Hong Kong charity seeking to help kids with ADHD excel in sports a beneficiary of this year’s Operation Santa Claus
- The programme’s creator, Christine Fung, took inspiration from her brother’s experience with ADHD, and his own love of sports
- InspiringHK Sport Foundation will also target ADHD youths’ carers, who Fung says ‘commonly suffer from some level of stress’ as well
Inspired by seeing her brother battle attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Christine Fung Hiu-tung came up with an idea to help other people with the same condition, later winning funding support to put her proposal in action.
“My younger brother has ADHD, and I saw how sports really changed him for the better,” she said.
“He was diagnosed with the condition at a very young age, and constantly clashed with people, especially teachers at school.”
She recalled that during her brother’s teens, it got to the point where he had to switch schools every year.
“I could see how he was able to let off steam through sport,” she added. “He had zero self-confidence for a while, from constantly being told off at school. But being able to excel at something gave him some of that back.”
Fung is a senior marketing and communications manager at InspiringHK Sport Foundation, a local charity founded in 2012 that promotes sports in youths, especially those who are underprivileged.
Earlier this year, she took part in the UBS NGO Leadership Programme, where she proposed a sports programme called “Co-ADDventure” specifically for children with ADHD, or ADD as one of its variants is known, and their carers.
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Fung ultimately became one of the two champions of the competition, meaning her proposal can now come to life with funding from Operation Santa Claus.
According to Chinese University, children in the city score a below-average “C-” in overall physical activity when it comes to meeting the World Health Organization’s recommended 60 minutes of activity per day.
That grade falls to a measly “F” for youths with special educational needs, who “have a high level of sedentary behaviours”, according to a report published in May this year.
Fung said that might be because carers felt the need to keep special needs children still and quiet, as “they already move too much”.
“Meanwhile, society has a hard time understanding and dealing with them, so a lot of [special needs] kids have trouble staying on school sports teams, for example.”
The programme aims to initially recruit 80 students with ADHD aged 5 to 13, each along with a carer. The pair must sign up and take classes together.
“It is important we think about carers too, who commonly suffer from some level of stress. The class offers emotional release for them too, in a way,” Fung said.
The first phase of the plan involves sports classes and take-home tasks, with lessons in both individual sports such as karate, skipping and yoga, and team sports such as soccer, hockey and touch rugby. Sports equipment would be given out as rewards as an incentive to complete home tasks.
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Instructors will be specially trained to handle ADHD children. For example, kids with attention deficiency find it difficult to conceptualise time, said Fung, so it is important to offer them a clock or stopwatch during class.
The second phase will have the students integrating with other youths at a sports fair, while the third phase will encourage the students to join regular, long-term programmes offered by the charity.
InspiringHK hopes to expand the programme to other special needs conditions like autism and dyslexia in the future.
You can make donations to Operation Santa Claus here
