Congratulations to our two Interact Clubs: Interact Club of King’s College and Interact Club of St Clare’s Girls’ School won the Merit Award on their joint project under the underprivileged service group for the Hong Kong Outstanding Student Service Ambassadors Award Programme 2022/23 hosted by District 3450. The team included President Wendy Cheung, Agnes Chow and Anna Ho from St Clare’s Girls’ School and President Danny Hung, Enikin Ho and Herbert Lau from King’s College with title of the project – Creating a Harmonious Society Together addressing care for the underprivileged and manifestation of civic responsibilities. President Eliza attended the award ceremony and congratulated them in person.
President Eliza went to the Global Grant inaugural ceremony which our Club supported as an international sponsor for USD1,000.00. The host of the project was Rotary Club of Taipei-Fu-Jung and International Partner was Rotary Club of Queensway. Rotary Club of Wanchai was also one of the international sponsors too. The title of the Global Grant was “Empower Women to Unlock Community Strength by training licensed long-term women caregivers in Pingtung”, in the southern part of Taiwan. The global grant project supported eight aboriginal townships women with a total of 50 and 10 for advance training whom could open their own caregiver centers in Pingtung. As each township is far from the others, the group went to two nearby township separately to understand more about the day care work by the women after the inaugural ceremony. Before the ceremony, the group went for a one day tour to Kaohsiung for fellowship. Here are two newspapers ads with full details: here and here.
A team of 11 including President Eliza; Charter President Patrick, his son Charles and grandson Derek; Past President Kay and grand daughter Celeste; Past Presidents Samuel, Lily and Mark; President Elect Jason; and ex-Rotary Ann Coco helped to deliver hot meals to elderly and to register the next batch of eligible elderly at Holy Cafe Training Centre. President Elect Jason and Past President Mark home delivered hot meals toan elderly at So Uk Estate who were unable to walk to Holy Cafe. Thereafter, some of us cooled down by having a laughter-filled fellowship afternoon tea at Holy Cafe’s new venue.
A total of 11 Club members attended the first regular lunch meeting in 2023. Thanks to ex-Rotarian Ann Coco, a new potential member Summly Lee was introduced to our Club. Summly is a Barrister-at-Law by profession. We also have Miss Wong Ka Man (guest of Charter President Patrick) joining us for the second time. Guest Speaker was Miss Si from Society for Community Organization (“SoCo”), who shared with us the topic of poverty and housing inequality in Hong Kong. Miss Si of Society for Community Organization (SoCo) gave us a brief introductionof SoCo. Founded in 1971, SoCo serves the underprivileged. SoCo also undertakes original social policy research, lobbies Hong Kong decision making bodies and organizes direct action events. According to their research, as of 2020 Hong Kong has a very high poverty rate especially amongst children (27%) and elderly in poverty (45%) before policy intervention. Area 3 has been working closely with SoCo on a regular basis, visiting cage homes and sub-divided flats and delivering protection gears/food/food voucher to the needy since this past Rotary Year. So far, President Eliza and Past President Grace had joined the visits. During the visits, SoCo will build up relationships with the needy and…
Past President Lily participated in Rotary Service Day together with her District Public Image Committee members.
We had a very joyful Christmas Lunch Party with lucky draw! Charter President Patrick donated cash prizes on the spot so that all 21 attendees got a Christmas present to bring home! Before the lucky draw, we welcomed two service partners from Yuk Chi ResourceCentre. They were Agency Head Miss Helen Leung and Social Worker Ms Jacqueline Lai. While our club has been partnered with Yuk Chi for three decades, for benefit of new Clubmembers, we invited Helen to give an introduction of Yuk Chi. Yuk Chi has been established since 1991. At the beginning, it was to provide educational seminars andgroups to parents and caregivers of disabled children, including children with autism, physically handicapped, and those with special educational needs (SEN). The Centre serves families with disabled children in the New Territories and after 30 years, the number of members has increased to over 8,500, with 2,100 SEN children. Jacqueline informed the club members that besides the routine training for parents /caregivers and educational training for the children, the Centre would mount special projects from time to time. In 2013, with assistance from our club, a multi-sensory activities room was built fortherapy training and assessment. The room was, and…
Past President Grace represented our Club and participated in Part 2 of Caritas Health Check Program. Part 1 was completed in Ngau Tau Kok on 5-6 July 2022. This one was for Tsuan Wan Centre with 50 street cleaners receiving the Automatic Retinal Image Analysis (ARIA) test, a technology developed at CUHK in 2015. In addition, blood test for cholesterol and blood sugar were administered as well.
On July 6, our Club kicked off the new Rotary Year’s first project with Caritas Ngau Tau Kok for the Street Cleaners. A total of 50 street cleaners received health check using Automatic Retinal Image Analysis (ARIA) method for screening of stroke and Alzheimer’s risk factor + cholesterol and blood sugar level testing. While on site, Rotarians also participated in stretching exercises together with the beneficiaries.
This was the first of two such service days in Phase 1 of the street cleaner project with Caritas. We gave out 120 care packages to street cleaners in Ngau Tau Kok. Inside the bags were disinfectant liquid, KF94 masks, pain relief ointment, rapid antigen tests, facial tissue, water resistant plasters and a bag of rice. The next service day is on May 27 in Tsuen Wan. Phase 2 of the project will be health days for street cleaners in Ngau Tau Kok and Tsuen Wan, providing them with a basic health assessment and follow up by Caritas social workers. It is anticipated that Phase 2 takes place in July 2022.
This meeting we welcomed our own Rotarian Tony as speaker. Immediate Past President Mark made the speaker introduction, noting that Rotarian Tony’s hobby, in fact, is doing community service. As the Head of Mainland Strategic Development of Hong Kong Jockey Club, Rotarian Tony’s topic was “Social Betterment Projects in Mainland.” For most of us, when we think about Hong Kong Jockey Club, we think about horse racing, Mark Six and sports betting. Rotarian Tony’s presentation gave us an overview of the community service portfolio of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Established in 1993, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, reflects the evolving nature, scale and scope of donations. The Charities Trust is one of the world’s top ten charity donors. Approximately 90% of the Jockey Club’s annual operating surplus after tax is donated to the Trust, enabling it to play a significant role in the community’s development. Locally, in Hong Kong, we are familiar with Tai Kwun, a heritage site developed and preserved by HKJC. Ocean Park, at its inception, was also a HKJC project, providing locals and visitors alike with a world class recreational facility. There are many more community projects. HKJC has 10 areas of community contributions,…