The AustCham Shanghai community rallied together before
Christmas to send a truck-load of warm clothes and donations to one
of its three Corporate Social Responsibility partners, The Renewal
Center, Shanghai.
The Renewal Center is a drop-in resource center and employment
assistance initiative for Shanghai's homeless population, the
majority of whom are migrants. (Click here to
view photos.)
Thanks to Allied Pickfords for their generous help in
transporting the donations, and all who donated items.
The Renewal Center guests with boxes of donated
clothes
A Renewal Center guest in his new clothes
Interview with Jimmy McWhinney, Director of The Renewal Center,
Shanghai
How many people do you think have and will
benefit?
With the amount of clothes donated, I'm thinking between 70-100
people will benefit.
Approximately how many boxes/items were
donated?
21 boxes. Most were clothes (which we need the most) but other
donations included wood grills which we're going to try out on our
new balcony when the weather warms up a bit and some other random
stuff, for example, a bunch of airplane keychains and stuff which
make nice gifts.
What are you focusing on providing (in terms of
services/support) during the cold winter months?
For our homeless guests we mainly just try to keep them warm with
clothes. Shoes and jackets are the hardest to come by. We purchase
long underwear and socks when we run out of donations because
they're so important. Typically our residency program
(shelter) is open only to people entering our employment
assistance program, but this winter we're making one
large room available for some of our guests we know have no
other reasonable alternative for shelter. (The Shanghai Government
also provides emergency shelters.)
How does AustCham Shanghai's support assist the
center?
AustCham Shanghai is one of our founding members that got us off
the ground both with strategic financial support and partnerships
with businesses in providing internship opportunities for young men
who are looking to move off the street into stability and jobs.
(Mesa & Manifesto and the Anken Group are two examples.) The
expertise of other AustCham Shanghai members (iAction and Kommune,
for example) have been very helpful in our program in terms of
facilities and program management. I really feel like AustCham
Shanghai is a wonderfully strategic partner for us because it
brings so many businesses with such a diversity of resources to the
table! We're looking forward to more of this in 2012 and this
clothing drive is not only a great service for us but a good way to
get the word out about our service to Shanghai's homeless
population.
For more information on AustCham Shanghai's Corporate Social
Responsibility program, run by a dynamic Steering Group of 12
people, click
here.