Full transcription of our conversation with Jo Hayes, Habitat for Humanity Hong Kong

Find the summary, our favourite quotes and all links mentioned in this episodes in our show notes here.

Sustainable Development Goal number 11 highlights the importance of housing to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

Habitat for Humanity is on the case. Today, you meat an incredible woman who shares about their work and their bold vision for impactI am Regina Larko, founder of #impact. In Season 5, we are celebrating changemakers that are tackling the Sustainable Development Goals. Before we get into today’s topic highlighting SDG 11.

I want to say thanks, I want to say thanks to you for listening to this podcast. I also want to say thanks to our lovely community that joined our very first, intimate virtual coffee break with #impact. Rosanne, Cissy, Ekta, Belinda, Yuls, oh it was so wonderful! Come hang out with us there as well, just head to www.hashtagimpact.com/club to join #impact Club to connect with the BEST people, our passionate listeners, guests and team of our Podcast. 

And now to our conversation.

Jo Hayes, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Hong Kong

Jo Hayes is the CEO of Habitat for Humanity Hong Kong, an international NGO with a vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. Jo hasn’t always worked in the nonprofit sector. And yet, she has always felt a sense of purpose in every role she had. Jo’s career spans education and media production with the British Council and BBC Worldwide, and the NGO sector with the Women’s Foundation. Born in the UK, Jo has lived and worked in Indonesia, China and France and along with her two teenage children and husband has called Hong Kong home since 2013. Today, we are all about her incredibly impactful work with Habitat for Humanity Hong Kong Jo I’m so happy to welcome you to #impact podcast finally. Welcome to the show.

Jo Hayes 2:28
Thank you, Regina, I’m so excited to be here. Oh, well being with you, at least in the virtual world.

Regina Larko 2:38
Yes, and we have something in common and our listeners cannot see us right now. But we can see each other right now. Right? We love to clap our hands when we get like really excited. I’ve been clapping my hands like crazy.

Jo Hayes 2:54
You’re the first person I’ve met that does the same. It’s a big trait of mine, big smile and big clapping of hands. Very excited.

Regina Larko 3:01
Big clapping of hands. Jo, I know that some of our listeners might have heard about Habitat for Humanity, but some might not. So can you give us a little bit of an insight into what you are doing at Habitat for Humanity.

Jo Hayes 3:18
So Habitat for Humanity is an international organization. And we are serving across 70 different locations around the world, we were originally set up in 1976. And based on inclusive housing, and providing a decent and affordable home, we have a vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. And that is ambitious and audacious but, but we strongly believe that that is necessary to be able to bring decent homes to every single person across the globe.

Housing is a basic need

And, you know, there’s 1.6 billion people around the world who live in substandard housing. I just let that massive number settle. And yet Hong Kong is ranked as one of the world’s most expensive cities to live in. And we have 20% of the population living below the poverty line. And so COVID what we’ve seen is that it’s just exacerbated the needs of the most vunerable groups here. And it’s exposed the extreme inequalities in the housing market. You know, we knew that those inequalities that were there already, but COVID has just simply brought those to the forefront of people’s minds. And you know, the pandemic is not just a public health emergency, it’s also a housing emergency. So Habitat has been serving the local community in Hong Kong since 2004. Because we truly believe that decent and affordable housing as a catalyst for pulling families out of a low or no income existence. And I’m breaking that cycle of intergenerational poverty.

I know that you know, this series, I’m very, very excited to be part of Season 5, focusing on the, on the SDGs. And throughout actually the process of developing the SDGs. And framing them, Habitat for Humanity was involved in and contributed to the creation of SDG 11. And that was specifically targeting 11.1.

SGD 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

So as an organization, we advocated for the inclusion of adequate and affordable housing, and including the upgrading of slums as critical objectives in the SDGs. And then since SDG, 11 was adopted, we’ve been focusing our attention on supporting and advocating for this goal, and the 10 targets with a particular focus on target 11.1, which is ensuring access to adequate safe and affordable housing, basic services as well, and also upgrading slums. And what that means in in Hong Kong as well. You know, we might think of slums as countries like Bangladesh and India, but we have, you know, 1000s of people living in subdivided units in Hong Kong, and, and those are kind of like our equivalent to urban slums.

