October News

THIS MONTH: 1 Urgent financial need,: 2. The remainder of 2008 3. Next year … 4. and what of Crossroads? 5 Reaching out to Kazakhstan 6. The final move from Kai Tak. 7. A cool Scoop 8. We still nee your support

Looking back over the last 5½ years we want to say thank you for the amazing support we have received from all of you. Whether that is chatting, encouragement or financial. It has been knowing that you are standing with us that has been vital in keeping our eyes fixed on the task.

Last month when we told you our plans for next year two things happened one that surprised us, but I guess should have been expected.

The first was the overwhelming support and encouragement for our plans to spend a year in College. The second was an almost immediate drop off in financial support.

The fact is that we still need support at Crossroads right up until when we leave in December. What we would really love to do is to leave with a completely clean slate as far as support goes. So firstly we would like to encourage you to keep supporting us (we are certainly busier than we have ever been) and perhaps even consider giving a one time larger gift to Crossroads specifically for our support to enable us to fully cover till December. Details of how to do that are in the side bar.

We have also been asked whether we will need support on our new venture. That one is a little more difficult. The answer is it would be very helpful. But we are also expecting to dip into our resources somewhat, and while that means acquiring debt we know whom we can trust for our needs. We will give more details on how to support us next year when it is appropriate.

2. WHAT ARE WE UP TO FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2008.
Sue has her hands full making sure she has as many shipments as possible planned and underway as she can. She is also trying to keep the processing departments, working at full steam while also ensuring that a number of training documents are in place.

Phil heads off to the UK for a month on another recruitment drive on October 15th and has a very busy speaking schedule in place. We really need people at Crossroads in a big way. Please chat that the MD will continue to work in the hearts and lives of the people who hear the message.

We are also running around trying to pack and preparing to ship all our stuff back to Australia. Sue’s expertise in preparing shipments is a big plus. While the load isn’t large (400kg) by most standards when people move, finding an inexpensive way to do it is not easy. There is a chance that we may get some assistance from a senior person in an airline for special rates, but how much assistance and the details what that entails we will not know for a week or so.

When we came the MD provided an unexpected way to help with the move. The SARS crises, meant no-one was travelling to Hong Kong and we got everything on the plane. But our load for the homeward journey has more than doubled after nearly six years in Hong Kong. Please chat for us during this hectic time.

3. AND NEXT YEAR……

We are full of anticipation, excitement and scared silly all at once. At our age a year of study is a bit of a daunting prospect. But at the same time, it will be a wonderful opportunity to immerse ourselves, take in and reflect.

We await news from the College. Our applications and references are there so it’s in their hands. We had a lovely opportunity on the weekend, to sit and chat with a young couple currently studying there and home on holidays. It was a very confirming time.

4. AND WHAT OF CROSSROADS?

We will always be life long advocates of this amazing place. If we get the opportunity we will gladly speak and encourage others to take up the challenge. But the MD has made it clear to us this season is over and it is time to move on to the next one.

Crossroads is poised this week to become an even more powerful means of reaching out to those in need through some amazing opportunities at the United Nations. In so many ways this is the MD’s work, please continue to chat for and support this organisation in any way you can.

