Hong Kong teen who feeds city’s ‘cardboard grannies’ goes viral on Instagram

The face behind the Instagram account @blesiva_ is a mystery. The 19-year-old university student, known only as Belle for privacy reasons, has gained more than 25,000 followers since she started posting in January. In her viral videos – one has 53,000 likes and nearly 800,000 views – she hands out meals for free to underprivileged elderly people in Hong Kong, such as those working physically laborious jobs outside. According to the Hong Kong Poverty Report for 2024 by Oxfam Hong Kong, more than 580,000 individuals aged 65 or above live in poverty in the city. Many of these people take up jobs such as collecting cardboard scraps in exchange for money at recycling stations. Eight out of every 10 elderly Hong Kong people who make a living by collecting cardboard are women, known informally in Hong Kong as “cardboard grannies”. Some move up to 70kg (150lbs) worth of cardboard a day. Belle largely targets these cardboard grannies when distributing her free meals. “I just want to inspire people and show how easy it is to make a difference in somebody’s life,” she tells the Post. It is an entirely one-woman team: she handles all the financing, distribution, filming and editing herself. Belle started her account when she was a first-year university student. She was feeling purposeless in her new environment and fashion programme, and many of her old friends had gone abroad for their studies. That was when she came across internet creators such as Aiden Kim, who gives food and money to the elderly in South Korea on his Instagram account @aidenkim16, and Josh Liljenquist, who does the same for the homeless in the United States on @joshlilj. “I was really inspired by them and thought, ‘Why not give it a try in Hong Kong?’” View this post on Instagram A post shared by ʚ♡⃛ɞ(•ᴗ•❁) (@blesiva_) Previously, the cost of food would come straight out of her pocket. Today, however, Belle has grown her account to a point where she can crowdfund her project through a donation link attached to her Instagram account. Local restaurants will also reach out to her for collaboration. In August, for example, Ros Jad Thai Restaurant in Mong Kok offered her 30 lunchboxes to hand out. Belle is deliberate about which restaurants she works with. In September, she bought food from Dignity Kitchen Hong Kong, a social enterprise restaurant that employs people with physical, social or intellectual disabilities. When she does not have any sponsoring restaurants or specific organisations in mind, she simply walks around the area looking for restaurants that serve Hong Kong cuisine. “The [food and beverage] industry is really suffering in Hong Kong. So I want to support local restaurants that might not have a lot of business,” she explains. When the Post follows Belle on one of her distribution days on a recent Thursday morning, she picks up 20 bowls of chicken rice from a restaurant in Sham Shui Po, spending about HK$1,100 (US$140). View this post on Instagram A post shared by ʚ♡⃛ɞ(•ᴗ•❁) (@blesiva_) Describing her distribution strategy, she says that “the working elderly are constantly moving around, so that’s why I also have to be on the move”. It usually takes Belle more than an hour to find these elderly workers and hand out every meal. She also stops to chat with each of them, as the personal and conversational aspects of the distribution sessions are central to her. One of the cardboard grannies that Belle meets, who goes by the surname Wong, says she makes a daily average of HK$80 (US$10). She begins scavenging for pieces as early as 7.30am, and she does not finish until late at night. Another woman that Belle comes across is one she met earlier in the year. She had been suffering from an injured leg when she received her first free meal from Belle, and it has not improved. The elderly woman says that she plans on going to mainland China to seek healthcare, as the antibiotics that the Hong Kong doctors give her are ineffective. “I don’t even always talk back in our conversations. I’m more just like a pair of ears,” Belle says. Many of the people she meets live alone and appreciate simply having someone to talk to. A 2024 study from the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that 53 per cent of elderly people aged 65 and above in the city experience social isolation. While these people often happily accept the meal and conversation, Belle sometimes encounters some who refuse to take a free lunch. She believes that many feel ashamed or humiliated for accepting help from a young person. When this happens, she tries to “reassure them it’s OK to take from me”. But if they insist they do not want it, she will not push. Although the reception to her videos is mostly positive, there is some criticism. “There are people who think I’m exploiting the elderly because I film them,” she says. She argues that this is how she can continue paying for the meals she hands out. Most of the people likely do not know she is filming them. Belle believes that if they know, they will be even less likely to accept help. In September, she started putting out some videos in which she blurred their faces. Some of the criticism can be directed at the Hong Kong government, as a few of the comments under her videos point out. Many of the elderly people Belle talks to say that the government has toughened up on confiscating their trolleys, creating setbacks for their already financially precarious lives. Local authorities often confiscate unattended trolleys under existing laws of littering, obstructing public spaces or unlicensed hawking. People working for the city’s Food and Environmental Hygiene Department have previously been spotted confiscating people’s cardboard and belongings, citing hygiene concerns. “Where else are they supposed to put [their trolleys]? They can’t bring it home,” Belle says. Usually, these elderly people live in old buildings with narrow staircases, leaving them with limited choices for where to store their trolleys at night. Belle notes that the social culture in Hong Kong is to “mind their own business”. She emphasises the importance of empathy and urges her fellow Hongkongers to give back to the underprivileged. “There are times where I feel like I’m not actually making a huge difference – I’m just giving out food,” she says. “But in those moments, I do think that at least I brought them a little happiness and a warm tummy.”

Hong Kong teen who feeds city’s ‘cardboard grannies’ goes viral on Instagram

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘Belle’ videos herself handing out free meals to Hong Kong’s underprivileged elderly, largely targeting women who collect cardboard

‘Belle’ videos herself handing out free meals to Hong Kong’s underprivileged elderly, largely targeting women who collect cardboard