August 3, 2009

Help Flood Victims in China, Support Oxfam HK

Back in May at PunchParty Hong Kong, a gathering of local bloggers and grass-root digi-gurus, I had the great fortune of bumping into a gentle young lady, who goes by the rather intriguing name of "Crazylegz".

Apart from being an avid blogger and Twitterer, it turns out that she "moonlights" as the Communications Officer for Oxfam Hong Kong.

Naturally, I didn't want to out this valuable opportunity to waste... So, three months later, I'm happy to announce that Web Wednesday will be donating 10% of our entrance fees at the next social mixer on Wednesday 5th August to help flood survivors of the July floods in Guangxi, Guizhou and Hunan.

Don't worry, there is a digital link here. In fact, the local Oxfam team seem pretty Internet-savvy, they've posted photos of their activities to help poor farmers on Flickr, a slideshow of which is embedded below.





And, you can follow their latest activities on Twitter (twitter.com/oxfamhongkong). I like their Twitter bio which says in few words what they actually do; namely, "Working with people against poverty" or in Chinese, "助人自助 對抗貧窮".

To make your own contribution, either donate online or download a donation form.

An interesting aside. Do you know what the Oxfam logo stands for?


Neither did I, until now: 'The "O" and "X" in the logo are joined to form a graphic representation of a person's head and shoulders, and emphasises the humanity of Oxfam Hong Kong's work. It also represents a ribbon, a universal symbol of solidarity. The green colour of the logo (the Oxfam Green) represents energy and freshness."

Personally, I prefer their Chinese name, "樂施會" (pronounced "leshihui" in Putonghua or "loksiwui" in Cantonese). Literally, it means "carry out happiness community" (more catchy than the brand "Oxfam"?) and seems to come from the Chinese idiom, "好善樂施".

2 comments:

crazylegz said...

What a great post! I am deeply humbled and grateful.
See you this Wed!

crazylegz said...

heard your holla. Here's the link to the real crazylegs, the bboy from Rocksteady Crew:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Legs_(dancer)

http://www.rocksteadycrew.com/crazylegs/crazylegs.html

For me, I used to break long long time ago, but that's another long and embarrassing story...