Regina Larko 6:28
And I’m happy that you’re actually bringing up this number to really let that sink in. And I also know that, you know, most of our listeners probably haven’t even experienced or seen themselves how these living conditions actually look. I know you go to these places, very hands on, you actually, you know, cleaning up fixing up these broken homes, and making them more livable. But could you could you kind of like walk us through one of those maybe moments when you for the first time saw a flat like that. And what you saw, and how that made you feel, to see how some people are actually living such a big number of people are living in today’s world?

Jo Hayes 7:37
Yes. Well, you met you mentioned earlier, in the in the intro about about my not always being part of the nonprofit sector. And yet always having felt a sense of purpose in every role that I’ve had, you know, I’ve worked in sectors that focused on empowering through education or providing access to opportunities.

But a few years, a few years ago, when I decided that I wanted to firmly stay in the nonprofit sector. It was, it was something that was really important to me to have this purposeful direction. And, you know, I was originally, when I joined that the nonprofit sector working focusing on gender equality issues, but I know that housing is a basic need.

And I know firsthand that it’s a foundation to having a safe and stable life. And I definitely consider myself to be privileged to live in a decent home. I live here on the lovely island of Lamma. And, and you know, I am extremely privileged but, but I know that having a home is a catalyst to improving lives. And so when I, when I made the choice to join an organization that was going to really address some of the basic needs and the foundations for people to build a better life for themselves.

Starting her work at Habitat for Humanity

And the first week, in fact, my first day with Habitat, I flew to Nepal. And I saw the work that we were doing overseas, the work that we were contributing to, through empowering women locally, through building capacity in local communities, I saw, you know, there was one village that I went to visit and 87 out of the 89 homes have been destroyed in the 2015 earthquake.

And together with the local communities we had, we had supported them to completely rebuild that village, and so many other villages like it, but it wasn’t just about rebuilding the four walls around the home. It was about training the local women in masonry skills. And so what I was seeing was and working alongside and learning from the Women who had rebuilt their own homes but had taken this new learning to, to not only address the gender pay gap, but to take that, that new skill and then go to other villages and help to rebuild more homes, and support their families in that way.

And then I went to another village and saw firsthand the financial literacy programs that were running and, and the whole villages 98 to 99%, depending on the village was the uptake of this program was from the local women. And it was around micro financing and, and giving them access to micro financing, that could help them to incrementally rebuild their homes. And what I saw there was the community coming together. The way it works is that five women come together and they they support each other to be able to repay those, those loans. And then that fight that group of five is supported by a group of 20. And that group of 20 is supported by a group of 50, and so on until you have the whole community supporting each other to rebuild.

And I just saw this impact, the phenomenal impact that the programs that we’re having overseas was having to, to communities around the world and you know, same in Cambodia, and Bangladesh and, and Vietnam and, and so that was in my first week with Habitat. In week two, I came back to Hong Kong, met the team and my first day in the office was actually not in the office, it was up a ladder in a public housing estate. And I was working alongside a group of volunteers from one of our corporate supporters. And I was painting. What we do in public housing estates in Hong Kong is we work with local NGOs and social workers who work with families that are most in need.

We find that the families and the people that we serve in public rental, they’ve been in these estates for 20, 30, 40 years. And whilst the government do a great job in maintaining the common areas, when you go inside somebody’s home, they are, for the most part, the people that we serve, they are elderly women living on their own, they don’t have the financial means they don’t have the family support, and they don’t have the physical ability to be able to maintain basic standards in their home, and they haven’t been renovated for 20, 30 or 40 years.

The impact is instant, it’s immediate!

