Planting love: Hong Kong lawyers jazz up garden at care home for disabled in support of Operation Santa Claus
- Volunteer activity, on top of donations, part of Deacons’ 12-year-long commitment to fundraising drive organised by Post and RTHK
- Law firm previously arranged horseback riding for children with Down’s syndrome, painting lessons for drug addicts, and Cantonese opera for deaf adults and children
On a recent Saturday, 17 lawyers, trainee solicitors, and other staff from a law firm in Hong Kong travelled to Sheung Shui, where they spent the morning decorating flower pots and painting old tyres to be used as planters in the garden of a home for disabled people.
The volunteer activity that weekend was part of Deacons’ 12-year-long support for Operation Santa Claus (OSC), an annual fundraising initiative held by the South China Morning Post and public broadcaster RTHK.
Since 1988, OSC has raised HK$353 million (US$45.4 million) to support the community through 323 charitable projects. This year, its 35th anniversary, OSC is funding 15 charitable projects of worthy causes, including the Home of Loving Faithfulness (HOLF).
HOLF cares for 17 residents with moderate to severe intellectual and physical disabilities, including those abandoned by their families. Since its founding in 1965, it has taken in more than 80 residents, many staying from childhood to old age.
On top of donating money to OSC each year, Deacons staff also volunteer their time. In the past, it has arranged horseback riding for children with Down’s syndrome, painting lessons for drug addicts, and Cantonese opera for deaf adults and their children, among other activities.
“It’s good to get out of our office to engage with the less fortunate. It’s really good to enrich our colleagues,” Deacons senior partner Lilian Chiang Sui-fook said. “It’s great of OSC to give us a chance to participate.”
This was the first time the firm’s staff had visited HOLF.
“Hearing that HOLF has such good founders and good workers doing great things really touched us,” Chiang said, referring to the two British missionaries who founded the home in 1965 and the many staff and volunteers who keep it running.
“The volunteers are really great. They contribute a lot of time and effort … We are really doing very little, nothing compared to the volunteers who help day in and day out,” Chiang said.
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Rachel Chiu Lok-kiu, a trainee solicitor, said: “A lot of us became lawyers to help society … By taking part in this activity … it helps us become more aware of disadvantaged people. Whichever area of law you’re in, it involves helping people and that includes the disadvantaged.”
Solicitor Wilson Tang Hon-kit said he passed HOLF on his way home daily, but only just got to know about it.
“They don’t have a chance to leave, so improving this environment by decorating their sensory garden is a great way for us to give them some happiness,” Tang said.
Later that morning, Chiang and Gary Lui Fook-wing, a Deacons partner, helped the residents decorate their Christmas tree.
Long-time resident Dib Dib, 51, who suffers from cerebral palsy and was abandoned at a young age, was among a group of residents who watched excitedly as red and silver ornaments were hung on the tree.
Chiang and Lui then handed a red gift bag to each resident, much to their delight.
After the flower pots were adorned with seashells, colourful glass beads and small tiles, HOLF senior manager Wenda Wong Pui-ying said: “We’re very happy they came here to help us. We have a big garden and it takes a lot of time to tend it. This creates a more beautiful environment for our residents.”
Jo Steed, a regular volunteer gardener guiding the Deacons staff, said the flower pots would be used to plant herbs for the kitchen garden and some might be put outside windows for residents to look at.
“They did a fantastic job,” Steed said of the Deacons volunteers.