This celebrated quotation from English poet John Donne (1572-1631) captures Vision First’s worldview.
It was printed in “Devotions upon emergent occasions and several steps in my sickness”, 1624:

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume. When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated … As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come. So this bell calls us all, but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness … No man is an island, entire of itself … Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls – it tolls for you!”

As members of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, we keep abreast of asylum and migration issues in the broader region. Hong Kong, while being an island entire of itself, is inescapably influenced by conflicts and politics, changes and policies across the region. When one country tightens its exploitative grip on its population, or another clamps down on irregular migration, the people’s strife doesn’t abate, but is transferred across borders. For example: most Thais don’t know that 140,000 refugees have been kept in nine camps along the border for 26 years. Why? Here is the Network’s latests newsletter: APRRN-Newsletter-May-2011