So what we do is we go in, and we bring in volunteers to help renovate and we work closely with the social workers to identify the people that are most in need. But also we work with our construction partners as well, to ensure that the the quality of the renovation work is is excellent. But as I was there, up up the top of the ladder, and I was repainting over these really damaged walls and ceilings and, and really, really dire conditions. It struck me that, you know, the impact that we have, through this program is instant, it’s immediate. Some of the people that we serve, they have plastic shower caps over their heads to stop the paint falling on top of them. They have their food in their kitchen, which is actually their balcony, which is also their shower toilet room covered with plastic to prevent the dust falling into their food.

So when we go in and provide these services, these renovation services, it is essential, and the impact is immediate. But what I wanted to do as an organization in Hong Kong is to see how can we bring that same impact that I’d seen in the past that long term sustained impact? How can we actually bring that to Hong Kong, and the programs that we run here. And so that’s what we’ve been really focusing on over the last couple of years is how we can actually start to add our voice and amplify the voices of those in need to have more systemic change and sustained impact.

Regina Larko 14:33
What you just shared really shows that the SDGs and these 17 goals can really never be looked at in an isolated way. Right? Because with each of these goals, you can see the impact you’re making as yes focused on that one goal to begin with. But I know that you are so passionate about these goals, especially because not only are you working on these like building these infrastructure making the cities more sustainable, all these goals that you the goal that you have been actually working on together with it, like even bringing it to life? I wasn’t even aware of that. I mean, that’s amazing that Habitat was such a driver of actually making this one of the goals.

But all these notes that you just shared, I mean, it touches so much on on many of the other goals, that really inspires me. And I think that’s a lot of a lot of the times when people start to look at the SDGs, because it has happened to me as well. That you think it’s like a one goal approach, or like a banner that a corporate says like, we are focusing on that SDG goal. But it cannot be looked at it just in that way. Right? How has that process been for you to maybe uncover as well, how all the things you did in your former career? What all that that experience you’re bringing in how that actually is helpful for you now, as well, as you are driving initiatives for Habitat, Hong Kong.

The Sustainable Development Goals are all interrelated

Jo Hayes 16:14
I think you’ve really touched on it, it’s massively important to not see the SDGs in isolation. Housing is a basic foundation. And it supports all 17 of the of the SDGs. And I could say, you know, especially is supporting poverty and good health and well being gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy. And obviously, of course, SDG 11, with sustainable cities and communities, but, but housing is also directly and indirectly linked to all of the other goals, you know, access to decent work or quality education.

Now, one of the programs that we’re running at the moment and for the next three years is really focusing on on how through having a decent home and a space to study within your home can actually give children access to better education, and then that leads to, to better employment, you know, it’s all it’s all inextricably linked. And, and so yeah, housing is at the core of all of the all of the goals, it’s really important to note that shelter is a basic human need, and it is a foundation to a better life.

Regina Larko 17:31
Let’s, let’s zoom in how does Habitat work exactly with the SDGs? Can you fill us in on that?

Jo Hayes 17:42
Well beyond the the early stages of development, and advocating for SDG, 11. And we actually, if we if we look at how we’re doing with SDG 11, I think that that’s probably really quite helpful. If we take one indicator for one, one country, say, Bangladesh, this is this is one country that I’ve personally been to visit and to look at the progress and the work that we’ve been doing in the in the Bangladesh slums in 1990 87% of the urban population lived in some slums. 87%

Regina Larko 18:22
Wow.

Jo Hayes 18:24
In 2018 that percentage has reduced to 47%, which is fantastic progress, but it’s still a massive number 47%.

Regina Larko 18:37
It’s still almost half. Wow.

Transformative Drivers to Change Business Models

Jo Hayes 18:41
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, in our vision, as I’ve said before it, it’s a world where everyone has a decent place to live. And urban slums, you know, as I said, that, like our subdivided units in Hong Kong, they are not decent places to live.

And if you look at the the UN profile page for Hong Kong, it lists all of the indicators and plots, how are we doing for each of them, apart from 11, SDG 11 is not even listed. And so we want to we want to change that.

