COVID-19 is a global crisis but is playing out at local level so we have shaped our firm-wide response to reflect this. Each region has identified local charities and over the coming weeks the firm will match the donations under a COVID-19 version of the matched giving scheme policy. Please refer to the Freshfields wiki for details of the policy.

This fundraising match-fund scheme is only open to current employees and partners of Freshfields.

How to Donate: Select the Beneficiary you wish to support in the Leaderboard below. Click on the link.

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Our Beneficiaries are:

Humaritarian Organization for Migration Economics ("H.O.M.E.") - Migrant workers in Singapore

• H.O.M.E. is dedicated to empowering and supporting migrant workers who find themselves victims of human rights violations and suffer abuse and exploitation. These workers normally earn the lowest of wages (as low as SGD300-400 a month) and they are experiencing the negative effects of COVID-19 including termination, loss of income and lack of shelter and medical care. During the “Circuit Breaker” measures, H.O.M.E. continues to respond to the workers’ urgent needs through helpline support and providing food and medical supplies.

Blue Dragon Children's Foundation (www.bluedragon.org) - Children in Hanoi

• Blue Dragon Children Foundation was established to help street children and rescue trafficked children, girls and women. BDCF foresees Covid-19 posing an additional threat to these vulnerable groups as the economy suffers from a downturn with business closures and job losses pushing families further into poverty, children and teenage girls are at risk of being preyed on by human traffickers under the guise of finding work opportunities. BDCF provides immediate food staples for families in poverty; providing shelter for homeless street children in the urban areas; supporting those in rural areas and continuing with rescue of trafficked women and girls.

• Christina Noble Children’s Foundation exists to support and empower vulnerable children. CNCF believes that every child is an individual who deserves love, respect and freedom from all forms of abuse and exploitation. They establish long-term relationships with the children we support and empower them to live happy, emotionally rich, and independent lives. They have operations in Vietnam and Mongolia providing education, healthcare and developmental support. Due to Covid-19, the charity is also supporting all the families who have lost their livelihoods through urgent food and financial packages to cover rent, clean water, rent, utilities and medication, distribution of food packages and hygiene supplies, informational and psychological support to cope with the anxiety and stress to cope with the rapidly developing situation. Beneficiaries include their registered children, their families and CNCF low income staff members.

• The charity usually collects edible surplus food from the food industry, including supermarkets, wet markets, restaurants, hotels and other food processing companies etc., and prepares nutritious hot and cook-chill meals for distribution to the elderly and members of the low-income families. We organise regular volunteering activities at the Food Angel kitchens. However because of the need for social distancing, the hot meals service has been suspended indefinitely. In its place, Food Angel is currently supplying 7,000 food/care packs on average every week, consisting of canned food, fresh vegetables, rice/noodles, masks and sanitisers.
  

Hong Kong University Faculty of Medicine (https://fightcovid19.hku.hk/) - Medical Research

• The University of Hong Kong Medical Faculty plays a leading role in tackling coronavirus through its pioneering research by its world-class teams including those led by Professor Yuen Kwok-Yung, Chair of Infectious Disease, Department of Microbiology and Professor Gabriel Leung, Dean of Medicine and Chair of Public Health Medicine and many other distinguished medical experts. They work closely with experts in Mainland China as well as the WHO and international institutions to explore the science of the coronavirus, its detection (fast-testing kits), prevention (vaccine development) and cure (testing of an effective and safe drug). They have offered insights to the Hong Kong government and public in avert widespread infections of Covid19.

Impact Hong Kong (https://impacthk.org/) - Homeless

• ImpactHK believes in the importance of kindness in addressing the pressing problem of the homeless in Hong Kong. They provide immediate shelter, help with employment and emotional support to those in need. When McDonalds in HK recently changed its working hours to close at 6pm daily due to the coronavirus outbreak, heartbreakingly hundreds of homeless individuals who rely on this fast food restaurant for a safe shelter each and every night instantly lack safe shelter they have so relied on. At a recent count, 250 homeless individuals sleep in McD’s in the district of West Kowloon alone. This government does have shelters with hundreds of beds but they are also closed. This is because the weather is not too cold or too hot according to government guidelines to open up the shelters. Many of those homeless seniors and individuals have serious mental illness who do not know where they can seek help.

National Centre for Global Health and Medical, Japan (http://www.ncgm.go.jp/index.html) - Medical Reseach

• National Centre for Global Health and Medical in Japan (NCGM) aims to promote both basic and clinical research aimed at the development of innovative diagnostic/treatment modalities, thereby contributing to global cooperation in healthcare by sharing research findings in areas of its endeavor. In relation to COVID-19, from an early stage, they shared publicly the information of COVID-19. Given one of the specialized areas of this centre is infectious disease, they accept seriously ill patients to provide the best medical support to them.