In this day and age where we really all have more stuff than we need at home, its nice to have…read moresomewhere like Crossroads International where giving away something means more than throwing it away. This is especially apt as I had recently moved homes and found that giving furniture (in particular amongst other things) away in Hong Kong is an absolute nightmare; not so much no one wanting it but the fact that you almost always have to pay to get ride of it! The thought of having nearly new furniture being taken to the landfill was just beyond the limit of my conscience hence I made a phone call to them. To start with, you are requested to leave them a message online / phone call telling them exactly what you are trying to give away. You should provide as much as details as possible for them as I presume they have specific target clients that may have a wish list of what they need (no good giving away a massage chair to an African nation without a power grid). I did so duly and they were quite quick in responding- in my case a bed- that they will take that particular piece of furniture in and we had to make arrangements for delivery. There came the drawback- I guess they have limited resources as they could not pick it up for another 3 weeks if they have to send a truck in. If I drove it in myself I could take it over that weekend. To cut a long story short, I was planning to drive the bed over but prior to that a friend had decided to take the bed- hence I didn't actually take it over to them in the end. However, I would still say that my experience with them was a good one and I truly feel that there should be more charities/ organizations as such in Hong Kong as we really are a resource abundant society and there is plenty that we can do in providing goods. Pat on the back for everyone working there!

Crossroads is a charity organization that is unlike any charity that I've been to or heard of…read morebefore. I mean, it does all the usual stuff like collect goods to be shipped off to impoverished areas and raising funds, but it's also unique in the fact that Crossroads runs many interactive, hands-on programs for students and adults alike. I got to know about Crossroads through my high school - I actually had the chance to go to Crossroads twice with my school, in which we participated in different programs that raised our awareness about the plight of many people around the world. Crossroads is in the middle of nowhere - it's all the way in Tuen Mun, near the Gold Coast. Getting there is a pain, but luckily for me, since I went with my school, there was a bus arranged to bring us there and back. If I'm not wrong, there is a red minibus from Mong Kok that will bring you there, but don't quote me on this! One thing that makes Crossroads a really cool charity is the staff there. There's a guy in particular who facilitates the programs and he's a very good speaker. He's great with words and is quite the comedian, but is serious too and really makes us reflect on our lives and what we can do to reach out to others. On Facebook, he actually has a page calls 'That Crossroads Guy' and he's got about 2000 fans! One of the programs I participated in at Crossroads was the 'paper bag simulation'. In the simulation, we were told about how many of the poor's livelihoods depended on making and selling simple things, like paper bags. I don't want to spoil it too much by telling you what goes down exactly, but this seemingly simple simulation really makes you think about the difficulties others go through and how much we take for granted. I've also participated in the 'refugee run simulation', where we got to learn about how hard the life of a refugee is and the kinds of challenges they face. Each person was given the identity of a refugee and had to assume that identity for the rest of the simulation. After each of the programs, 'that Crossroads guy' - his name is actually David - holds a sort of reflection session to get us thinking about how this may have been just an experience for us, but is life for others. I love how the programs here are, on the surface, kind of a game to us, but there are underlying messages and lessons that we take away from them. I highly recommend you check out the programs at Crossroads - there are others besides the ones I mentioned. While you're there, be sure to check out the Fairtrade shop and the cafe. The shop sells a ton of things like bar soaps, pouches and chocolate, all of which are Fairtrade, and the coffee at the cafe is pretty good!