After coming to Hong Kong as a teacher, Jeff Rotmeyer accidentally found himself setting up and running one of Hong Kong’s highest profile charitable organisations. These days he’s in charge of two major charities: ImpactHK, which offers a range of services to people experiencing homelessness; and Love 21 Foundation, which supports the Down syndrome and autistic community with health and nutritional programmes.

Originally from Vancouver, Rotmeyer moved to the US for a university football scholarship. After finishing college, he went into coaching full-time, but a knee injury made him reconsider his future. A friend teaching English in South Korea suggested he do the same, and he ended up working there for four years, before moving to Hong Kong in 2005, where he worked for 11 years within the Native-speaking English Teacher scheme.

His involvement in the charitable sector began the following year, when he started teaching football to refugees, and was approached to do the same with the city’s Down syndrome community.

“I didn’t know anything about that community, but I tried it, and it just became the highlight of my week,” he says. “It’s a community that really changed my life, with their ability to bring the best out of people. They showed me true kindness, without expecting anything back. It changed my priorities. I don’t think I’d be doing ImpactHK without them.”

The genesis of what became ImpactHK began in 2014, when a friend invited him to visit Tung Chau Street Park in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, which has a sizeable homeless community, an experience he describes as “a real eye-opener”. He went back with friends to give out food, initially once a month, but it snowballed; more people kept volunteering to help out, and that soon became twice a month, then four times, then eight.

He set up ImpactHK while still working full time, before finally quitting his teaching job in 2016. “It was a real grind. ImpactHK and Love 21 started on the exact same day. I was doing two and a half jobs at the same time.”

With the slogan “kindness matters”, ImpactHK is driven by a philosophy of putting people in need first. It employs more than 50 people, many of whom have experienced homelessness themselves. Its services include Kindness Walks, where essentials are given to homeless people; help applying for welfare and accommodation; housing, from emergency shelters to a co-living scheme; assistance with employment and training; and health and fitness services. It has its own centres in Tai Kok Tsui: 29, a community centre, and 100, a sports and counselling centre. It also has its own social enterprise, retail outlet 1ofaKind, which sells designer samples at low prices.

“It’s sometimes a little bit lonely, and you do feel pressure,” he says. “But the key for me is that I’m always on the streets with the homeless community. When you’re that close to the community, it’s easier to come up with better strategies. My favourite part of the job is just having conversations with people outside.”