When it comes to giving back to society or protecting the environment, the first step is deciding to take action. Luckily, there are numerous volunteer opportunities available in Hong Kong that cater to a variety of interests, skills, and backgrounds. Whether you’re looking for English-speaking community service opportunities, student volunteer programs, or charity work, here are more than 60 volunteering options to choose from, that align with your personal and professional strengths. By dedicating your time and skills to a cause you’re passionate about, you can make a meaningful impact on the world while doing something you enjoy.
Community care
Asian Charity Services
Asian Charity Services is a community connector that bridges skills-based volunteers with NGOs. Leaders of small-to-medium sized NGOs lack access to professional training and the know-how to grow their organizations to better help the most vulnerable. As a skills-based volunteer, you can engage with NGOs directly through their pro-bono capacity building programs to expand your social reach, meet like-minded professionals and make our society a better place. Visit their website and connect.
ImpactHK
ImpactHK works with homeless individuals to help them find a secure place to live, recover their health and wellbeing, increase their self-esteem and social standing, and find their purpose. You can become a kindness walk leader, join the walk or do skill-based long-term volunteer work.
Hong Kong Red Cross
Most people around the globe are familiar with the work of the Red Cross and the iconic logo often seen amidst disaster relief areas worldwide. The Hong Kong branch has more than 22,000 volunteers who take part in diverse projects in community service. Caring for mentally and physically challenged students at local schools is one of the ways you can help, or by bringing a dose of happiness to others through the “Red Cross Volunteer Puppet Theatre”.
Crossroads Foundation
The Crossroads Foundation deals in global distribution – they collect donated quality goods and send them to people in need, both locally and abroad. They always want help to pack goods, as they get a lot coming in. But there is a range of other opportunities for volunteers of all ages. You can pick a specialization that interests you, for example, IT, theatre, retail, or administration. You can register as an individual, group, student, organization, and even do an internship.
Po Leung Kuk
Po Leung Kuk is committed to providing services to all members of the community to achieve holistic development. They hope to provide public enjoyment, protect the environment, pass on cultural heritage, and bring good to society. You can volunteer in recreational events, workshops, medical appointments, household upkeep, childcare, schoolwork assistance, and translation.
Society for Community Organization
SoCO strives to aid the impoverished and politically disadvantaged in the community in recognizing their rights. They also work in mobilizing resources and people from many domains to assist with social welfare. You can help by providing tutoring sessions and individual therapy to help youngsters. You might also help with administrative work or fundraising efforts.
Oxfam Hong Kong
The international organization fighting poverty and injustice employs volunteers for a lot of their work, from providing admin support at their North Point headquarters, to helping out at their secondhand shop in Jardine House. For those wanting to get out and interact more, they also need people to pitch in at their fundraising events in the community like the Oxfam Trailwalker and Oxfam Musical Marathon.
Food Angel
Food Angel is a food rescue initiative that saves excess edible food from the food industry to give to the deprived. They are looking for volunteers to assist with the preparation and sorting of fresh veggies. However, volunteers must be Hong Kong residents or have valid working or student visas.
Feeding Hong Kong
Feeding Hong Kong transfers surplus food from places where it is abundant to others in short supply. Individual and group volunteers are vital to Feeding Hong Kong’s efforts to decrease wasted food and feed charity. If you’re interested in helping, you can sign up as an individual or as a group.
HandsOn Hong Kong
HandsOn Hong Kong is a volunteer network with a focus on meeting pressing social needs. They recruit and manage volunteers to take part in activities run by local charities, like helping students learn English, taking care of the day-to-day at a local food bank, escorting youngsters with impairments on trips, visiting isolated seniors in their houses, and tending to infants from refugee families so their moms may participate in sports. They regularly put up posts that need filling on their website.
Hong Kong Sports Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability
They offer various sporting events for people with intellectual disabilities, intending to maximize their athletic potential, cultivate great sportsmanship attitudes, and facilitate their inclusion into society. Volunteers receive training to improve their awareness and knowledge about people with intellectual disabilities and their sense of togetherness.
Soap Cycling
Soap Cycling collaborates with schools, hotels, corporations, volunteers, and WASH organizations around Asia to recycle soap to minimize avoidable hygiene-related illnesses by delivering this resource where it is most required. People may contribute directly by participating in Soap Cycling, which provides an enjoyable volunteering environment.
