Regular Volunteer Activities 2015
Family Day - Elderly Visit We arranged a special volunteering activity for families with kids to visit the elderly. There is no better way to celebrate volunteerism than to engage others to make a difference to the lives of those in need. A group of 60 volunteers (ranging from age 3 to 45) participated in packing gifts and making home visits to 60 elderly. The families spent their early morning together by collaborating and packing food supplies and home products. Afterwards, they were sent off in family groups to deliver these packages. They shared their valuable time by engaging the elderly with friendly chats and warm smiles. The elderly were overjoyed and deeply touched to meet these caring visitors. |
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Fun Day for Intellectually Challenged Students Exercises challenging both mind and body were arranged for 27 children with intellectual disabilities, who are studying in the New Territories. Members of Kowloon Rugby Club and employees from Pinnacle Performance participated as volunteers to accompany these students. Through ball games and trampoline exercises, students were immersed in a unique environment enabling them to learn about hand-eye coordination and acquire fine motor skills. These challenging activities enabled the students to nurture their strength and stamina. Interactions between volunteers and students were invaluable in breaking barriers and building bridges between different walks of life. |
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Creative Workshop for HOHK Volunteer Leaders We paid special tribute to our most committed volunteers (who have fulfilled a certain number of volunteer hours) by inviting them to a free workshop to make organic lip balm and shampoo. Alongside a group of 25 elderly and 35 refugee families, all participants had fun learning how to make self-care products, while interacting with one another. After listening attentively to instructions, everyone shared materials, and helped each other out with mixing the ingredients. Volunteers made sure that ingredients were carefully handled and that the elderly and children were taken care of. The elderly had fun mingling and enjoyed smelling each other's products. The satisfied looks on their faces were evidence that they were all happy and amazed with the final products. We are most appreciative to OKIA for sponsoring the venue. At the end of the day, each beneficiary had something handmade to take home and use. |
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Help Kids to Build Up Reading Habits HandsOn Hong Kong¡¦s volunteers read to children from TWGHs Jockey Group Lei Tung Integrated Services Centre. Volunteers merge game elements into reading to increase the children¡¦s interest in reading. Children from low income families may not have adequate literacy development. Through these reading programs, children can develop their confidence in using English and pick up the reading habit. |
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Tech For Elderly - Digital Photography Class A fun and interactive photo-taking tutorial class was held for our elderly this month. Our volunteers patiently taught our elderly to learn how to use digital cameras and some basic photo-taking skills. With the enhancement of the tech-knowledge, our elderly will be able to communicate better with young generation and eliminate the gap in between them. HandsOn Hong Kong hopes that the elderly can enjoy photo-taking and are able to capture their memories in photos from now on. Thank you to our corporate partners (American Express, Deloitte, Harbour City, Jebsen Consumer and NewQuest) and individual donors who donated their electronic devices to us through the Tech For Elderly program. This program would not be able to happen without your support. |
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Outing with Students with Physical Disabilities One of HOHK's most worthwhile volunteering opportunities in August involved accompanying students with physical and mental disabilities on outings to different places in Hong Kong. These students are all cared for by SAHK, but rarely get to experience the regular activities that we tend to take for granted. With the company of HOHK volunteers, these students got to enjoy unforgettable experiences on six different occasions across the month. The activities included: visiting a museum, visiting different public facilities, watching a movie in a cinema, eating lunch at a restaurant, visiting a shopping mall, playing indoor games together, and visiting a service center for visually impaired people. |
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1st anniversary of our very own Soup Delivery program! July 2015 marks one year to the day since the launch of HandsOn Hong Kong's very special program series: Cantonese Soup Delivery for the Elderly. The program has been hugely successful so far, and we have successfully engaged three local elderly centers in different areas to collaborate in this program. We sponsor the centers to cook nutritious and traditional Cantonese soup and our individual volunteers deliver the soup to the underprivileged elderly each month by doing home visits. This simple act can provide a lot of happiness and comfort to the elderly as they get to interact with the volunteers, while enjoying some delicious soup! Starting from 12 July 2014 until today, 415 volunteers have participated in this program and have delivered 1,245 service hours. Nearly 540 elderly households have benefitted from the program. The program continues to go strong and we are aiming to expand the program by developing new partnerships in the coming months. |
