Financial advice for Hong Kong’s less well off pays dividends for everyone
Convoy Financial Holdings not only sponsors charitable events, it believes in actually lending a hand to tackle poverty
Getting advice on financial management is mostly something the well-off engage in: how do I take this chunk of money and make more out of it? How should I best plan for buying property?
“But if you think about it, the grass roots are more likely to need help with managing what they have to make life work,” says Rosetta Fong Sut-sam, group vice-chairman and executive director of Convoy Financial Holdings.
Her company is just about to open a “Life Investment Centre” in Sham Shui Po, to be run by Social Ventures Hong Kong, which will offer pro bono consultancy services to the community, including advice on personal finance, legal affairs, health care, as well as parenting and family empowerment issues.
“We’ll also do research through the centre to figure out what impoverished families really need, so as to come up with better ideas for poverty alleviation.”
Fong is excited about the possibilities of this new social initiative, but Convoy is no newcomer to community service. The company is not only a keen sponsor of many charitable events, it also believes in lending a physical helping hand.
Through actively engaging in charity work, Fong and her company’s volunteers have come to realise there are some seriously marginalised groups in society. “So we’ve decided to reach out to them because they are the ones really not getting any resources.”
Unison, which works to promote racial harmony and equality in the city, says it is thankful Convoy “actually spent time with NGOs to strategise how best to provide support to the community.” Its staff met Unison, for example, to understand the difficulties facing ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, and have made plans to hold talks in schools on financial literacy.
Last year the company raised funds for Unison through the RunOurCity Totem Run, of which Convoy was the title sponsor. Money aside, they also formed two teams, each with one experienced Convoy runner leading three South or Southeast Asian secondary school students, to complete a 16km run through Tai Mo Shan. The eight trained hard together before the event, and went on hikes through the MacLehose trail to get to know it.
With volunteering, we say we want to help others, but actually we always end up learning so much
“It was great seeing that interaction,” Fong, who attended training sessions as a cheerleader, recalls fondly. “Society often judges by looks, and people who look different get different treatment. We just hope everyone gets an equal chance.”
Fong, 47, noticed how easily the kids would feel happy and content. “We need to learn from them. Nowadays, people feel they have so much pressure, but often it’s because they demand too much from life and themselves.
“With volunteering, we say we want to help others, but actually we always end up learning so much.”
Fong, who’s been with Convoy for 18 years, is proud her company has attracted such a large team of energetic, proactive, community-minded staff. “At the start of each year, our volunteering committee holds a meeting to decide on that year’s activities. There are 20 members on that team, more than our management,” she chuckles.
Nurturing this kind of company culture can make a real difference to employees’ sense of belonging to their work and to society. Convoy has made this happen, Unison believes, by providing an “encouraging and friendly environment for its staff to build a sense of compassion.”