Make It Work HK
Make it Work HK aims to empower Hong Kong’s working poor by giving them the means to make their lives better. They do this through food distribution, job placement, and training. Volunteers are constantly needed to share their knowledge during exercises, serve meals, and assist their team.
Women
Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women (RainLily)
Since 1997, the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women (ACSVAW) has been a pivotal NGO in Hong Kong, dedicated to raising awareness about female sexual violence. They launched RainLily in 2000, Hong Kong’s first 24-hour crisis centre for sexual violence, offering one-stop comprehensive support from medical treatment to legal advice. Over the years, they have helped victims of sexual abuse over the age of 14 receive counselling and crisis assistance. ACSVAW believes in upholding basic human rights, promoting freedom for all women, and fostering a society that is respectful and free from violence.
The Women’s Foundation
The Women’s Foundation is a non-profit committed to enhancing the wellbeing of Hong Kong’s women. Their goal is to break down gender stereotypes, empower impoverished women, and offer women a chance to lead. They’re seeking volunteers to teach English or run skills workshops, help in their activities or just spread the word.
HER Fund
Through funding, skill training, and resource linkage, HER Fund supports women’s rights and enhances poor living situations, particularly for marginalized and disadvantaged women. If you want to discover and share your unique abilities, there are positions open. You can do volunteer work in office support, fundraiser support, graphic design, marketing and communications, and writing and editing.
Mother’s Choice
Mother’s Choice is a heartfelt charity in Hong Kong focused on a mission: to support children without families and pregnant teenagers. Since 1987, they’ve been changing lives by providing care homes, foster programs, and non-judgmental support for young mothers. They also run educational workshops to prevent crisis pregnancies and facilitate adoptions, creating loving families for children in need. Led by experienced professionals and a strategic board, Mother’s Choice is dedicated to ensuring every child finds a loving family.
Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation
Breast cancer has long been the most common cancer affecting women in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation (HKBCF) stands as the pioneering non-profit organisation fighting against breast cancer, focusing on education, support, research, and advocacy. They advocate the mantra “Early Detection Saves Lives”, providing comprehensive services for patients and their families, including free screenings, financial aid for treatment, support groups, and educational talks. Every International Breast Cancer Awareness Month, they host the “Pink October” campaign to ramp up awareness with a range of activities and collaborations.
Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centres (HKFWC)
The Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centres (HKFWC) is a non-partisan and non-religious organisation in Hong Kong, dedicated to supporting grassroots women and promoting gender equality. Through a variety of services, including but not limited to counselling, legal support, training, and childcare, HKFWC empowers women to build their Confidence, Independence, and Competence. With programmes ranging from gender education to volunteer development, they are committed to making a difference in women’s lives and ensuring equal opportunities for all.
The Association for the Advancement of Feminism
Founded in 1984, The Association for the Advancement of Feminism (AAF) champions women’s rights and combats discrimination. AAF promotes equality across all genders through policy advocacy, research, and resource development. They offer a free legal advice service hotline at +852 2708 3600 for women experiencing discrimination or sexual harassment, and house a free-entry Women Resource Centre filled with informative materials.
Hong Kong Hereditary Breast Cancer Family Registry
The Hong Kong Hereditary Breast Cancer Family Registry is the first to create a biobank for Chinese hereditary cancer research, offering a vast database and genetic counselling to battle hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Partnering with leading institutions, it helps advance precision medicine and cancer management. Moreover, the annual Pink Run event raises awareness and funds for high-risk families, promoting knowledge of BRCA gene mutations and supporting the community with testing and counselling.
Children & youth
Pathfinders
PathFinders is an organization that provides child protection, counselling, accommodation, healthcare, education, and legal assistance to vulnerable and poor children. They ensure that their migrant moms have the resources they need for a brighter future. Be a volunteer if you want to help guarantee that every kid in Hong Kong has a fair chance at a good life.
Changing Young Lives Foundation
Changing Young Lives Foundation aims to motivate underprivileged children to work towards a better life through educational and developmental projects that nourish the mind, body, and soul. They give them the information and skills required for the children to grow and thrive. You may sign up to volunteer, and they will call you when opportunities arise!
Autism Partnership Foundation
The Autism Partnership Foundation uses professional Applied Behaviour Analysis treatment to help autistic children reach their full potential and assists families in improving their quality of life. They accept Hong Kong residents above the age of 15 as registered volunteers. APF will allocate appropriate responsibilities based on each volunteer’s capabilities and interests, as well as their workload.
