“I’ve only got 30 bears at the moment, but there’s still time,” observes Benedicte Benoit, the cheerful founder of Caress, a group created to care for, respect, and support underprivileged children. With her sights set on collecting 150 toy bears for 150 kids, Benoit doesn’t allow her zeal to throw off her perspective. “I’m just one woman. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

The objects of her uplifting affection? Orphans at the Centre for Children’s Happiness in Phnom Penh. The love began in 2007, when Benoit, a Belgian national and primary school teacher at Victoria Shanghai Academy in Aberdeen, visited Cambodia for the first time. “I volunteered for five weeks at the orphanage and fell in love with everyone. It was very inspiring and beautiful.”

When she returned home, the Hong Kong permanent resident realised she could tap her sizeable network of professionally well-connected friends to give money or goods to the orphans. And on this basis she launched Caress last year. “People often want to get in touch with a little organisation they trust rather than a big one that’s more bureaucratic,” explains Benoit.

When Benoit isn’t teaching English, she’s scooping up toy bears through supermarket chain Wellcome’s programme in which stamps accumulated from store purchases can be redeemed for Paddington Bears. (The programme ends August 27.)

Benoit returns to the orphanage next Chinese New Year to deliver her bounty. While the focus is currently on Cambodia, she hopes eventually to help other Asian locales, including Hong Kong. She envisions Caress operating as an intermediary for causes such as the orphanage to secure financial support – or toy bears. “In this economic situation, it’s good to let people see they don’t have to spend extra money to make a difference.”

Get involved!
Bene is racing against the clock to stockpile Paddington Bears for the orphans, so if you're a Wellcome shopper, load up on groceries before August 27 and contact her to donate your stamps: benedictebenoit@hotmail.com. For more information on the Centre for Children’s Happiness, see www.cchcambodia.org.

Read about Hong Kong’s other do-it-yourself philanthropists:

Benedicte Benoit of Caress