Serve-a-thon—the city’s first collective community service event
kicks off in Hong Kong
HandsOn Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS)
co-host #ServeathonHK to take place May 6th to 14th, 2017
Hong Kong – 26 April 2017: Serve-a-thon, Hong Kong’s first and largest collective volunteerism-based
event, is launching in Hong Kong this May. Serve-a-thon will consist of nine days of consecutive community
service with over 150 volunteer activities taking place across Hong Kong from 6th to 14th May.
Thousands of volunteers from business, schools, churches and the community will give their time to serve
those most in need, including underprivileged children and elderly, individuals with intellectual and physical
disabilities, refugees and migrant workers, animals in shelters and environmental conservation projects.
In Hong Kong the number of those in need continues to grow. An additional 20,000 people fell below the
poverty line in 2015–bringing the total number of impoverished people in Hong Kong to 1.34 million at the end
of 2016*. A report from Oxfam last year also noted Hong Kong’s wealth disparity gap to have reached alarming
levels: requiring the city’s poorest to work nearly 2.5 years to earn what the top 10% earn in a single month**.
“Not everyone in Hong Kong realizes that one in four of the city’s children do not get three meals a day, or that
one in three of Hong Kong’s elderly live the below the poverty line. It’s not a side of the city that many of us
encounter,“ said Mr Cliff Choi, Business Director at HKCSS. “We strongly believe that giving even just one
hour of your time to support Hong Kong’s most vulnerable part of society is an important step in the right
direction.”
In its first year, Serve-a-thon Hong Kong aims to give people an easy way to start giving back to the community
through volunteering. More than 75 major cities around the world currently host ‘Community Service Marathons’
including Beijing, Shanghai, Manila, Sydney and New York.
"Hong Kong has a vibrant non-profit sector working every day to support those in greatest need. But they can’t
do it alone—in fact many of them depend on the support of volunteers to operate at all. We know through our
work that so many people would like to give back and serve the community, but just need a first step to help
get them started. Serve-a-thon does this, allowing each of us to turn our good intentions into action,” says Sue
Toomey, Executive Director of HandsOn Hong Kong.
Over 50 Hong Kong NGO’s are being served through Serve-a-thon’s volunteer activities including Feeding
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Christian Service, ICFG Lung Hang Church Elderly Centre, i-Future Teens,
Kelly Animals Shelter and Po Leung Kuk.
Serve-a-thon is also being supported by a range of corporations whose involvement has helped to make the
volunteer activities possible including MTR and SCMP as ‘Community Champion’ sponsors; and ANZ,
Bloomberg, Hang Seng Bank, KPMG, Li & Fung, Marriott International, Moody's, Robert Walters, State
Street and The Economist Group participating as ‘Community Supporters’ among others.
Signing up to an activity is easy—simply register as a volunteer, and then select your preferred activity on the
volunteer activity calendar.
Activities in urgent need of volunteers:
Saturday May 6th
Activity
Time
Language requirement
Sign-up page
1-3pm
Cantonese
http://bit.ly/2pcnJkQ
1-6pm
English
http://bit.ly/2p94RRO
2-5pm
Cantonese
http://bit.ly/2oqdINI
Tuesday May 9th
Activity
Time
Language requirement
Sign-up link
Help with the rescue and management of
surplus food for distribution to people in need.
Help disadvantaged ethnic minority children with
their Chinese homework.
2.005.30pm
5.307pm
English or Cantonese
http://bit.ly/2pcinGk
Cantonese
http://bit.ly/2pVI6ka
Help at a rescue shelter for dogs awaiting
adoption.
Help underprivileged students to develop their
English through a journalism themed workshop.
Visit underprivileged, isolated elderly at home to
ensure their basic needs are being met.
For more information, and to sign up to volunteer: www.serveathonhk.org.hk
###
About HandsOn Hong Kong
HandsOn Hong Kong (HOHK) is a registered charity that mobilizes and empowers the community to meet pressing social
needs in Hong Kong through volunteer services. Founded in 2007, HOHK runs more than 100 volunteer activities each
month; in 2016 alone the team organized 1,633 volunteer activities and served 28,000+ beneficiaries (many of whom
include children and youth, the elderly, refugees, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities). For more information,
visit www.handsonhongkong.org.
About HKCSS
The Hong Kong Council of Social Service is a federation of non-government social service agencies of Hong Kong. They
were established in 1947 with the aim to plan and coordinate large scale relief works and social welfare after the Second
World War. In 1951, they became a statuary body under the ordinance, chapter 1057.
The Council has since become an essential partner of the Hong Kong Government in social welfare and development.
Today they represent more than 450 Agency Members, providing quality social welfare service through their 3,000
operating units in Hong Kong. For more information, visit http://www.hkcss.org.hk/
Sources:
* ‘Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report 2015’ (Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: October
2016).
** ‘Hong Kong Poverty Report 2011-2015’ (Oxfam Hong Kong: October 2016).