For this Hong Kong charity, where there’s a wheel, there’s a way to help the down-and-out
Remar Association uses Mitsubishi truck to pick up donated furniture and has plans for new van to transport drug addicts to Yuen Long rehab centre
John Silva and his teammates, many of them his countrymen, looked at the newly collected used furniture and housewares stacked inside their truck with interest.
“It has been our tool for survival,” said the Portuguese national, who runs the non-profit organisation Remar Association Hong Kong. He is referring to the Mitsubishi Canter parked near the association’s outpost in a Yuen Long village.
On its website, Remar describes itself as a “Christian charity organisation working for the rehabilitation and reinsertion into society of drug addicts, alcoholics, down-and-outs, the homeless and the needy in general”.
The association received funding two years ago from Operation Santa Claus, an annual donation drive organised by the South China Morning Post and RTHK, to purchase the truck to support its rehabilitation programmes for street sleepers, who in many cases are also drug addicts.
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Using the truck, the Remar Hong Kong volunteers pick up a wide range of donated items like furniture, home appliances, clothes and educational toys. After being repaired, these items are sold as second-hand goods to raise money for the organisation.