I think when you were on a obviously I’ve listened to other podcasts, and you were you were chatting to Benita Chick, you were talking about SDGs and saying that there are transformative drivers to change business models. And I really strongly believe that that to be the case. And so we’ve been developing a habitat, these corporate themed SDG themed packages where businesses can can help us to really tackle systemic, systemic issues. And these are themed around housing and gender equality and clean water and sanitation.

But I also think that individuals have a have a very significant role to play as well. First of all start off by now even if it’s just taking 30 minutes out of your day to sit down and and learn about the SDGs, beyond what you’re learning through your amazing Season 5, and then sit down and have a coffee and look around you.

And if you haven’t had to worry about how to pay for that cup of coffee, then you could consider to become a monthly donor. So that you know, for a price of a weekly coffee, you can then become a Habitat Hope Builder, and then donate a small amount each month to help us to help families living in subdivided units and social housing rental that you can see from your window.

I think the SDGs give us a common language, I think they’re a fantastic tool. They enable us to speak the same language about the big societal issues. But I think the biggest challenge right now is to make those goals actionable, at the same pace across the globe.

Focus 2030 – Keeping international development on the agenda

I recently discovered a really interesting, nonprofit based in France and Spain. It’s called focus 2030. And they have a vision of keeping international development on the agenda for decision makers, the media, and all of us, all people around the world. But what they point out is that instead of coming together as a collective, to find solution that will benefit us all, we’re actually seeing a shift away from global discussions and a move towards a local focus to move towards nationalism. And I think that COVID has actually amplified and accelerated this shift. And I do think that the SDGs are a tool for us to have these action focused conversations and to measure progress.

And when we’re moving backwards or not moving forward quickly enough, at least we have the means to track this and course correct. But if you follow the time tracker on there, the focus 2030 website, we only have nine years to address these big issues, and to reach the goals and make the world a better place for all, not just a few. And I think that however, it’s not just about creating packages and aligning with the SDGs that we can make this world a better place. I think that every single person needs to have ownership and take bold action.

And actually one of the one of the things I’m proud of a lot with what, you know what I’ve seen the Habitat team, what they’ve gone through, and what they can achieve, with very, very little other than grit and determination. But, but when I joined a few years ago, I discovered that Habitat has a program called Women build. And we’ve been running women build internationally since 1996.

And it’s really about serving underserved women, but also giving women access to careers and opportunities within construction industries and being able to give them an opportunity to learn skills that they might not get access to otherwise. But in Hong Kong, when I when I joined, the focus was on the elderly women that we were serving in public housing estates. And what I what I feel very strongly about is, is collaboration as a way to increase your impact.

And so what we did a couple of years ago, was to partner up with a couple of other local nonprofit organizations, Mother’s Choice and Pathfinders. And we were able to bring our construction and volunteer program expertise to to address the needs of their beneficiaries. And so for the whole of the month of March for International Women’s month, which I think it should be called or just International Women’s year, but anyway, right International Women’s Day and we spent the whole of March renovating one of the Mother’s Choice shelters and one of the Pathfinders shelters and being able to to serve their beneficiaries in that way was was a massive, massive win for all of our organizations to be able to come together and and collaborate in that way was a big plus for me to be able to, to sort of bring that that high level of collaboration with with nonprofit

Regina Larko 24:49
I’m happy you mentioned Mother’s Choice and Pathfinders because we have featured them on the show before as well we we had a special where we were talking to several organizations to ask how they have coped during the pandemic. And of course, I mean, that’s a question I want to ask you as well. Considering you are such a, like hands on organization going into these homes, renovating, building, collaborating, right? What was the initial period of COVID, like when you realized how serious the virus was? What were like the first moves you made to, to counter the impacts of the pandemic, that it had, like on your like working days and on the projects that you were running?

The impact of the pandemic – and how they got creative, serving even more people!

Jo Hayes 25:45
The impact of COVID on not just our operations, but also we saw an immediate increase in the demand for our services, as well as new needs emerging. And this was very early on, in the early days of COVID. I think, the latest count, we’ve delivered around 140,000, home hygiene products to families in need living in both public housing and also in subdivided units.

