What has changed this year?

Wai Yin has had a very good year this year.  First of all, we celebrated our 20th Anniversary.  It is a huge milestone for many organisations, especially charities.  We want to thank all the staff, members of the management committee, volunteers and service users that have helped to develop Wai Yin’s services over the past 20 years.  We couldn’t have achieved what we have without you.

The second thing that we have achieved is our dream.  Wai Yin has had this dream since it was founded in 1988.  A dream of not relying on rented accommodation.  A dream of not moving from one building to another.  A dream of owning our own building.  On Thursday 8th October 2009, Wai Yin achieved that dream.  We are now owners of a building on Swan Street, near the CIS Building.  We are very proud to own this building, as it is now our own community centre.  We have been given a mortgage of 75% of the building from Royal Bank of Scotland, which we are very pleased to have been given.  It is very kind of RBS to give us this.

It will be a long time, however, before Wai Yin moves into its new home.  There is a lot of work that needs to be done with the health and safety of the building to make it suitable for use.  There are many things that need to be changed.  But, from next week onwards, our Education, Training and Employment Unit will be using the building to run some classes from as early as next week.  As we still have one year left on our contract in our Mosely Street building, we are going to remain here until September 2010, and then all of the staff will relocate to Swan Street.

We think that owning the new building is an excellent achievement.  Many organisations are using rented premises, so for an organisation to have its own building is a great milestone.  We want to thank all of the staff, the volunteers and the service users of Wai Yin, and all of the companies we have worked with and will work with for their help in making our dream come true.  This is a really big dream that Wai Yin has had, and it has now become a reality.  And for it to happen on our 20th Anniversary is even more remarkable.