Humane values guide Filipino to Bauhinia honour
Adrielle Panares remembers her first Christmas in Hong Kong 14 years ago.
It was her first day on the job as the United Nations' refugee co-ordinator at the Lowu camp for Vietnamese boat people awaiting repatriation.
Ms Panares said she could sense desolation and boredom everywhere. 'When I arrived all the children were hugging me, begging me with their eyes: 'help me'.'
Then she had a bright idea. She bought sweets, cookies and streamers, and told the camp inmates they were going to celebrate Christmas the next day.
'If you want to treat a person humanely and decently, you give that to him wherever he is, in any environment, even inside barbed wire,' she said.
Ms Panares was recognised in the Bauhinia honours list on July 1, and she will receive the Medal of Honour 'for the promotion of racial harmony in Hong Kong' in October.
'It is a humbling thing. I was informed I was probably the first Filipino to get this. It is also the first time that a Medal of Honour has been given for the promotion of racial harmony,' Ms Panares said.
'My feeling is, thank you for affirming that there is such a need and that [people] do matter, but at the same time it gives you a lot of energy, drive and spirit to do more,' she said.
Ms Panares said an anti-racism law by itself would not solve all the problems of Hong Kong's 300,000 ethnic minorities. 'The bottom line is the relationship between the people in the streets. That is what makes the essence of the law work,' she said.
But people should also know their rights and have access to services.
Looking at the positive side of life has been the mantra for Ms Panares, who at 19 was forced to become the family breadwinner after her father, a policeman, was shot dead by teenagers he was trying to pacify.
She found a job as a teacher as soon as she finished university, and she told her three younger siblings that they had to win scholarships at school. All are now professionals.
Ms Panares also started the mobile information service at Hong Kong International Airport. It provides arriving migrants and foreign domestic helpers with a kit covering such subjects as hospital services and labour laws to equal opportunities and race relations. 'It is like the Lonely Planet guide in six languages,' she said.
Six 'information ambassadors' - two Filipinos, two Indonesians, one Indian and one Nepali - greet new arrivals and help in any way they can. In turn, ethnic minorities had a responsibility to be useful residents of their adopted home, even if they were here temporarily, Ms Panares said.
'We are not just people voicing our rights, but are actually involved in society, so that we are able to touch the lives of the community.'
