newsbytes@clarinet.com (01/14/90)
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- A charity drive organized by the information technology industry in aid of underprivileged children at Christmas realized only one tenth of its target and the deadline is to be extended. The IT Industry Charity Fund (ITICF), backed by the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, the Hong Kong Computer Society, the Telecommunications Users' Group and the Hong Kong Management IT Committee, aimed to collect $128,000 in the run-up to Christmas, but by the December 20th deadline only a little more than $12,000 had been realized. A new deadline has been set for January 20th. Hong Kong has a long tradition of collecting vast amounts for various charities throughout the year and has even been featured in the Guiness Book of World Records as making the biggest per capita contributions to charity in the world. So what went wrong with the ITICF drive? Committee chairman, Philip Wong of AST Asia, says the campaign received strong support initially, with many organizations responding with donations or pledges, but the amount collected by the original deadline was much less than expected. "Maybe we set our sights a bit too high. On the other hand, the IT industry has done very well in Hong Kong. I think some of the large organizations would be glad to have an opportunity to turn some of their profit back to the community, even if it isn't this charity but some other." The organizers also feel they probably kicked off the campaign a bit too late in the year. Fortunately, the industry still has the perfect excuse to put matters right in the shape of Lunar New Year, the most important of all local festivals, starting on January 26th, when everybody wishes everybody else health and good fortune and exchanges gifts with the greeting "Kung Hei Fat Choy." (Norman Wingrove/19900113/Press Contact: Mike Dunn, Media Dynamics Ltd, + 852 838 3889)