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SCHOOL'S OUT! - The Chungking Mansions Service Centre SUMMER PARTY! HandsOn Hong Kong held a summer party for Primary & Secondary School kids of Hong Kong's Refugees and Asylum Seekers at Chungking Mansions Service Centre to celebrate the end of schoolwork classes. Throughout the semester HOHK volunteers have dedicatedly taught and helped the children with their schoolwork. Because the children are usually unable to speak Cantonese but study in the local Hong Kong education system, they may fall behind in their studies. Thus, the help of these volunteers in supporting the kids with their studies while also being there as a mentor cannot be understated. This party also gave the kids a chance to gather with their volunteer teachers and thank them for their hard work. Thank you to all of HOHK's volunteers for a great semester. A special thank you to HOHK's volunteer leaders, Eva and Alain, who helped organize the whole party, and thank you to everyone who helped make the party a hugely fun event for all the kids. The kids had a great time playing lot of different games, and eating lots of delicious pizza! In addition, they got to partake in an art jam session where they could paint and make their own DIY t-shirts. Thank you to Karyn from MKU for generously donating the t-shirts for the kids to use. |
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World Environment Day - TREE PLANTING Every year, the world celebrates World Environment Day on 5 June. It is a day used by the United Nations to raise environmental awareness and promote positive action to protect the Earth. This year, HandsOn Hong Kong partnered up with Ark Eden to plan a tree-planting event. 25 volunteers actively participated in the event, and after climbing some steep slopes to finally reach the tree-planting site, planted a very impressive 120 trees altogether. It was a tiring, yet extremely productive and fun-filled day that will go some distance in protecting Hong Kong's beautiful biodiversity and nature. |
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Heroes for Intellectually disabled children! Together with SAHK, HandsOn Hong Kong held a Family Photo-shooting Day for 20 families with special needs. It aimed to capture the warmth and tender moments between children with special needs and their parents. With the help of our volunteers, the families received nice portraits to keep their memories and moments. HandsOn Hong Kong was grateful to our volunteers for donating their professional photography skills to help the needy ones. |
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Storytelling in English with Kids HandsOn Hong Kong's volunteers become storytellers and read English books with children in our storytelling programs every Saturday and Sunday. In May, almost 80 unprivileged children received English support, companionship and care from our volunteers. HandsOn Hong Kong is so grateful to have our wonderful volunteers to help the children to develop a regular reading habit. |
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Earth Day - Tree Planting On Saturday 25 April 2015, HandsOn Hong Kong - together with NGO partner Ark Eden - gathered 182 volunteers to plant 580 trees in the occasion of Earth Day. It was a wonderful day of joy for HandsOn Hong Kong's earth lovers! Each year, 1 million trees in Hong Kong are lost due to forest fires and development projects. Thanks to our volunteers' support, we can help to progressively rebuild an eco-friendly environment. |
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Family Volunteer Day On Saturday 18 April, parents along with their kids packed 31 caring gift bags with hand-made local snacks and delivered them to 31 elderly. It was a valuable volunteering experience enabling English-speaking volunteers to interact with local elderly. Thank you so much for our Cantonese-speaking volunteers who helped as translators. Thank you so much to all the volunteers who took part. Your participation and donations helped make the day possible and brought smiles to the faces of the elderly. |
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Triple Happiness on Valentine's Day with HandsOn Hong Kong HandsOn Hong Kong celebrated Valentine Day with a half-day community-volunteering event. The event was a great success - full of fun and love... Not only did we help support the work of our charity partner New Life New Life Interactive Farm, we also managed to make and deliver 400 cookies to the elderly in Housing for Senior Citizens in Tin Wah Estate as well as planting 140 plants to help green Hong Kong! Many volunteers brought their loved ones with them to help spread happiness to the elderly and our environment. |
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Help Ethnic Minority Adults To Learn Cantonese Every Tuesday and Friday, ethnic minority adults receive one-on-one Cantonese coaching from HandsOn Hong Kong volunteers. Many ethnic minorities have been in Hong Kong for generations, however, they lack support in learning Cantonese leading to social isolation. To help them integrate into the community smoothly, HandsOn Hong Kong volunteers have been working hard to help the group improve their social and workplace communication skills through the Cantonese lessons. HandsOn Hong Kong is so grateful for the time that our volunteers have been devoted to this program. With your helping hands, the lives of the ethnic minorities are being changed for the better! |