Every week, volunteers from all walks of life come together to show kindness and compassion to the homeless through local charity, Impact HK.Founded three years ago by Jeff Rotmeyer, a Canadian teacher who has made it his mission to help the homeless in Hong Kong, Impact HK currently leads over 40 walks across Hong Kong in areas such as Tai Kok Tsui, Yau Ma Tei and Sham Shui Po. In a new and ongoing initiative by Hong Kong Tatler to bring awareness to local charities, we invited Loui Lim, who's passionate about volunteering, to join a kindness walk with Impact HK and share his experience:
Keeping it simple
I first heard about Impact HK from a friend, and I loved the simplicity of the concept—walking the streets of Hong Kong with other volunteers to hand out supplies to the homeless.
I'd often thought that Hong Kong wasn't doing enough to help its homeless community. In our city, you can see such extravagant wealth everywhere, yet at the same time, you can also see people who are struggling to survive.
The kindness walk
The walk started at Impact HK's Guestroom in Tai Kok Tsui, which is a safe haven created for homeless individuals to collect supplies, receive counselling and socialise.
For the next 90 minutes or so, we handed out food, water and clothing to homeless individuals in the area. Along the way, we'd stop to talk to them, find out how they were doing, or introduce Impact HK to them if they weren't familiar.