Realities of life in Hong Kong a rude awakening for Kazakhstan student now determined to be agent for change in a world threatened by plastic pollution
- Madina Kaliyeva came to the city determined to become a successful businesswoman, but a trip to the beach changed things
Madina Kaliyeva arrived in Hong Kong four years ago from Kazakhstan hoping to learn how to become a successful businesswoman, she will leave with a better understanding of her place in the world and as an advocate for sustainability and change.
Before travelling to the city, Kaliyeva had a rose-tinted view of what a “dynamic and highly developed” Hong Kong would be like. “I saw an international financial centre where east meets west,” she said.
What the Polytechnic University student did not expect was all the rubbish littering the city’s country parks, its beauty spots, and its beaches.
It was “an awakening” for the just arrived 18-year-old, and made her determined to return home in the years ahead to battle the environmental pollution Kazakhstan presently struggles to contain.
Kaliyeva came to Hong Kong in 2015 alongside a host of other students from central Asia under the Belt and Road Initiative, President Xi Jinping’s ambitious 2013 plan for economic integration on a global scale, involving countries across Europe and Asia.