Project to get Hong Kong and mainland China universities behind village-aid drive

A new initiative is seeking to improve the lives of the poor and needy in isolated villages by pooling the resources of universities in Hong Kong and the mainland.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong's "One University - One Village" (1U1V) project plans to get universities nationwide to work with the villages to help improve their situations in any way they can using the universities' know-how.

Professor Edward Ng Yan-yung, an architect and professor of architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is the driving force behind the venture, which aims to help villages in a multidimensional way - not just by improving their infrastructure, but by helping them also to develop on an economic, social, ecological and environmental level.

"I'm absolutely certain that a university like Chinese University, with 10,000 people, can help a village of 1,000 people," Ng said.

"With the expertise, knowledge and student resources available, I cannot see why this can't be done.

"We will send staff and students there - whoever has the ability to help them. It just needs some organisation."

Ng, 52, is refining the guidelines and getting all the paperwork together for the project so that he can present it to the State Council in December.