CHARLES KONG SOO

On the Tues­day be­fore Christ­mas busi­ness­man Ping Hong Lau from Gold­en Far East Ltd do­nat­ed toys, food sup­plies, elec­tron­ic equip­ment, and a cheque to the La­dy Ho­choy Home, Co­corite, to bring some Christ­mas cheer and to as­sist those most vul­ner­a­ble dur­ing this chal­leng­ing time with COVID-19.

To­geth­er with his wife, Tong Jian Meng, Lau made the do­na­tion which con­sist­ed of a cheque for $3,000, ten bags of jas­mine rice, ten box­es of noo­dle soup, a flat-screen tele­vi­sion, speak­ers, head­sets, and toys for the chil­dren.

Michael Chen, the own­er of Dim Sum King Restau­rant, in San Fer­nan­do, was al­so on hand to present a cheque for $3,500 to the home, plus an­oth­er cheque for $3,000 on be­half of Wan’s Chi­nese Restau­rant, from Mara­bel­la.

La­dy Ho­choy Home prin­ci­pal Sis­ter Bertill Dean and oth­er staff were ap­pre­cia­tive of the good­will ges­ture.

Speak­ing to Sun­day Guardian on Tues­day Lau said "I have been mak­ing do­na­tions every year to var­i­ous char­i­ties and the needy since 2014 with­out pub­lic­i­ty. This isn't the first time I've do­nat­ed to the home. I'm one of the founders of a char­i­ty group, we don't have an of­fi­cial name, that makes con­tri­bu­tions to de­serv­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions through­out the coun­try and not on­ly at Christ­mas time.

"I give dif­fer­ent items and mon­ey de­pend­ing on the needs of the peo­ple.

"In 2015, as one of the mem­bers in the T&T Chi­nese Mu­tu­al Sup­port As­so­ci­a­tion, we matched the Chi­nese Em­bassy's do­na­tion of $30,000 to the Laven­tille com­mu­ni­ty and we al­so do­nat­ed 1,100 toys and gifts."

He said af­ter the ma­jor floods in 2017 in cen­tral and south Trinidad, he and mem­bers of the Chi­nese Mer­chants' As­so­ci­a­tion from the South do­nat­ed ma­te­r­i­al to af­fect­ed res­i­dents and were al­so ac­tive in the South of the coun­try.

Lau said when mem­bers of the Chi­nese busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty were killed in rob­beries, they al­so pooled their re­sources to of­fer fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to the fam­i­lies of the de­ceased busi­ness peo­ple.

He said dur­ing the COVID-19 cri­sis, he and oth­er busi­ness peo­ple came to­geth­er and do­nat­ed masks and hand san­i­tiz­ers to po­lice of­fi­cers, Gov­ern­ment work­ers, hos­pi­tal staff and front­line work­ers. Lau do­nat­ed $10,000 and hand san­i­tiz­ers.

He said when he was help­ing oth­ers do­ing char­i­ta­ble work, he can bless oth­ers and felt hap­py to be of ser­vice to his fel­low men.

Lau said he will con­tin­ue to do char­i­ta­ble work as long as there were peo­ple in need.

He said he en­cour­aged oth­er peo­ple if they are able,

to do the same char­i­ta­ble work to help their broth­ers and sis­ters in dif­fi­cult time.