WELCOME
On behalf of the Directors, we would like to welcome you to the first issue of our Newsletter
for 2024. We have originally set up Birthday Happiness Asia after Marilou went to rest in 2021. We set it up in memory of her because she believes that every child deserves the right to celebrate their special day, at least once. A simple birthday party benefits everyone, especially the Celebrants and their Guests. Despite the rocky road, Birthday Happiness Asia is now stronger than ever before with greater interest in our goal. An analysis of website has seen a 60% growth in views and greater number of people joining us as Volunteers. New Partnering Organisations have agreed to cooperate with us and we hope the new year will bring more Volunteers, Sponsorship, Donors, Cake Makers and Supporters and Partnering Organisations.
NEW DIRECTOR
It is with the greatest pleasure that we are able to announce that Mr. David Streatfield has
kindly agreed to join our Board of Directors. David who is already a member of our Fundraising Committee but feels that he is able to assist us further by joining the Board. He feels “........,,honoured to join the BHA board and hopes to help the charity grow and serve it's purpose of giving birthday parties to children who don't normally experience them”. In his
professional career David has a background in Investment banking having worked for many
global institutions such as Goldman, HSBC and Barclays. He is currently building a regulated
digital asset platform for a fintech firm here in Hong Kong. When not working or helping us,
David likes to hike, trail run, eat good food and drink wine! He has a passion for children and
wants to help give them different life experiences that they might not ordinarily have. We are
sure his contributions will help us achieve our mission of delivering birthday happiness to as
many less fortunate children as possible. Welcome to the Board.
JOYOUS PARTIES IN DECEMBER
Our first joyous party was at one of our newest Partnering Organisations, The Caritas Lok Jun School, Boarding Section in Shatin. The School looks after children with mental disabilities. There were 10 Celebrants and their Guests were fellow Students. The joyous party started with a bang when Father Christmas and his Elf popped in from the North Pole to bring birthday happiness to all the Participants. As none of the Children had never seen Father Christmas in person, they hugged him, and many could not take their eyes off him. Eva led the joyous party with Musical Chairs and Pass the Balloon, but the twist was that she implemented a new that she showed them a picture and they had to say what it was in English. If they got it right, they they won a prize. She was ably assisted by Eric from Li Po Chun United World College and Jolie who responded to our listing on Time Auction. Both enjoyed their experiences and have stated they will help us deliver more birthday happiness this year. Jolie will invite her company’s CSR Team to join a joyous party with the view to sponsoring us. Jeremy Meir made a yummy cake with less sugar. A great joyous party that will live long in the memory, especially of the Participants.
Our second joyous party in December was in the Society for Community Organizations and
Father Christmas made another appearance. As the joyous party was on the Saturday before Christmas day the joyous party had a Christmas theme. Father Christmas was kindly assisted by Spiderman and Batman. One of the Guests was upset when Spiderman came in as she has a phobia about Spiders. However, she happy when Batman made an appearance. She did not realise like all the Participants that it was Kiryu who started the joyous party with magic tricks before changing into his Batman costume. There were the usual games of Musical Chairs and Simon Says but all the children loved the Piñata kindly donated by Monica Kashish. She made a beautiful Piñata with a Santa Claus face that was filled with sweets, pencils etc. kindly donated by her friends. The Piñata was held up by Batman and Spiderman and the Children really loved hitting it. Their gusto was so great that Spiderman nearly lost his kneecap!! The other Volunteers were Karen, Carrie, Elle, Sujomi and Shirley who agreed to help us deliver birthday happiness after seeing our posting in Time Auction. The other Volunteers were Neetu and Bryony. She came to help and had individual wrapped gifts for each Celebrant. Our other Volunteer was Joseph who we met at the Harmony House Award Ceremony in in November. He wished to see how we deliver birthday happiness and was so impressed that he will introduce us to an Associate as a potential a Sponsor this year. The yummy cake was made by Mabel who unfortunately couldn’t join us because her daughters were unwell. All of them were very upset to miss the last joyous party of 2023. It really was a joyous party with great Volunteers, Social Worker, Kathy, a Piñata and a yummy cake.
For more photos please visit https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1ELwqheAQjEH8Q-
kHA8aPLVi_Kr2BoF kindly complied by Andrew Lupton, our Father Christmas who came from the North Pole to help deliver birthday happiness to the children who had been good all year!!
NEW PARTNERING ORGANISATIONS
The Directors would like to thank Ms. Lutgardis Chan, Principal of Tung Chung Catholic School for introducing us to Sau Mau Ping Catholic Primary School (https://www.smpcps.edu.hk/) and the Principal, Ms. Yip Chun-yin. The Principal graciously invited us to meet her and colleagues in October. We met the Vice Principal, Mr. Hui and their Colleagues, Ms. Lewina Lung Ms. Joanne Chui. The school is located on the Po Tat Estate and most of the pupils come from the estate. The initial idea was to have it after school finishes at 3.30 pm but after we explained that the joyous party will be conducted in English with translation if required it was felt that the joyous party could be held during English lessons. This will help to improve the Participants’ standard of English. With this in mind, the School has decided to invite us to deliver birthday happiness on Friday, 19th January starting at 1.40 pm for 90 minutes. This is the time slot for an English lesson, The School will also report back to the Archbishop of Kwun Tong Cathedral, Father Ma Tak Leung and hopefully we will be invited to deliver birthday happiness to less fortunate children who attend the Cathedral and the Diocese.