History
How did our organization get started? A group of friends, who later became the committee members of the group, gathered in a dinner reunion and all of them wanted to be the one to treat. One of them finally came up with an interesting suggestion – all participants except the one who paid for the dinner, would donate 10% of the total bill amount for charity. This simple suggestion finally gathered the loving hearts of the founding members into the establishment of our organization.
Ten Percent Donation Scheme Foundation was established in 2007 to encourage the donations from the society. Our mission is to eliminate the pass of poverty onto next generations by subsidizing the education expenses of students in Hong Kong. We are a non-government organization (NGO) and are non-religious, non-political and non-profitable.
Although Hong Kong is an affluent city, the poverty rate still continues to be rise. According to “Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report 2019”, the number of poor households in Hong Kong reached 640,000, the number of poor people reached 1.491million, and the poverty rate accounted for 21.4% which increase 1 % over 2018. Among them, the poor population and poverty rate of children have risen, and the poverty rate has reached 17.8%. It shows that the problem of poverty is getting worse.
It reflects that low income families cannot afford sufficient resources on education for their children, passing the poverty problem to the next generation. Hence, we aimed to subsidize the education expenses of poor children in Hong Kong. We hope to help children to have a more comprehensive learning environment, enhance their development spaces, and improve the problem of intergenerational poverty.
To ensure nearly 100% of the donations could use on the relevant parties and organizations in need, the committee members in the organization are working on voluntarily basis. In order to avoid any unnecessary expenses, all the meetings and working places are held in different committee members’ office.
Our funds raised have successfully helped many people in need:
In the past, we helped the poor students in Mainland China to finish their university education. We supported the “College Dream Project” (「中國希望工程之圓夢行動」) and “Ten Percent Hope Community” (「十分關愛冷泉村青少年希望社區」). Other project such as “Ten Percent Learning Pregame”(「十分關愛學習計劃」) , set up “MPR Read and Fun” for five kindergartens, etc.
In addition, we have also organized a “Sapling Project” to support students with special learning disabilities. In addition to lack of financial support, the poor students assisted by this project have insufficient living, knowledge or congenital conditions, leading to their academic or other studies. Difficulties, even emotional, behavioral and communication problems, and it is difficult to integrate into the campus and society. The Association hopes that in addition to improving the above-mentioned problems, students can also get some support on their growth path. As a result, they can thrive and become outstanding pillars of society in the future, and educate them to serve the same group, contribute to society within the scope of their abilities, and develop a spirit of helping others and self-help.
At present, we are focusing on subsidizing primary school students in Hong Kong, hoping to provide them with a good learning environment and diversified development space and opportunities. We are cooperating with various organizations to organize “after-school support programs”.
We hope to have more co-operations with other charity groups or organizations, and motivated more people to participate in the donation, to broaden the beneficiaries in the society.