Crossroads Foundation
| 國際十字路會 | |
| Formation | 1995 |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-profit charity |
| Headquarters | Tuen Mun |
|
Key people
|
Malcolm and Sally Begbie |
| Affiliations | United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |
|
Staff
|
70 |
| Website | Official website |
|
Formerly called
|
Crossroads International |
Crossroads Foundation is a non-profit charity based in Hong Kong which connects those with resources and those who need help. They do this through collecting quality excess and second-hand goods within Hong Kong, refurbishing them if necessary, and then distributing them to those in need within Hong Kong and internationally.
Crossroads also runs interactive and immersive simulations to give participants an experience of needs like urban poverty, refugees, HIV/Aids and blindness, through their Global X-perience programmes. Crossroads supports fair trade and social enterprise with a Global Handicrafts marketplace selling fairly traded goods from around the world and their Silk Road Cafe, serving fair trade coffee and other beverages and snacks. Crossroads' online project, Global Hand, offers a website where companies and others from the for-profit world can find non-profit projects to partner on. Global Hand has offices in both Hong Kong and Tunbridge Wells, UK.
A bicycle repair workshop, staffed by volunteers, refurbishes donated old bikes for despatch overseas to provide mobility, or locally to needy children and families.
Crossroads began charitable work in 1995. Malcolm, an accountant, and Sally, a public relations consultant, had volunteered their expertise to charities assisting communities in Northern China during the floods of 1995. Upon being asked by one of the charities to send aid, the Begbies collected donations throughout Hong Kong and sent an initial shipment of nineteen boxes. As organizations began requesting more aid, the Begbies sent shipments of 72, 136, and finally 248 boxes. Hong Kong’s Social Welfare Department noted their growth, and Crossroads became a registered NGO.
Three weeks after its inception, Crossroads has already received ten tons of donated goods. After providing medical equipment to a clinic in Ghana, Crossroads began receiving requests from around the world. The influx of requests prompted Crossroads to create Global Hand. According to the Begbies, “We thought, ‘Surely there should be a match-making service online for companies who want to help charities!’ There wasn’t, though, so we built one. Later, the United Nations asked us to build a version for them because they, too, wanted companies to help them battle world need.”
Crossroads has expanded their operations throughout their existence. Crossroads opened a fair-trade marketplace to support families and small businesses from impoverished communities worldwide. In 2005, Crossroads put on a ‘poverty simulation’ for business leaders in Hong Kong. Participants had to build slum homes and live in the simulated poverty environment for 24 hours. Crossroads now has six different simulations and thousands of participants every year.
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Wikipedia