Vision and Missions

“Impact For Peace” is set up with the hope to gather enthusiastic volunteers from all walks of life and around the world to work for the empowerment of Child and Woman’s rights.  Based in Hong Kong, we take special advantage of the access to a variety of talents and professionals and wish to turn them into re-distributable human resources for overseas NGOs’ use. Initially we would pioneer projects to enhance education opportunity in the Central Asia region because we believe it is the key to uplifting long-term standard of living in this neediest region.

We aim to establish a close working tie with Central Asian medium-to-small scale NGOs on the following project initiatives:

1.      Family and children sponsorship program

2.      Scholarship scheme for talented students

3.      Micro-finance loan

4.      Vocational training for women

Basically the projects would be realized by human potential re-distributed from wherever the excess is, through:

1.      Service learning students’ summer camps that put university students’ potential into use abroad

2.      A talents matching platform that bridges aspiring individuals or those in sabbatical or retirement with overseas NGOs where their talents are most coveted

3.      Coordination of and fundraising for projects in joint effort with overseas NGOs

Striving to be accountable to our supporters, we believe it is utmost important to ensure our partnering overseas organizations are reliable.  Therefore we only work with those we have garnered thorough understanding after careful investigation.  Through time, we hope to translate our accumulated experience into an archive that documents the successful stories and contacts of those often underpublicized overseas medium-to-small size NGOs.  The archive will intend to serve worldwide volunteers-to-be who are looking for meaningful voluntary experience with true impacts in the underprivileged worlds, especially in Central Asia.  Travel with a reason to make a difference!

Teaching children English songs

By the way, if you have ever volunteered outside your home countries and have a wonderful and worthy experience, please do share with us !  Because words of mouth would be very helpful for us to identify the really reliable and effective organizations to match with our enthusiastic and warm-hearted volunteers, or even special project funding!  No matter where the NGOs are located and serving, all are welcome!!

By Sean and Charlotte

Behind the scene of "Impact For Peace"

The reason I picked Kolkata our first service port is, tracing back to 2007, I participated in a summer activity in General Education Unit of The University of Hong Kong called “Project SEE – Students for Equity and Equality”. I was assigned to work on Child Rights in the famous “Mother Teresa” city Kolkata, it is also called “The city of Joy”.

Tomb of Mother Teresa, the greatest hero of mine, deeply respect

Our cooperating local NGO “FOCUS” (Forum of Communities United in Services), here is their website: http://www.focuskolkata.org/ . The main vision of FOCUS is raising the Quality of Life of Women and Children living in poverty, and mainstreaming them in Society. Do you agree proper education is the root solution of many problems in their society, or even in the whole world?? Through education, people increase competitiveness in finding a better job; their hygiene level will be improved; the crime rate will be controlled; even religious extremist will be restrained so that the developed worlds no longer live in the shadow of terrorism. We’ll discuss these issues in the later posts of our Blog. Anyway, if a big group of children cannot receive education within a community, the devastating effect can last for at least a few decades. 

Last time we only managed to do a little bit teaching in the FOCUS school (NGO school), as well as buying some basic materials such as desks, benches, cassette radios, stationeries and books for the poor kids. In July, it is the monsoon period, heavy rain and flooding halt some of our plans, but we still managed to visit most of the FOCUS schools and be given a glance about how Micro-finance works in their society. However, what we could do in a month was really limited, that’s why I promised the staff and children in Kolkata and promised myself to go back again and try to do more for their society!

Here comes the right time, me and Charlotte are setting up "Impact For Peace" and we have already started sponsoring 50 children (including those living on the street and have financial difficulties to continue studying) go to Government school.

Therefore, if you also have the same idea to provide equal education opportunities of ALL children in this world, please support us “Impact For Peace”!!

Sean

Meeting Sean after his trip to India (Part 2)

Sean also shares with me what he believes to be the origin of poverty in the region of north India:

"Illiteracy that renders birth control impossible.  And subsequently, overpopulation leads to further restriction on resources for basic education, particularly on issues regarding women's health, family planning and self-empowerment.  And the cycle gets more vicious as the young girls often marry early to give birth to yet another generation.  A corrupted government that only pays lip-service to promise improving unemployment, has disappointed their constituents time after time after each successful re-election."

Quoting verbatim of an Indian woman who already gave birth to 9 kids:

"my husband comes on me when he is drunk, I cannot do anything ...... and when a child is given by GOD, GOD will surely provide what the child needs ......"

There are local initiatives working to provide free education for children, but only up to the level of Primary School.  FOCUS has been one of the biggest local NGOs working to provide opportunities of basic child education.  Thanks to The Project SEE (to be explained in a later post) organized by The University of Hong Kong in 2007, Sean was to connect with this organization and has maintained a close tie of working relationship ever since.  This is where the catalyst of Sean's fire find an outlet!

by Charlotte

Meeting Sean after his trip to India (Part 1)

In Sean's 20-day trip, he brought back a huge video and photographic archive of street life in Kolkata, one of the big cities in India.  He visited all 50 families that are preliminarily chosen to benefit from our pilot project "Child Sponsorship Program" in India.  Let me explain this program in a later post.    


Basically, he told me the major findings of his investigation this time.  I was astonished to see those families unable to pay rent actually are living on the street in the "Stall Shelters" they build out of wretched recycle materials.  Pictures tell a thousand words: 

by Charlotte