Mother’s Choice
Mother’s Choice helps Hong Kong’s numerous orphaned children and pregnant adolescents. Their vision is that every child should be raised in a loving home. You may help children without families and pregnant teens in the community by offering your talents as a photographer or translator, perhaps, caring for a kid without a family, or assisting in generating funds and awareness.
Make-A-Wish Hong Kong
The purpose of Make a Wish is to grant life-changing wishes to children with severe diseases ages 3 to 17 to enrich their life with optimism, strength, and happiness. This will have a life-changing influence on the child and his family. There is volunteer work available in Wish planning, administrative work, photography, and event participation.
Sprouts Foundation
The Sprouts Foundation helps impoverished children in Asia improve their quality of life by delivering excellent educational programs that are generally unavailable to them. Any time you spend with the kids is much appreciated. You may help by teaching a class or a sport, narrating a tale, supervising a weekend activity, and more.
Adoptive Families of Hong Kong (AFHK)
The AFHK consists of members who have in some way been touched by adoption. The organization hosts social gatherings, educational events, support groups, and advocates on behalf of those affected by adoption and foster care. They’re always on the lookout for volunteers to assist in the running of events, and are currently looking to fill several coordinator (marketing and social media, membership, children and family events) and translator roles.
Marginalized groups
Vision First
Vision First is an NGO that works to improve the living of refugees in Hong Kong. They have volunteers working at their office, from home, and at events. You can utilize your skills and do administrative work, writing, or even researching. Volunteers can also open up their workplaces to be used as venues for refugee programs or counselling rooms.
Resolve
Rising leaders from disadvantaged and neglected communities are given fellowships to help them become change-makers and social activists. Resolve recruits experienced and devoted interns, volunteers, and staff focused on social progress in areas like fundraising and development, project management, and communications.
Christian Action
Christian Action seeks to help marginalized, displaced, or abandoned individuals by providing hope, respect, and self-sufficiency. There are projects for ethnic minorities, migrant domestic workers, refugees, among others. From clerical employment to photography, tutoring, and translating, Christian Action offers many possibilities.
Education
Bring Me A Book
Bring Me a Book is a renowned NPO in Hong Kong that works to create the love of learning. Volunteers can engage in storytelling to young people in community centres and libraries across the city. You can also assist them in making plastic protective covers for the books they distribute, training as a narrator for storytelling activities, or marketing on their website and social media pages.
The Child Development Centre
The Child Development Centre envisions a Hong Kong where all children have equal access to education. They provide specialized instruction, treatment, and evaluation. You have marketing, visual design, human resources, staff mentoring, and training as options for volunteer work. You can also volunteer in a classroom or at an event.
Public health
Orbis Hong Kong
Orbis is a global charity that educates, mentors, and encourages eye care professionals in low-resource areas so that they may help save and restore eyesight for people in their communities. As a volunteer, you can help with outdoor activities like fundraising walks, spreading awareness among districts, social media management, or administrative tasks.
Health in Action
Hong Kong’s Health in Action is an NGO with a mission to reduce health care access disparity in society. They believe that everyone, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, or political allegiance, has an equal right to good health. They are in need of volunteer psychotherapists, social workers, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, attorneys, and others.
Hong Kong Alliance for Rare Diseases
The organization is dedicated to raising awareness of rare diseases and working together to strengthen rare disease regulations and treatments. Their work allows patients with rare illnesses to have access to medical treatment, social benefits, and schooling. They rely on volunteers to raise social awareness and support patients with rare diseases and their caregivers.
Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation
The HKBCF is the first non-profit organization committed to reducing the risk of breast cancer in the community via education, intensive care, research, and outreach. They are looking for volunteers to help with patient support, charity events, translation, proofreading, reviewing, and administrative duties.
AIDS Concern
The organization aims to see zero new HIV infections, zero stereotyping for HIV-positive persons, and zero AIDS fatalities in Hong Kong. They call this the ‘Triple Zero’ initiate. With excellent support and participation from the community service done by committed volunteers, they aim to create HIV care and preventive programs for the community.
Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre
Maggie’s aids people in preparing for and manage cancer diagnoses, therapies, and the mental and emotional effects of the disease. To ensure that their monthly fundraising events operate well, there are ample volunteering opportunities. You may also help out by tending the centre’s garden, organizing the library, or assisting with administrative tasks.