We’ve seen that, you know, the vulnerable elderly families that we serve are at an even higher risk now, and they need our deep cleaning services, because they really do need to maintain a safe and sanitary living environment. We’ve also found actually through our local NGO partners that local domestic workers had seen their employment hours significantly cut due to the virus. And so the team, you know, I was really, really proud actually how they saw that the new needs were emerging. And then they developed our existing program to address these needs.

And it’s amazing that we can now serve two critical needs within one program, because we’re now able to bring local domestic workers together with the elderly, home partners, to keep a safe and sanitary environment for them to live in.

And one local domestic worker who had been working in the industry since SARS, in fact, told us that this was the first time she had been unemployed. She shared that for her the most memorable experience in delivering this service was helping an extremely elderly man who lives alone. And she told us that she’s so happy because she can lend a hand to those in need and support her family at the same time.

Yet to be to be real, serving the elderly living in substandard housing is not easy during a pandemic. But we’re so grateful for the local domestic workers who joined the program. And I’m particularly proud of the team for having stayed focused, resilient and determined, despite all of the setbacks that they have been through over the last couple of years.

And we have had many setbacks, since the middle of 2019. I’m not a fan of tennis, I love to watch it. I don’t like to play it in normal circumstances. But it feels like at times that I’m playing tennis against one of those machines, and the machines that catapult the balls that you find in all directions, you know, service days, community events, street fundraising, all of that has been significantly disrupted due to COVID. And we’ve had to actually completely shut down that street fundraising efforts. And now we need to find new and digital ways to engage with individual supporters of the cause of decent and affordable housing. But you know, our in person fundraising event that we’re hoping to raise essential funds for financial sustainability, we have to shift that to an online format.

And due to the impact of COVID, we also needed to significantly reduce our operational costs. So we moved into a co working space and, and we transformed the way we work as one way to do this.

You know, with all of the with all of the setbacks that we’ve had, from COVID. It’s really important to consistently and constantly come back to the why we do what we do. And it’s just not good enough to, to stand by while people in our community wear plastic shower caps in the home to protect themselves from falling paint, or, you know, wear for jumpers to keep themselves warm because they have no windows or to put wooden planks in their doorway to keep the rats out. Yeah, when we, we as a team, think of the people that we’re serving the why we do what we do. It makes us all the more determined to push through all of the setbacks that we’ve faced, and we’re even more resilient to face any future setbacks that we that we have.

Regina Larko 30:04
Jo, you shared something with me beforehand that I’d love to bring up. I understand to cope with your fear of water, you took up dragon boating, you are constantly expanding your comfort zone. And so I’m just wondering, what still scares you today that you would like to move into your comfort zone moving forward?

Jo Hayes 30:39
Apart from speaking on podcasts?

Regina Larko 30:45
(lauhgs) I think you’re doing really great Jo. That you can now comfortably move into the comfort zone.

Expanding your comfort zone instead of leaving it

Jo Hayes 30:52
Again, there you go. I mean, stepping out of your comfort zone is something that I feel very strongly about. I think when you start to frame it as stepping out of a safe space, then it makes it really scary. And, and so for me to kind of overcome even the idea of fears, what I might fear in life, I can’t really cope with that. I don’t want to cope with that, the fear of being afraid. So I see comfort zone as something that can be continually expanded. And that makes it easier for me to be able to do new things take on new challenges, and not be so scared. So yeah, getting into the water. It was definitely one way of addressing a real fear head on.

But for the future I only see the future as as a place of learning and growing. I’ve had some low points in my life. And I’m sure I will have some very, very low points in my future. But you know, I’ve had a point in my life where I, yeah, thanks to what to my best friend, she kind of changed my world. But I became a single mom, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have a home. We’ve been living in mainland China for many years. So I’ve been disconnected really from France, which is where I was living. And I didn’t even have access to my bank accounts, you know, my ex husband, and all the admin and the, the finances were managed by him because everything was in French. And whilst I speak, you know, fluent French, all of the admin, he took that on, and that’s fine when when you’re together in the safe family unit, but when you’re not, it suddenly makes life very complicated.

