Shopping for Charity – a Lesson from Hong Kong

Do you know what are you supporting when you shop? Before placing a new item in your shopping basket, think twice and look for a good cause behind common brand names. By connecting business with charity and harnessing consumers’ power to support a meaningful cause - this is how companies should be doing business today.

Autor*in Louisa Wong -, 12.26.13

Do you know what are you supporting when you shop? Before placing a new item in your shopping basket, think twice and look for a good cause behind common brand names. By connecting business with charity and harnessing consumers’ power to support a meaningful cause – this is how companies should be doing business today.

Christmas is the season of giving – a time when the privileged spread love, care and joy to the poor and underprivileged. They need your help in this festive season”. I’m sure you’ve seen these emotional words somewhere. In Hong Kong, there are currently some 7,500 charities, with donations topping an annual HK$9 billion.

That a small city like Hong Kong compares favourably with many countries in the giving stakes is quite impressive. “Hong Kong has an extraordinary fundraising infrastructure. People are socially aware and donate generously to charities”, says Allicia Wieser in an interview with South China Morning Post (17 December, 2013). Together with Samar Shaheryar, an active mother also based in Hong Kong and with a passion for helping others, they started an online baby outfit’s store Baby Hero and a foundation. Through their business, they hope to generate money to help women in Pakistan with lives-saving interventions. Two inspired mothers launched their sustainable business selling organically and fair trade certified baby outfits to raise funds to help expectant mothers in developing countries. The birthing kit for which they fundraise and deliver was designed to reduce the chance of infection during birth.

Referring to some official statistics by the World Health Organization (WHO), about 800 women in developing countries die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth every day. The chance of a mother surviving pregnancy and childbirth depends highly upon where she lives. A Kenyan mother is said to have a 95 times higher chance of losing her life through pregnancy than a French mother. 

Samar and Allicia’s business cares not only for deprived mothers in the third world, but also for the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in India. They collaborate with organic cotton producing cooperatives in India and make sure all garments are produced under fair trade standards. Cotton is one of the leading agricultural non-food commodities and ranks among the top consumers of agrochemicals, it accounts for 16 percent of insecticide releases that exceeds all other major crops in terms in insecticides application; organic cotton farming enables farmers to substitute toxic chemicals with organic pest and disease control, and so their health conditions can improve.

Shopping for a good cause

As an article from theguardian.com on ethical consumerism says “Being an ethical consumer means buying products which were ethically produced and which are not harmful to the environment and society. Ethical consumption can be a powerful tool for change”.

Let’s remember this: we can all influence and make a difference.

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