Wells Fargo Volunteers Prepare HFH China’s Hong Kong Fishing Village Project

June Launch For Tai O Project; Four Home Repairs For Elderly Residents In First Phase

HONG KONG, 20th May 2010: A eight-member team from financial services company Wells Fargo recently lent a helping hand to Habitat for Humanity China ahead of the official launch of its first major home restoration project in Hong Kong.

Wells Fargo volunteers helping to tidy up the stilt house of a Habitat home partner.

Volunteers also prepared the wood to be used in construction.

Some of the Wells Fargo volunteers with executive vice-president and Asia regional manager Cliff Lawrence (front row, left) and the Habitat home partner.

The restoration project will transform lives, especially elderly residents, in a fishing community in Tai O village on the southwest coast of Lantau island, near the international airport.

The Hong Kong branch of Wells Fargo, headquartered in San Francisco, the U.S., also committed HK84,000 (about US10,800) for 30 staff members to volunteer in the Tai O project.

Led by Wells Fargo’s executive vice-president and Asia regional manager Cliff Lawrence, the volunteers helped with pre-build preparations and tidying up. They visited three Habitat home partners, helped an elderly woman to remove clutter from her stilt house and prepared wood and timber to be used in the construction.

The team’s effort came before the official launch of the restoration project on 9th June.

A five-day volunteer build is scheduled in June with another one in August. The next batch of Wells Fargo volunteers will head to Tai O on 11th and 12th June. Other volunteers include students from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

HFH China’s partner in the project is Young Women’s Christian Association. The first phase is to repair four houses belonging to low-income elderly residents. The houses are all built on stilts above the sea, but have fallen into disrepair.

The second phase will involve repairs and maintenance work on an additional 20 stilt houses. Solar panels will be also installed. In a third phase, HFH China plans to make initial improvements to existing sanitation facilities and train residents on maintaining their stilt homes.