IT'S UNLIKELY any other Hong Kong teenagers have to hunt in the woods for their lunch. Or have to cook it in the wilds, too. And with only 90 minutes to do so or risk going hungry.
After a lengthy search, the teenagers locate their 'prey' hidden among the trees. They gather the tins of baked beans and fish, packets of pasta and canned fruit, a pot and gas stove - but cannot find the gas. A 15-minute argument ensues and they eventually decide to make a fire. Some of them look for wood and paper, while others try, with moderate success, to open the tins with chipped stones - the can-opener has also proved elusive. The water in the pot fails to come to the boil on their pitiful camp fire, so lunch today is served cold and soggy.
This is no scavenger hunt. This is a team-building exercise, part of the serious business of straightening out troubled or academically under-achieving teenagers through disciplined military-style training. These 10 teenagers, aged from 15 to 18, are the first recruits of the Gideon Youth Military Boarding School, which opened last September on the secluded Yim Tin Tsai island, 15 minutes by ferry from Sai Kung. The school is an extension of the Gideon Centre's youth services. Set up by a group of social workers in 1993, the local Christian non-governmental organisation is devoted to providing outdoor orienteering and counselling programmes for youngsters of primary and secondary school age.
To set up the boot camp, the Gideon Centre acquired $600,000 through public fund-raising. The camouflaged dormitory complex, remodelled from two abandoned village houses and a pigsty rented from absent villagers for $5,000 a month, can cater for up to 24 weekday boarders. This year the 10 boarders go home at weekends when 80 primary and secondary students come for daytrips filled with outdoor activities. All of the first intake of boarders are boys, but the school also caters for girls.
Many of the 'recruits' have left school early and all have failed to find jobs. Some have ended up at the 'last resort'' school after becoming involved with triads, soft drugs or generally running into trouble. 'With little academic qualifications and job experience, many school-leavers are stuck once they are pushed out of the school gates,' says social worker So Kwok-hung, one of the school's four instructors. 'The job market is getting more competitive.'
Unlike mainstream schools, outdoor activities are at the core of the two-year curriculum for boarders. The centre's founder, David Siu Chi-kong, says the boot camp was opened following the successful and popular orienteering outings the Gideon Centre has offered to local primary and secondary schools since 1984. 'We notice that students' behaviour improved during the excursions, but once they went home all their old habits returned,' says Siu, 46. 'Environment is the key to shaping behaviour.'
