November 2014

The UNICEF Club at CDNIS (https://www.facebook.com/unicefcdnis) aims to raise awareness, promote and help children around the world. We held a pizza sale on 31st October, 2014 as part of our fundraiser for the upcoming UNICEF Feast later on in the year. For the UNICEF Feast, we partner with the organisation Christian Action to invite refugees to our school to participate in activities such as sports and share dinner towards the end of the night.

At the pizza fundraiser, students had a chance to receive a discount if they answered some questions relating to our club correctly. Facts were posted on the US Daily Announcements prior to the sale. Overall, this sale was successful and allowed us to start funding for the UNICEF feast. Our next focus is the Family Fun Fair where we will be bringing Holly Brown Gelato (http://www.hollybrowncoffee.com/) to help raise money and awareness about the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

We would like to thank the school community for supporting the Engage Myanmar Book Drive. In total we raised close to $10,000. That will enable us to purchase over 200 new books. We also collected over 400 books! Watch the video here about what Engage Myanmar does with the books.

The CDNIS, Habitat for Humanity (HFH) club (https://www.facebook.com/hfhcdnis) focuses on promoting awareness of the global issue of substandard housing to the school community. October was Habitat month at CDNIS and we had a series of events! On October 6th, also known as World Habitat Day, students who had been on build trips wore their distinctive HFH build trip t-shirts to school! We felt this was a great conversation starter and raised awareness about our build trips.

During the month, we also had our first bake sale and raised more than $2000. Another component of Habitat month was our HFH board game. It was about simulating the life of those who live in sub-poverty housing and was great way for participants and viewers alike to learn about the problems they deal with.

Lastly, we created a wooden house installation filled with profiles and photos of the families and villages we’ve helped on build trips over the last 6 years. We also decorated the house with our “Friends of HFH” bricks that people signed and wrote messages on. This house will be up till next week, so feel free to stop by the 9th floor to check it out and even sign a brick! All in all, October was a very active and successful month for HFH!

The Interact Club in CDNIS is a student organised group sponsored by Hong Kong’s Rotary Organisation (https://www.facebook.com/groups/131451460286851/). The club’s mission statement is to tackle local and global issues by participating in monthly service activities. For the month of October, the Interact Club took part in the Pink Walk for Breast Health, an event aimed to raise much needed awareness and funds towards the Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation (http://www.hkbcf.org/pinkwalk/eng/). Prior to the event, the Interact Club hosted an advocacy campaign on October 8, aiming to educate students about the purpose and significance of the event through interactive activities. Students were also encouraged to donate a minimum of $200 to raise funds for the organisation. Because of the advocacy campaign, on the day of the walk (Sunday, October 19), dozens of students participated with a clear understanding on how they were making an impact towards their local community. Definitely not a bad way to start a Sunday morning!