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Committed to Supporting the SDGs Adopted by the United Nations, Revitalise and Reshape Charity Affairs during COVID and beyond
Cathay, The Hub Hong Kong and Articoin have joined hands to utilise blockchain and NFT technology to pave the way for new and sustainable fundraising channels for NGOs, a field devastatingly hit by the pandemic, and to support green initiatives and sustainability through green NFTs. (Watch the project video here)
The collaboration started with a painting contest themed 'My Home in Sham Shui Po'1 . Over 50 children and teenagers aged from 6 to 18 at The Hub Hong Kong participated and unleashed their imagination and creativity with their paintbrushes to depict a Sham Shui Po story that is imprinted on their minds and memories. Top 5 pieces from the children's group and the teenagers' group have been selected and awarded respectively.
Their work of joy and lightheartedness - contrasting with Sham Shui Po's stereotypical image in the city of being predominantly poor and overcrowded - are minted as 5,000 NFTs and sold on Cathay's shopping platform, Cathay shop and Articoin's Proof-of-Capacity (PoC)2 Green NFT platform.
Two champions share their behind-the-scenes story and thoughts into the arts, "Sham Shui Po is where I experience friendly neighbourhoods and I feel loved being around mom and dad. We are not rich, but I love my warm home," said Chun Ho Lam (9). "In my artwork I chose warm colours to depict the sensation of warm family bonding. I also included Sham Shui Po's iconic landmarks, such as Nam Cheong Pawn Shop and street food stalls, that audiences can relate and identify almost right away," said Hiu Ching Yu, the 14-year-old.
The participating parties also share the common values of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations, revitalising and reshaping charitable affairs with the minting of green NFTs. Compared with the enormous carbon footprint generated by traditional blockchain consensus algorithms, Green NFT platform Articoin is backed by the more energy-friendly PoC mechanism, reducing carbon emissions by a large extent (2,600 times).
Not typical of most NFTs on-chain, which are available for secondary market trading, the 'My Home in Sham Shui Po' NFTs will serve as exclusive collectibles for donors. These NFTs are released as limited editions and can be purchased with Asia Miles, cash or Miles Plus Cash, on Cathay's shopping platform, Cathay shop and then redeemed on Articoin. Direct purchase on Articoin's platform by credit card and debit card is also available.
Josephine Leung, Executive Director at The Hub Hong Kong, said, "Since the outbreak of COVID-19 two years ago, fundings, staff and operations at charities all around the world have experienced significant cut-backs due to social distancing and donors' income plunge resulting from the global economic depression during the pandemic. Great difficulties were inevitably imposed on our fundraising too at The Hub. The emergence of blockchain and NFTs offers our charity work a new perspective and possibility. And we are grateful to have two highly-regarded partners and supporters to make this happen together. All net funds raised from the campaign will go to support the much-needed education and development programs for underprivileged children at The Hub Hong Kong."
Andy Wong, General Manager Corporate Affairs at Cathay, said, "As Hong Kong's home airline, we're delighted to be collaborating with The Hub Hong Kong and Articoin to share these wonderful creations, which showcase both the creativity of our younger generation and the beauty of our home city, in a sustainable and responsible way. Through these NFTs, we hope to provide an innovative new way for people to lend their support to the incredible charitable work being done to help the vulnerable in our community."
Larry Lam and Peggy Cheung, Co-Founders of Articoin, said, "We are really proud to be part of this meaningful initiative to use technology to help low-income families in Hong Kong. That has always been what we set out to do.
"During COVID, all school activities have been cancelled. Especially through this experience, we felt strongly what tough situations these disadvantaged children had to face within their four walls every single day.
"It has been our pleasure to help organisations like The Hub Hong Kong, who during this period struggled to launch traditional fundraising events like flag-selling. Using technology, we are essentially creating a new channel to redistribute resources within our society.
"Looking at these NFT artworks touches our hearts. It makes us feel really hopeful about what the future holds!"
Sham Shui Po has been one of the hardest hit areas during COVID, "many children in the area live in very cramped spaces and lack even rudimentary learning facilities to keep up with their school classes. Yet the young and pure souls narrated such a cheerful and beautiful story of their homes for us. It's a truly refreshing splurge of positive energy and we hope to continue creating this happy space for them, as highlighted in our brand slogan," added Leung.
Notes to Editors:
'My Home in Sham Shui Po' NFT sale page on Articoin:
https://www.thearticoin.com/campaigns/TheHub202205
'My Home in Sham Shui Po' NFT Campaign page on Cathay official website:
https://lifestyle.asiamiles.com/en/campaign/nftforgood
Video, high-resolution images and individual stories of 'My Home in Sham Shui Po' paintings can be accessed from the following link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1d2OW4JU2m0pu7OABEmQrqsXyXUWK ZMCG?usp=sharing
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For over 75 years, Cathay Pacific has been connecting our home city of Hong Kong to the world. Now we're bringing that connection to more of our customers' lives. The new era of Cathay elevates their every bite, swipe, step, stay and flight to greater heights. http://www.cathaypacific.com
For more information about Cathay's commitment to sustainability and work with the community, please visit our sustainability website: sustainability.cathaypacific.com/
About The Hub Hong Kong
The HUB is a children's support concept which provides educational support, extra-curricular classes, family counselling, social health and wellbeing services to those who need it most without discrimination. The Hub Children and Youth Centre was founded in 2013 in Sham Shui Po, with the support of the Rotary Club of Kowloon North and from the funds raised from its first charity dinner. Children and teenagers are the future of Hong Kong; however, a significant number of families lack proper support and resources for their kids. The Hub Hong Kong believes that every child should receive first-grade and educational and diverse development support. Empowering children and teenagers from the underprivileged community is the key to sustaining and strengthening Hong Kong's competitiveness. The Hub Hong Kong aims to be "The Happy Space for Young Minds," with four key programme categories covered: Education, Empowerment, Development, and Family Relief. The centre now serves over 3,000 members in Sham Shui Po.
Visit The Hub Hong Kong's website: https://www.thehubhk.org/?lang=en.
About Articoin
Articoin is an innovative Green NFT platform that combines art and technology to promote sustainable income to support artists and ESG causes.
With our own "Proof-of-Capacity" blockchain, we use 2,600 times less energy in the process than conventional Ethereum-based marketplaces. We are the first to bundle art with Carbon Credits, bridging the opportunity for consumers to participate in carbon-offset initiatives. We also built our own proprietary AI technology to generate and view multi-media art.
Certain Green NFTs on Articoin are currently tied with the option to get Carbon Credits generated from CLP's wind farm in India. More partners who are working on different carbon-reduction projects from around the world can be expected to be integrated onto Articoin this year.
In less than 1 year, our community already has more than 10,000 artists and 12 million art pieces in Asia. We successfully attracted over 30 multinational corporate clients and partners, including K11, and worked with more than 10 major international and local NGOs and charities, such as Fu Hong Society, Zheng Sheng and Food Angel.
Using NFT art as a medium to raise awareness and funds for charities and NGOs, we aim to donate $4 million to our charitable partners while offsetting 10,000 tonnes of carbon emissions in 2022.
1 Sham Shui Po is one of the poorest districts in Hong Kong, with a poverty rate standing high at 26.5% and over 109,000 households living in poverty, according to the HKSAR Government's Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report 2020.
2 PoC is one of the consensus algorithms used in blockchains in addition to PoW (Proof-of-Work), PoS (Proof-of-Stake) and others. It is regarded as a less energy-consuming mechanism especially compared with the PoW mechanism which is used by Bitcoin. Blockchains that run on PoC include Storj, Burst, Chia and so on.