5. REACHING OUT TO KAZAKHSTAN

Seeing an aging man on the street, crippled by the grip of alcoholism, can be heartbreaking enough, but imagine seeing the same characteristics in a twelve year old boy. Faced with the hopelessness inspired by severe poverty, the number of children under 14 turning to alcoholism in Kazakhstan has increased ten-fold in ten years. As the country struggles to recover and rebuild after a challenging transition into independence, many children have been forced on to the streets, turning to alcohol and crime to cope with the bitterness of life. Other neighbouring countries suffer similar hardships, with the number of street children swelling each year.
In light of this growing crisis, our Crossroads Central Asia (CCA) office, located in Kazakhstan, formed in 2004 to serve as a distribution point for goods in Central Asia. CCA receives regular containers from Hong Kong, and other parts of the world, each loaded with aid for specific organisations in need.
One recipient of these goods, in Tajikistan, works with children in crisis, specifically street children from alcoholic or abusive families. This NGO also runs an education programme targeted at teaching literacy to children and job training for teenagers. Beds, stationery, and computers will be among the items used to support this NGO in its efforts to provide social and psychological support to the children on the streets of Khojand, Tajikistan.
An NGO in Kyrgyzstan will also receive goods from this container. This organisation runs a crisis centre for street children in Bishkek, providing counselling, support, and training to families at risk with the goal of bringing the kids off the streets and keeping them off the streets in the future. Furniture, toys, clothing, computers and household items will be used by this NGO as they continue their services in their struggling country.
Another recipient of goods is an NGO in Kazakhstan committed to providing rehabilitation to people suffering from drug and alcohol abuse. Crossroads will provide this organisation with household goods, electrical items, and furniture to enable them to expand their programmes and help more people in need.
This container will also include clothing to be distributed to individuals in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. As winter approaches and many struggle to make ends meet with the added expenses of heating, winter clothes are often too great a luxury to afford. People in the local community, including people with disabilities, needy families, and homeless people, will receive beautiful clothing and shoes to help them through the brutal winter months.

6. THE FINAL MOVE FROM KAI TAK

At the end of 2007, Crossroads faced the mammoth task of moving around 30 storage containers from their long-time home in Kai Tak. The government wanted to develop the old Kai Tak airport and needed our storage spot to be vacated. Several of our team members tackled the challenge of hunting out another suitable location and began the long search for a new site. Finding sizable, unused plots of land can be quite difficult in Hong Kong, and as leads were followed to possible storage sites, each fell through due to costs, location, or other factors rendering them unsuitable for our needs.
Finally, in late January 2008 Crossroads found a potential destination in Sunny Bay. Though overgrown with weeds and ignored for years, the land would be available to us for at least two years and its size and accessibility made it a prime choice. We applied for this seafront property on nearby Lantau Island and soon found ourselves jumping hurdles to prove our need for the site to those in charge of dispersing it. By May, the efforts were rewarded and we began the process of securing the land for our purposes.
In mid-July, the land was handed over to Crossroads, and the development for the site soon began. With a deadline near the end of September, our contractors worked feverishly to cut the weeds, rid the land of dozens of leftover concrete elements, level the site, condense the ground to make it usable for trucks, and construct a gate and fencing. The task almost seemed insurmountable, but as the work got underway and little by little the improvements showed through the weeds, we began to see just what an amazing find this place was for our precious containers.
On Monday, 22 September, seven Crossroads team members and four contractors spent a gruelling day in the heat moving the containers from Kai Tak to Sunny Bay. With the use of cranes, trucks, and our own form of traffic management, the task that was estimated to take up to three days was done in just one! This proved to be perfect timing as the following days brought typhoon weather and would have hindered further progress.
We are grateful for the perfect timing throughout this process, and are excited to have received such a prime location at Sunny Bay.

7. A COOL SCOOP
On 23 September, Crossroads teamed up with Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream for a fundraiser of a different flavour. For the whole working day, Ben and Jerry’s treated customers to free scoops of ice cream – the flavour of their choice – for a minimum donation of $10HK that went directly to Crossroads. We spread our volunteers, between each of the six Hong Kong locations. We all sported Ben and Jerry's t-shirts, with some even donning cow suits to attract customers! Donation boxes overflowed as customers gave to Crossroads, and a few locations saw a surge in their queues as school children were drawn to the promise of delicious ice cream for a good cause. We had to run between locations to empty overflowing boxes and snap photos. It was an exhausting day, but satisfying as patrons came to taste their favourite flavours and left with information on Crossroads, and even many with an interest in volunteering with us! At the end of the day, the donation boxes tallied over $29,000HK! We are so grateful for the opportunity to spread awareness about Crossroads as well as receive donations in such a unique and 'cool' way.