Source:
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1660915/swire-volunteers-get-their-hands-dirty-killing-bedbugs-run-down-flats
Hong Kong

Swire volunteers get their hands dirty killing bedbugs in run-down flats

Swire employees spend free time working with NGO to clean up old public housing estates, including the nasty job of eradicating bedbugs

Jennifer Ngo

Updated: 4:15am, 12 Dec, 2014

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Lum Kwong-fai of Project Space (left) helps kill the bugs at Lei Cheng Uk Estate. Photo: Edward Wong

Eighty-three-year-old Lee Sun sits on his bed, his back to a dirty white wall spotted with squished bedbugs and the blood they sucked, as he recounts the often quiet days he and his wife spend at their dilapidated public housing flat in Sham Shui Po.

"I guess this is what's left of life," he said, shrugging his skinny shoulders.

But it was far from quiet as Lee spoke, with a dozen employees from Swire bustling around debugging and cleaning flats at Lei Cheng Uk Estate for free, in collaboration with Project Space for Squatter Kids, a small NGO that tries to improve the living environment at old flats and subdivided housing units.

"It's not just about the [cleaning work]; it's to go and talk to them - especially the elderly - so they know someone actually cares for them," said Maggie Tam Chun-lan, a volunteer from Swire.

Tam and her colleagues removed all the clothes and bedding from each flat, stuffed the items into plastic bags and sprinkled cleaning powder inside.

Then they combed the whole flat for fleas and bugs, carrying out a thorough debugging and cleaning.

"[Lee's] flat has so many bugs," Tam said. "I believe this one-off cleaning is useful. At least there's more awareness about cleanliness."

Another Swire volunteer, Ivy Tong Yick-fung, agreed that the one-off effort would be helpful for the tenants.

"A lot of them are elderly folks and they couldn't really lift heavy things or reach very far," she said. "I think this will be helpful.

"But ultimately, regular visits and regular cleaning are necessary. This is my first time actually doing this, and I'm surprised how some of these flats are really quite dirty."

Swire was already contributing HK$150,000 to Operation Santa Claus - the annual fundraiser held by the South China Morning Post and RTHK - and was also looking into more volunteer opportunities for its staff, group public affairs manager Agnes Lau Ying-hung said.

"Our staff has always been very keen on doing volunteering work," Lau said.

"Cleaning and debugging is a great choice, especially for our younger staff," as that did not require a specific skill apart from being able to move furniture around and being willing to do some "dirty" work.

"We are looking at continuous and one-off volunteering opportunities, and we hope to involve more staff," she added.

For this cleaning exercise, Swire collaborated with Project Space, an Operation Santa Claus beneficiary, and with the pest control company Burrow, which trained the volunteers on how to use pesticides.

 

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