On behalf of the Directors, we would like to welcome you to Autumn edition of our Newsletter, M.E.F.
FRIDAY EVERYDAY
A Volunteer and member of the Fundraising Committee, Mr. Andrew Lupton attended the joyous party in the Society for Community Organization.
Andrew works in the I.T. Industry and knows Mr. Nury Vittachi, a famous ex-Journalist at the South China Morning Post, a Comedian, author and also the now the owner of the blog, Friday Every Day. Mr. Vittachi invited Mr. Lupton to submit notes and photos of the joyous party on 29th October. Mr. Vittachi then wrote an article on the history of birthday parties and Birthday Happiness Asia. The wonderful article appeared on Friday, 30th October. If you missed it please click here
JOYOUS PARTIES
In the month of September, Birthday Happiness Asia conducted only 2 joyous parties. The first in Harmony House was led by Ms. Tope Orimolade after Ms. Sonya King had to step down because she was a close contact with a Covid case. Tope stepped in at the last moment and became the Team Leader. Ms. Mansha Mahtani ensured that the joyous party ran to schedule. Thank you, ladies, for stepping up at short notice. There were 6 Celebrants and they had 9 Guests. The first party in Harmony House with only female Volunteers was a huge success. The Social Worker, Ms. Susanna Lam wrote an email a couple of hours later to all the Volunteers “Our children do have a great and joyful time this morning! All the children enjoyed the birthday party so much. Some have just sent me WhatsApp message saying that they are VERY VERY HAPPY today!
They loved the Vegan party food, eggless cake and especially the birthday gifts so much!!!! Many thanks for all your effort to bring happiness to our children ☺”
The other joyous party on the same day was in the Society for Community Organization’s Centre in Sham Shui Po. This party was led by Ms. Fiona Wei. This was the first time that she has led a party on her own and she was ably assisted by Volunteers who are “old hands” and many new to Birthday Happiness Asia.
The Vegan food and eggless cakes for both parties were sponsored by the Sadhu Vaswani Centre. None of the Participants have tasted Vegan food but there was a general agreement that the food and cake were yummy. Thank you very much for introducing the Celebrants and their Guests to a new world of taste and help in delivering so much birthday happiness.
At both parties, each Celebrant was given a rucksack filled with goodies like water bottles, games, pencils, exercise books, handtowels, etc. These rucksacks were kindly donated by the South African Association. Thank you very much.
In the month of October, Birthday Happiness Asia conducted 4 joyous parties. On the 15th October, we went to the Society for the Deaf in Kowloon City. The theme of the party was Halloween and all the outfits like Harry Potter and decorations were donated by Mrs. Viveka Mansukhani and her friends. There was also a Piñata that was kindly donated by HK Fiesta Time (https://www.facebook.com/hkfiestatime). A wonderful Halloween cake was kindly donated by Baking Maniac www.bakingmaniachk.com The joyous party was such a great success that that they have invited us back.
The next joyous party was with Home Care for Girls in Kwai Fong. The Home provides a loving home for vulnerable girls. Thanks to our wonderful Volunteers, Eva and Mansha who gave up their Friday evenings to give the young ladies a memorable joyous party.
The third party of the month was in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong in their Centre in Tseung Kwan O. The party was led by Justin Blake, an International student at Li Po Chun United World College. Most of the Volunteers were from the College and they delivered a joyous party to the less fortunate children who live in the area. Nearly all the Volunteers from Li Po Chun were first time Volunteers and enjoyed delivering birthday happiness for the first time. Thanks to their outstanding effort the Management of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong have requested that we return to the same Centre and hopefully afterwards we can deliver birthday happiness in all their other Centres around Hong Kong.
The last joyous party was at the Society for Community Organization’s Centre in Sham Shui Po. This joyous party was successfully led by Ms. Eudmarly Gedeon Letrois who is in her final year at the College. She was helped by first time Volunteers from Li Po Chun College. The joyous party had 17 Celebrants and with their Guests had nearly 30 Participants. However, thanks to the dedication of Ms. Letrois and her Volunteers, everyone had a wonderful time, including the Reporter, Ms. Jacky Ting and her Cameraman.
The Cakes for the last 3 joyous parties were kindly donated by Aisha at Baklicious. Aisha who is from Nepal and looking around how to give back to the community but did not know how. She then discovered Birthday Happiness Asia and contacted us with an offer to make homemade cakes from her professional kitchens. Please view our website for examples of her cakes or log onto her Instagram page: https://bit.ly/3SSXUAs
NEW PARTNERING ORGANISATIONS
In the last couple of months, Birthday Happiness Asia has held a number of joyous parties. Many were with new Partnering Organisations and each one said that everyone enjoyed the party and wish us to come back to deliver more birthday happiness. They are as follows:
The Hong Kong Society for the Deaf https://www.deaf.org.hk/en/
Evangelical Lutheran Church https://www.elchk.org.hk/hk/about-elchk
Harmony House https://www.harmonyhousehk.org/eng
In October, we held discussions with the Zubin Foundation who are keen to start having joyous birthday parties with the less fortunate ethnic minority children they serve. They hope to start delivering birthday happiness to the less fortunate children they serve in their new Centre in Austin when it opens after Chinese New Year. For more information on the Zubin Foundation please view: https://www.zubinfoundation.org/
We also held discussions with Love21 Foundation (https://love21foundation.com/) who help less fortunate children with Downs Syndrome and Autism. The policy the Foundation had before to mark a child’s birthday was to sign happy birthday between classes. The Social Worker was impressed by the idea of Birthday Happiness Asia that we will have our first party with them on Sunday, 13th November
KIND DONATIONS
We would like to thank the following people and organisations who have recently generously given donations to Birthday Happiness Asia. Most wish to remain anonymous. Their kindness and generosity will be remembered for a long time by so many less fortunate children in Hong Kong: -
A Retiree: HK$2,000
A Senior Associate: HK$800
A senior Lawyer: HK$1,500
A private family Foundation: HK$50,000
Nwbeez Ltd and Ms. Alex Garcia: Toys
South African Association: Over 30 Rucksacks filled with goodies like towels, books games, water bottles, etc.
Eva Lo, Training Consultant: Goodie bags She told the shop the purpose of the Goodie Bags and they sold them to her at a discounted price
Jeremy Mair Homemade Birthday Cakes
Aubrey Edwards A Homemade Carrot Cake
Bakelicious by Aisha Homemade Birthday Cakes
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