Chinese New Year Celebration at Horfield Parish Church Hall: Saturday 21st January

On Saturday 21st January at Horfield Parish Church Hall there will be a Chinese New Year Celebration and all of the local community are invited.

The event will take place from 12 – 3pm and there will be lots of fantastic activities on offer for both children and adults to enjoy.

Activities include a Chinese Lion Dance, crafts, games, face painting, pre-loved toys and book sale and a raffle, not to mention some delicious home-made Taiwanese/Chinese food!

All profits from the Chinese New Year Celebration will be donated to Aid Box Community, a Bristol-based humanitarian organisation dedicated to distributing emergency aid to refugees and asylum seekers in Bristol and across Europe.

The event is being organised by local mum, Ming-Li Bogue, who lives in Horfield and a group of her friends from the BS7 area and beyond; all of whom wanted to do something about the horrific situation faced by many of the refugees that Aid Box Community supports.

This is the second such event that Ming-Li and her friends have organised, and follows the success of a Chinese New Year celebration which they held last January at the same venue which raised money for Aid Box Convoy and Refugee Child.

Ming-Li explains:

“Last year’s Chinese New Year Celebration was a great success. We sold all the food (people are still talking about our yummy home-made dishes), the crafts table and the face painting were very popular and the performances were wonderful.”

The event was such a success that it raised £2000 which was gratefully received by both Aid Box Convoy and Refugee Child, enabling both organisations to continue their much-needed work at the frontline.

However, as the refugees’ situation is no better, Ming-Li and her friends wanted to continue with their fundraising efforts:

“A year has passed since our last fundraiser, but sadly the refugee’s situation is still heart-breaking. The terrible stories and horrendous images continue.

“The situation inhumane…. Little children, some as young as 3 years old are alone without their parents or anyone they know. They are being left completely alone, all by themselves, in this bitterly cold winter. No warm clothes, no hot bath, no food and no place to go.

“They are hungry, cold, traumatised and lost. My heart aches so much every time I think of those young children. I cannot imagine my two beautiful children going through what these children are experiencing.

“At the end of 2016, thousands of refugees, including pregnant women, young children and old people, were forced to sleep in the streets of Paris, the “City of Love”. They are desperate for help. We must do what we can.”

Ming-Li and her friends have therefore set a target to raise twice as much money than last year’s event in the hope of helping more people.

Therefore, the group have upped their efforts and this year’s Chinese New Year Celebration will have even more food, extra games for the children, plus the Red Chinese Lion (which you can watch below being performed at Bristol Museum) will perform at the event too!