Archive
Are you a Bogey or an Eagle?!
Mar 15th, 2010 | Advocacy | Comment
Vision First is a partial beneficiary of PubGolf 2010!!! Tee off is March 20, 12:30 in Stanley (venue, TBA). Limited to 100 “golfers”, green fee is a raffle book of 25 totaling $2500. Birdies, Bogeys and Eagles measured by the number of sips it takes to finish the assigned drink per bar!!!
For detailed rules see: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Play-Pub-Golf
If you wish to purchase raffle tickets but not play PubGolf, you can do that too!
Contact: tiffany@visionfirstnow.org for details.
RSVP first come first serve to play: emma.bennett@astburymarsden.com
Other than Vision First, the other beneficiary is to help the Rwandan Rugby Team make their way to Hong Kong to participate in the HK Rugby 10’s tournament. See the SCMP article for their story.
See the SCMP article for their story
Dental Week
Mar 11th, 2010 | Advocacy | Comment
For the week of March 1-8, 2010, Vision First clients were granted free access to specialty dental health care. The Vision First ‘Dental Health Week’ ran in partnership with the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Dentistry’s ‘Community Health Project’, supervised by Professor McGrath and his team.
Clients were provided with transportation to the University campus where they received free dental checkups, treatment and follow up care and support. The program served 43 clients and provided a service usually out of reach to Asylum Seekers and Refugees due to the high cost of dental care and low level of priority in clients hierarchy of needs. Vision First continually seeks community service programs such as the ‘Community Health Project’ to serve and advocate for the rights of AS&R in Hong Kong.
We at Vision First wish to extend our thanks to Professor McGrath and his team for their support and expert level of care.
A blog from our client – Dabihu
Feb 26th, 2010 | Advocacy | Comment
The problem is no organization makes a decisions on our case. We go to the UNHCR and their process seems unlimited – I personally gave up, after 38 monthly appointment slips, because I simply couldn’t spare the MTR fee to be delayed without a deadline. It seem that for them: no decision means no responsibility – they just wash their hands of us. We go to Immigration and again there is no decision and no answers. They make us wait for months which turn into years and we just feel paralyzed. We don’t trust their words because they are empty promises, never followed up with action. Some asylum-seekers registered in 2002 and are still waiting. Others arrived in 2004 and haven’t had their first interview. A rights lawyer brought 43 cases to the Court of Appeal under CIL (Customary International Law), the case was refused and again there was no solution. People wait for years and years because without a decision they don’t know how to solve their problem.
If they were given a clear “NO WAY” they would immediately look someplace else as nobody wants their life to be parked like the hundreds of rusting bicycles in this photo.If only the responsible organizations, gave us a negative decision then we would pursue other channels, for example take our case to other consulates for individual assistance. However these consulates will not consider our case as long as we have an open files with UNHCR and ID – so we are stuck between hopelessness and despair. We really want to try something else to solve our problems instead of watching the years go by, penniless because it’s illegal to work. Why do they even allow us to enter Hong Kong when we don’t have a chance to survive? We can’t even leave unless deported home, from where we escaped in the first place for fear of persecution. It’s so frustrating … if Hong Kong really wants to solve the problem of asylum-seekers they need clear polices to deal with the 6,800 cases. Or close the door to fake arrivals who treat the city as work heaven for a few years closing their case and returning home. One guy said “This Asylum-seeker paper is better than a Refugee certificate as I can work for a few years and then go home!”
Dabihu 28, East Africa
Our first fundraiser – 11 March at Solas, 7pm
Feb 25th, 2010 | Advocacy | Comment
We are pleased to announce our first fundraising event at
SOLAS, G/F 60 Wyndham Street, Central
11 March at 19:00-Late
Please join us for a great evening of drinks, music and fun to meet our team of volunteers and support our work with asylum-seekers and refugees. There will be a LUCKY DRAW with great prizes and 20% of the evening’s revenue will help expand our programs in the coming months. Bring your friends and let’s have a drink for a great cause – we can’t wait to see you there!
Tax exemption approved!
Feb 23rd, 2010 | Advocacy | Comment
Back from the Chinese New Year holidays, we received some great news: the Inland Revenue Department approved our tax exemption status with IR File Number 91/10448. Having applied back in June 2009 and waited patiently for nine long months, we are finally ready for the funding, grants and donations which will enable us to open a Service Center, broaden our assistance and tackle new challenges.
A big thank you to Peter Wong, who made it all happen! Peter has been a friend for over twenty years and as partner of Cheng & Cheng Limited – Vision First honorary auditors – he guided us through the complex procedures to become a charitable institution. (Should you require any accounting work, personal or corporate, he’s the go-to-man!)
Here is a copy of the IRD certificate