And so I literally had zero, I had to create a new bank account, zero finances, and I had to rebuild my life and I know that people have gone through much more serious situations and difficult circumstances. And I as I said before, I do consider myself to be very privileged, but but my friend taught me that you know, you have one life, so live it. And, you know, she, she embodies that, that mindset and taught me to know, she gave me a sofa to live on. But she also gave me the strength to to find a better life for myself and my children and put one foot in front of the other.

And, and she gave me reason to laugh again. She also gave me a lot of white wine, which was also quite helpful, but it was that that reason to laugh again and people said, Oh, you’re you again. We hear you laugh. We missed your laughter. And so I you know, when I think of the future, and I think of any fears, I block them out. Because I know that whatever comes in front of me as a barrier or a challenge. I’ll just jump in the water and face it head on, embrace it, learn from it and grow from it.

Regina Larko 34:41
That fearlessness and grit and resilience and coping with these challenges that are thrown in your way in your personal life. You are also bringing that passion and that joy for making this purposeful work, you’re bringing it to life, you know, with your big smile that people have to see when they’re checking out and the blog post later, and the pictures that we’re sharing across our socials as well. It’s incredible, Jo, I mean, what a journey you are on. And looking to me, like, thank you for sharing this story. I think oftentimes, it’s a lot of our personal experiences that then also, maybe consciously, maybe subconsciously, lead us to taking on certain paths in our professional life as well. And you just sharing that about, you know, losing your home. I mean, looking at the work you’re doing now, with making sure people have a home, I find it, I find this very moving Jo. Have you ever thought about your work in that context as well?

Taking risks and facing fear

Jo Hayes 36:12
Only over the last few months, and I, I didn’t ever really consider myself to be somebody who is a risk taker. And, and I was asked to speak on the subject. This is going back a couple of years now. But I was asked to speak on the subject of women in leadership roles. And, it was only going through that process that I realized that, hang on a minute, I am a risk taker. We came to Hong Kong, I left a role that I loved and a team that was fantastic to work with and for and, and I have loved the organization, I love working for the British Council.

But we, we took a massive risk to come to Hong Kong. I left my my role and my husband, my second husband, he’s, he’s amazing, phenomenal. He left his role. And we arrived in Hong Kong. And once again, I didn’t have anywhere for us to live. And I and I came a couple of months before my my kids and my husband to try and find a school I didn’t have a school for them. And we came for a two year contract. And we decided to let’s see how it goes. And I managed to to find the home that I’m in now managed to find them a school and we made it work.

And we’ve been here for you know, eight years now Hong Kong is our home. But it was it was that process that made me realize that I am a risk taker and I am I enjoy the challenge and I enjoy the learning from from taking those risks. And and then it was only recently when I started to connect the dots between my own experience you know, living on my friend’s sofa and needing to kind of pulling everything together. I’ve only recently started making those connecting those dots to the work that I do now. And realizing that yes, it’s it’s massively important that people have a roof over their heads and in a place that they can call home. And it transforms lives.

Regina Larko 38:29
It absolutely does. Thank you for all the work you’re doing with Habitat for Humanity. Jo, this brings me to the quick fire round. Are you ready?

Jo Hayes 38:46
Let’s do it.

Regina Larko 38:47
Let’s get excited. Making an impact means

Jo Hayes 38:59
Making sustained change. I’ll expand quickly because it’s a quick fire. Last year, I created a new role called impact and sustainability manager. And this person oversees all of our programs, because I believe really, really strongly believe that impact and sustained sustainability are inextricably linked, and they need to be at the core of our decision making, but also about program development.

Regina Larko 39:29
Fantastic. Who inspires you in the way they are tackling the Sustainable Development Goals?