Environmental
Green Earth
Green Earth is an NPO that hopes to transform Hong Kong into a healthy green economy. Their work mainly revolves around three major areas: plastic reduction, minimizing solid waste, and energy conservation. You can join this voluntary service and bring about change, given you are at least 16 years of age.
EcoDrive HK
The NGO EcoDrive raises awareness about the plastic crisis and encourages the decrease of single-use plastic in Hong Kong. They educate the public, engage with businesses, and offer potential solutions like their My Impact App that tracks your recycling actions. You can assist them by participating in their multiple community outreach programs like beach clean-ups or recycle collection days.
Hong Kong Cleanup
Hong Kong Cleanup seeks to enable Hong Kong residents to become active participants in keeping the city’s beautiful coastline regions, parks, and streets secure, tidy, and garbage-free. Their yearly Cleanup Challenge is accessible to the entire public from January 1st through December 1st. All you have to do is register your team of 3 or more!
World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong (WWF)
WWF organizes its activities around oceans, wetlands, biodiversity, wildlife, and green cities to have a genuinely global preservation effect. Volunteers are needed at all levels of the WWF, from event helpers to fundraisers to fieldwork in places like Hong Kong’s Mai Po. You should either be over 18 or have a guardian’s permission to volunteer.
Clean the World
Clean the World delivers recycled soaps and sanitary supplies donated by over 8,000 hotel partners to areas where pneumonia and cholera are common causes of death. Volunteers must be at least eight years old, with guardian supervision required for children aged 8 to 15. The most typical volunteer work is to filter through incoming goods from their hospitality providers and prep them for reprocessing.
e-Farm
E-Farm grows fresh organic veggies for the community, increases environmental consciousness, researches on many farming topics, and encourages community gardening. You may try your hand at animal care, vegetable gardening, and educating children about the natural world. Volunteers are given training and instructions.
Animals
Hong Kong Dog Rescue
The goal of Hong Kong Dog Rescue is to save dogs who have been abandoned. Along with rescuing and rehoming, they also host seminars aimed at improving dog-human understanding. HKDR offers a variety of dog rescue volunteering opportunities, including dog walking and fostering. You can also work in other areas as a handyman, photographer, or designer.
Hong Kong Alley Cats Watch
HK Alley Cats Watch was founded with the primary purpose of assisting Hong Kong’s street cats. They seek to inspire people to be more tolerant of animals in general and educate the public on ethical pet ownership in collaboration with other animal welfare organizations. Hong Kong Alley Cats Watch constantly needs foster homes to care for young cats while they search for their forever home.
Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society
The Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society (HKDCS) is a non-profit organization committed to preserving Hong Kong’s whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The program seeks volunteers to assist with various activities, including program implementation, administrative labour, design, and event assistance, among others. Specific task training is provided.
Hong Kong Shark Foundation
The organization works to spread awareness about shark protection, notably the unsustainable shark finning activity, and to minimize shark product consumption in Hong Kong. They want volunteers to work as interns, IT persons, administrators, student Shark Ambassadors, and animal activists.
Kirsten’s Zoo
Kirsten’s Zoo Limited is a non-profit animal rescue organization managed entirely by volunteers. They offer a haven and medical treatment to abandoned, lost, and frequently tortured animals until they are adopted. The aim is to stop the influx of homeless ‘undesirable’ animals. To learn more, animal lovers can fill out a volunteer form.
Lifelong Animal Protection (LAP)
The mission of LAP is to help animals in distress and ensure each one has a safe home. They need volunteers for transporting the little critters to and from veterinary clinics, dog-walking, matching shelter pets with prospective adopters, event organizing, and more. When filling out their volunteer forms, be sure to specify your area of interest.
Sai Kung Stray Friends
Sai Kung Stray Friends is a Hong Kong volunteer group that rescues abandoned, sick, injured, and stray dogs and extends the chance to fully recover until they find permanent families and homes. You can spend time with the dogs, adopt them, or help spread awareness. Volunteers under 13 need an adult accompanying them.
SPCA Hong Kong
Their goal is to promote animal compassion, safeguard animal health and welfare, and prevent cruel treatment while developing a great respect for life in the community so that all living creatures can coexist in peace. You’ll be able to get up close with animals by cleaning, feeding and grooming them… and there’s probably room for some play time too. Or help out in animal care support by volunteering as a veterinary assistant, although this is currently only open to veterinary science and nursing students/graduates. Volunteers must be at least 16 years old.
Featured image credits: Hannah Busing via Unsplash
