Corporation was renovated. Our first joyous party with the Foundation will be on Saturday, 14th October, 2023. Please mark your dairies.
At the beginning of June, we had a joyous party with in the Caritas Lok Yi School and the
Senior Social Work Supervisor, Mr. Roger Ng attended as an observer. Roger was impressed by the love and affection shown towards the pupils by the Volunteers. In turn, Roger introduced us to the Caritas Pelletier Hall (https://ycs.caritas.org.hk/res/eng/ph.html) The Superintendent, Ms. Barbara Chan met us and agreed to have a joyous party with Birthday Happiness Asia in September when the majority of the girls return from their Summer holidays. The Hall was built in 1955 under the management of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the dedicated Sisters looked after girls who were involved in the sex trade. They wished to take them out of the trade by providing a structured routine with accommodation, food and education in a loving environment and a school on the premises. Caritas took over the running of the hall in 2002. They help girls who come from broken homes; parents who can’t look after their children because they have mental disabilities or are in prison. Some of the girls have emotional issues. There is a Primary School on the first floor of the Hall. The hall gives each girl a structured routine with schooling accommodation and meals. The school follows the Education Department’s syllabus, but the rest of the Hall is under the supervision of Caritas. Each girl is given a Christian upbringing and are encouraged to decorate a sheep which is kept in the garden. This is to symbolise Jesus’s parable of the lost sheep. “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says ‘rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’”
DONATIONS
Recently we have received donations through PayPal on our website and a large donation of
toys to be used as birthday gifts,
Anonymous donation HK$2,000
Anonymous donation HK$3,000
Sidney Cheung A large selection of Barbie toys
Thank you very much to the 3 gentlemen. Their kindness and generosity will be greatly
appreciated by many less fortunate children who will get a lot of birthday happiness and will
have a beautiful reminder of when their special day was celebrated.
TUNG CHUNG BUFFULOES MINI-RUGBY CLUB
We would like to thank Mr. Andrew Lupton, a member of our Fundraising Committee for
approaching the Tung Chung Buffaloes Mini-Rugby Club and getting their agreement to
promote Birthday Happiness Asia by wearing our logo on their shirts in the forthcoming season.
They will also host a couple of events during the season. Andrew’s efforts will raise much
needed funds and our profile within the community and generate greater interest in our
objective of delivering birthday happiness to as many less fortunate children in Hong Kong as possible. Thank you very much Andrew.
JOYOUS PARTIES IN AUGUST
As we are still in the Summer, we have only two confirmed joyous parties in August. On the
12th August, we return to the Society for Community Organisation’s Centre in Sham Shui Po. This joyous party will be sponsored by Ms. Radhika Vishwanath whose father, VS Rao went to rest 5 years ago. Each year they celebrate his birthday by sponsoring a birthday party for less fortunate children in his memory in India. A beautiful tradition and a great way to honour his life. Radhika will be a temporary Team Leader and it is hoped that her father will be looking down with great joy. The following Saturday we return to Love21 in their temporary Centre in Prince Edward. This joyous party will start at 12.30 pm. Both joyous parties will last 90 minutes. If you wish to help us deliver birthday happiness at either joyous party, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you.