Jo Hayes 39:37
Well, all the people you’ve been speaking to on Season 5, for sure. But I’d also say the student organizers of the SDG summit and students like them across Hong Kong. These students were from the Canadian school Global Goals Council, and I think they’re doing a fantastic job of raising awareness about the SDGs and amongs their pears, but also showcasing the businesses, nonprofit leaders and students who are taking action to achieving the SDGs.

What could everyone do right now to make the world a better place?

Regina Larko 40:09
And what could everyone do right now to make the world a better place?

Jo Hayes 40:16
Last time I was on the podcast, I answered this question with Be kind. And I really think that that still, it’s hold strong today. But I’d add to it if I can, this time and say, reflect. We’re all so caught up in our tasks, our to do lists being connected every day. And unless we plug in time to reflect, we can’t come up with the creative ideas that we really need to, to challenge the status quo, make the big changes and achieve these SDGs it’s okay to carve out time to reflect. In fact, I think it’s essential.

Regina Larko 40:59
Yeah, and thank you for bringing this up. Of course, we have your beautiful voice in an earlier episode of #impact. So if you want to hear more of Jo, in her former role with the Women’s Foundation, really great organization here and doing impactful work in Hong Kong, and also hear the beautiful voice of our co-host, Amanda Williams, who did that recording with you a few years back.

Amanda now in Sydney, look at our global team and global reach of #impact. And, you know, thank you to you Jo, for coming back and sharing about your work with Habitat for Humanity Hong Kong, I want to send everyone who’s listening right now, over to you so that they can start following, subscribing, donating you know that coffee you’re drinking, you know, as you said, you know, grabthe opportunity to support this work, where should people go, Jo?

Jo Hayes 42:02
So if we’re talking online, then please head over to our websites www.habitat.org.hk. But you can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and we’d love you to sign up to our newsletter where you can you can stay connected to all of the work that we’re doing and and see some of those impact stories that we hope to be showcasing more of in the future.

And if you want to come in for a coffee chat, I mentioned we’re in a co working space in Causeway Bay. So I’d love to have a coffee with you, now that I’m a coffee drinker. So yeah, get in touch and and we can chat about how you can get involved in our in our work in Hong Kong.

Regina Larko 42:41
Hong Kong listeners. And of course, I mean, when we’re talking about coffee, can I give a little plug for #impact club as well, because I’m excited that you are part of it, Jo. So #impact club is a nourishing place for changemakers like Jo and you that is listening right now to continue these conversations virtually. So you can tune in from wherever you are.

And we’re gonna grab our favorite beverage, mine is usually in the afternoon coffee as well but you can bring whatever you like, so that we can connect more and celebrate these wins along the way. That’s the intention there. We’re going to celebrate all the things we achieved to keep motivated on our change making journey. And it’s such an honor Jo to have you as one of our first members being part of this. So look out for that as well at www.hashtagimpact.com/club but before you do, make sure to follow Habitat for Humanity and support Jo’s work and meet her.

Jo Hayes 43:41
Yeah, come in, come in. Can’t wait.

Regina Larko 43:45
Thank you so much for today.

Jo Hayes 43:47
Regina, it’s been an absolute pleasure. I love chatting to you every time we meet and I really appreciate the opportunity to chat to you on your amazing podcast. So thank you.

Regina Larko 43:58
We are clapping again. Thank you!

Thank you so much for joining us today. If you want to become part of our community. Please join us at #impact club, you can head over to www.hashtagimpact.com/club to find out when we are hosting our next virtual coffee break get together, you can bring your favorite drink just as I said. And you can then meet some of our amazing #impact guests and the team running this production as well. So join us there. And Jo said it so beautifully. Let’s be kind let’s reflect and things will fall into place. I don’t know if you hear it just started raining here in Hong Kong, raindrops against the window and wherever you are listening to, I would I would love to hear where you are tuning in from. Never be shy to reach out and connect. I’m always here and reading every message and you can find all the contact details over at www.hashtagimpact.com.

Talk to you soon. Bye.

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