Author: Abigail Zenko (Editor-in-Chief, HELLO Trust Hong Kong-Shenzhen)
Date Published: 14th January, 2024
Overview
Total raised in two days: ¥1330.00
Participants: Casso Pi, Jack Peng, Abigail Zenko, Koby Liu, Jannis Na, Emily Ho, Crystal Chan, Tina Wu, Nicholas Zhu, Stephanie Su, Sammy Liu
Foundation supported: 深圳市民爱特殊儿童福利院
Creating a Positive Impact: Fundraising for Autistic Children
Photography by Emily Ho, Abigail Zenko, and others
As 2024 began, HELLO Trust members gathered to support a foundation that schooled special-needs autistic children: 深圳市民爱特殊儿童福利院. Led by our founders Casso Pi and Jack Peng, two different groups of volunteers came to the school on January 2nd and 3rd.
Here is an account of what happened on the first day, January 2:
9.30 AM sharp—the group gathered outside the foundation’s entrance and went in for a debrief from a caretaker. She sat us down and told us that though she appreciated our offer to aid the kids’ learning process, they were not available at the time. Instead, we could help by selling donated toys, stationary, and other items to earn more money for the foundation. She confided in us the increasing difficulty of keeping the place going, as well as their care for the children they supported. Though the items we intended to sell were graciously donated to them during the pandemic, the greater need to keep the place going outweighed the need for toys, so off we went…
After we loaded the boxes of items into a supervisor’s car, we left for the marketing destination by metro. It took us 4 stops, 1 transfer, and lots of walking to reach our destination: the “Children’s Palace”, as the metro sign said.
Around 10.45 AM, we parked ourselves by the entrance of a well-known children’s hospital, where many kids and their parents would walk past. There, by the sidewalk, we set up our booth, spread out our treasures, and discussed the items’ prices and our marketing strategies.
Before leaving, the caretaker had given us pamphlets to help introduce their foundation and some advice on possible pricings. She also gave us 9 paintings done by their students to sell. Each was worth ¥100, and we sold off two. Apart from the bigger toys we sold at around ¥20 to ¥30, most toys came at the small price of ¥10, so we made sure to say to anyone passing by:
“爱心义卖! 都是10块钱!”*
*English Translation: “Buy for charity! They’re all ¥10!”
To anyone interested enough to stop by and look, we explained our cause to them as we stood with the foundation’s logo hung up beside us.
Yet even without our advertising, the toys elicited interest and joy in the children who would pass by, and we had the pleasure of witnessing warm moments between parents and children as they picked their item(s) of choice together.
Children weren’t the only ones interested in the toys. As we advertised our humble products, some drivers or grown-ups who passed by our spot—whether by the road behind us or the path before us—would stop by to listen to our appeals and inspect our makeshift booth. In the end, a few also bought the toys. Whether they did it for their children, grandchildren or for themselves, they did it knowing that they were supporting an important cause. In this way, we connected complete strangers through their help for a mutually known foundation for children in need.
All day, the entire team worked hard to ensure the most possible number of sales. Earlier in the morning, a throng of members had left with a part of the products to sell in a different entrance spot of the hospital. They got kicked away by some officers, though. Still, they kept on in a different location—to no avail. No one bought anything. But it’s fine! They came back to the booth, and with the combined efforts of everyone homed in on one spot, we sold off even more items. Some members didn’t even eat proper lunch, working hard to ensure the sales.
Before calling it a day, some of our volunteers also bought the toys and stationary in the booth.
By 3.30 PM, our volunteers came back together to the foundation, where the caretaker was there to welcome us back warmly. She offered us some yogurts as tokens of appreciation, and we then took a collective group photo with the charming children we supported.
In this photo, the eldest student sitting on the left was singing:
On this first day alone, we had accumulated ¥809 with around 60 sales.
Then, on the lovely Wednesday of January 3, the second group of volunteers came to finish what we started. In the end, we raised a total of ¥1330 for the foundation with over a hundred sales.
All in all, it had been a wonderful experience to help these people, filled with heart-warming and eye-opening moments. We hope that, though a thousand yuan isn’t much to make a big difference in these children’s lives, our support for foundations like this one will not be the last. We hope that this will inspire and encourage others, including the dear reader, to make an effort to help those in need.
Gallery
Comments