“The group excursion to the Great Wall of China changed my whole YYGS experience. I met my closest friends and strengthened our friendship during those two weeks.”
In the past few years, I have identified a problem revolving around the increasing number of ethnic minority children coming from underprivileged families in Hong Kong. Due to the lack of sufficient learning resources, these children are often behind in their academic studies. As a response, I have launched two service initiatives targetting ethnic minority children and families.
1. Integrated Brilliant Education Trust (IBET) is a charity committed to educating ethnic minority students by offering educational support. Along with Samvitti Sharma, another YYGS alumni from my school, we proposed a partnership between Chinese International School (CIS) and IBET. During weekdays, CIS students volunteer at the center for 1.5 hours on a weekly basis. As a leader, my role is not only to contribute my best while volunteering but also act as the bridge between the center and our school. I believe that assisting our beneficiaries’ education is essential to ensure a bright future ahead of them.
2. I am one of the leaders of Hong Kong Reading Project, a student lead initiative that self-writes, self-draws, and self-produces Cantonese picture books. The contents of these books are based on local school curriculums. Recently, we started to partner with the Centre for Harmony and Enhancement of Ethnic Minority Residents (CHEER), a support service funded by the Hong Kong government to support the education and well-being of ethnic minority families. During weekdays, CIS volunteers will visit the homes of ethnic minority children and provide them one-on-one educational support using our self-made picture books on a weekly basis. My role as a leader is to assist the communication process between the support service, the student leaders and the student volunteers.