A Serious Appeal

Hi Folks

Some of you may be aware that I am taking a group of 16 students to England and France this year as part of our annual study tour. Our plans have been seriously affected by the collapse of Oasis Airline. We are going to be seriously short of funds for this trip and I am seeking sponsorship, assistance, call it what you may to help my students.

Background Info

The name of my school is Lee Kau Yan Memorial School and is in San Po Kong. It is not an international school and the students who attend this school come mostly from the San Po Kong/Wong Tai Sin district. This is an area with high unemployment levels, many single-parent families and a fair number of socio-economic problems. My students are all from low income families. For most of them, this is their first trip outside Hong Kong, other than trips to China where many of them originally come from. For all of them it is their first trip to Europe and one they had been looking forward to excitedly. They range in age from Form 1 (11 years old) to Form 6 (17/18 years old).

The Tour

I have arranged everything myself and will also be doing all the teaching. This was in an attempt to make it affordable to our students. In London we are staying in a youth hostel at Rotherhithe and in Paris some cheap no star hostel somewhere in the sticks. This will be the 7th study tour I have arranged at my school and the first one in which we will not be using a local language school or staying with host families. This, I believe, is a first for local schools and has put me very much in the firing line should anything go wrong. For this tour the parents are paying $18,000, well below ( a good $5000 to $6000) any other study tour in HK going to England. And what a great start it has been!!!

The Loss

We have paid $3500 for each ticket and about $1700 per person in taxes. I sincerely hope we will at least get the tax back, but I hold out no hope for the rest of the money. We have pre-paid all the accommodation in London and Paris, transport, theatre shows, tourist attraction fees and Eurostar. The trip really must go ahead. However, no airline has come to our rescue and the cheapest ticket I can get for our group is with Air New Zealand. The cost per person is $6000 plus an additional $2000 in tax. This is a real nightmare as we cannot ask the parents to pay more.

The Appeal

Do any of you work for companies that might consider making a donation or sponsoring part of our trip? Could it be used to offest tax or something like that? I have no idea of the financial world but I sure do know how to lose money :-( We have featured both in the Chinese and English press as well as on TV. However, nothing has been forthcoming and next Wednesday I have to make a decision. Should anyone think their company can help in anyway, I can supply more information as well as relevant newspaper cuttings. Of course any donation or sponsorship will be recognised officially by the school with full razzmatazz or total discretion.

PM me, email me, sms me or call me if you think you could help.

Sorry to put out this appeal but today has been a desperate day fending off one problem after another.

Thanks for reading this far.

John (mob 62211584)

email: ozspur@gmail.com



The Tour

Wish I could help you out, John, but there's no way my current employer would do something so beneficent.

You should try the guys who work for big multinationals that may like the whole publicity corporate social responsibility angle.

Sadly cannot help either. I did ask.

08'09 promises to be a tough year so companies are tightening their belts.

How did you pay for the tickets, John? I paid by Hang Seng bank credit card and I am hounding them for a refund as, if I understand the rules correctly, my contract is with the card and not the merchant, so if the product I've bought doesn't appear they should refund me. I haven't got any promises yet but they've acknowledged my request and I will badger them to the ends of the earth until they're so sick of me that they give me my money to make me go away.