Jeff Rotmeyer
FIVE MINUTES WITH
Nicole Slater meets the founder and CEO of ImpactHK
The ImpactHK team in action
Moving to the Hong Kong to teach English over 16 years ago, Jeff Rotmeyer has always been passionate about charity work and began coaching football to refugees and asylum seekers in his free time soon after his arrival. As the second most expensive city in the world (according to The Mercer Cost of Living Survey 2021), housing has been an ongoing problem for many residents. But it wasn’t until Rotmeyer was introduced to a park in Sham Shui Po and saw over a hundred individuals sleeping around the area, that he understood
the true extent of Hong Kong’s issue with homelessness. “I never thought of the homeless or knew there was even a problem here. I was completely blind to the issue,” he says. He set up ImpactHK in 2017, intending to simply distribute meals to the less fortunate outside once per month. In just four years the non-profit organisation has served over 500 meals daily and has helped nearly 400 individuals get off the streets. “The homeless issue continues to get worse year by year. However, through ImpactHK we’ve seen thousands of volunteers coming together to care and stand up for those experiencing homelessness.” Through fundraising, volunteer programmes and Kindness Walks, ImpactHK has been tackling homelessness as holistically as possible. The non-profit organisation even has its own community centre, Centre 29 in Tai Kok Tsui where people can go for shelter and food support, along with daily activities, mental health support programmes, senior support, employment assistance programmes and more. “We see new people coming through our doors daily and distribute 300 meal boxes seven days a week. Centre 29 is a place where people are welcome and safe,” says Rotmeyer. This year also saw the opening of ImpactHK’s first retail store 1ofaKIND, which sells high-quality clothing samples from top designer brands at low prices, employs
individuals who were previously homeless and raises funds to give others an opportunity. Not only are the staff in the store previously homeless but almost 50 percent of ImpactHK’s staff and volunteers are individuals whom they first met sleeping outside. “It’s been amazing to see so many people making it a priority in their lives to do what they can to support and the results of that care show.” For many organisations throughout the city and world, the past few years have been financially challenging, with donations dropping. ImpactHK has also seen a large increase in homelessness, with the average age getting younger and a doubling for female residents. “Our work is challenging to say the least but I couldn’t be more proud of our team for their constant care and hard work. Every day we are doing our best to give this community outside, who are facing incredible pain and challenges, the very best opportunity we can.” This Christmas the non-profit organisation will be fundraising for our Full Time Assistants Programme, which employs individuals off the streets to care for and help people who are in similar situations. Over the next year, ImpactHK is aiming to improve its mental health and drug rehabilitation programme and continue to give everyone more opportunities and services. impacthk.org
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