Fundraising in a financial crisis is difficult but two Perth women who gave it a go have succeeded.
By Robert Hiini
Three fundraising dinners and $9000 to show for them. That’s what two Perth Catholics and a dedicated team of volunteers have achieved to date with all monies going to the work of Fr Luis Ruiz and his workers amongst China’s leper and HIV-AIDS communities.
Alice Tsang and Dorothy Tse only decided to organise the dinners a little over a month ago and have been selling Chinese candy made by one of their friends to raise extra money for the cause.
The dinners took place at the Fitzgerald Seafood Restaurant in North Perth on Sunday nights from August 30 – Septemer 13, with each featuring a presentation on the work of the Spanish priest and his welfare agency, Casa Ricci Social Services, based in Macau.
The presentations were delivered by Dr Benedict King, a lecturer in medicine at UWA and Notre Dame, whose mother Regina had come to know the work of Fr Ruiz personally after meeting him at a dinner party hosted by a mutual friend in Macau over 20 years ago.
Organiser Dorothy Tse told The Record that of the $9000 raised, $3000 came from donations – a tribute, she said, to the generosity of those who participated.
She said they had also approached Were Estate Wineries in Margaret River to donate wine to be auctioned off, eventually auctioning 41 bottles over three nights.