https://www.scmp.com/rss/324386/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com From a woman who hands out free food weekly to the needy, to a foster mum who has set up a loving home to 57 children and counting, Hong Kong has no lack of individuals with big hearts, quietly making a difference in the city. Now, they can get the recognition they deserve, as polls are open for the Spirit of Hong Kong People’s Choice Award, organised by the South China Morning Post for the fifth year. This year’s series celebrates 18 unsung heroes for their selfless efforts to make life better... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2100942/youve-heard-their-stories-now-its-time-vote-citys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2100942/youve-heard-their-stories-now-its-time-vote-citys?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Jul 2017 10:09:26 +0000 Hong Kong academic Woo Kam-tim is no armchair critic who just makes observations about society from the classroom. The associate professor of engineering education at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology prefers a hands-on approach, engaging with the community to improve lives and pushing his students to do the same. He sets a good example by founding the Centre for Global & Community Engagement, hoping to encourage students from all across Hong Kong to explore ways in which they can... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2098322/hong-kong-academic-combines-engineering-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2098322/hong-kong-academic-combines-engineering-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Jun 2017 09:36:48 +0000 Ninety-year-old To Wan-fei and his wife Tang Sui-chui, 87, have been visiting Light of Raphael since it opened in 2010. The Chinese medicine clinic at a public housing estate in Chai Wan is where they go for all their medical problems. For To, it’s a swollen leg and breathing difficulties. “I’m 90! There’s good and bad to being this old. My health is deteriorating, I don’t breathe well and I can’t remember things, plus I can’t really hear,” To explained. Tang visits regularly for acupuncture for... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2098124/hong-kong-clinic-offers-free-care-and-healthy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2098124/hong-kong-clinic-offers-free-care-and-healthy?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jun 2017 08:27:41 +0000 Five and a half years after Lai Chi-wai was paralysed from the waist down in a traffic accident, ending a glittering climbing career, he has found a new purpose in life teaching people about the importance of pushing on in adversity. Lai, 34, visits schools around Hong Kong several times a month to give talks on his experience of going from being a world-class athlete to a paraplegic. In 2011, Lai was at the top of his game. He was ranked eighth in the world as a professional rock climber and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2097974/paralysed-athlete-starts-new-career-motivational?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2097974/paralysed-athlete-starts-new-career-motivational?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jun 2017 10:15:15 +0000 Dodo Cheng Yiu-tung had been a social worker for six years when it dawned on him that there was more he could do for the grassroots community near the nursing home where he worked. As a volunteer in Tin Shui Wai and Tung Chung doing community development work, he met many women who were extremely talented in the kitchen. However, they did not have a platform on which to share their work, so Cheng quit his job and decided to help them. He founded Sharing Kitchen in April last year. Based on the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2097823/recipe-success-social-enterprise-helping?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2097823/recipe-success-social-enterprise-helping?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jun 2017 07:27:45 +0000 Chin Pui-chun has been an emergency foster care mum for 14 years, and she plans to keep taking in children as long as she is physically able. She started because of her work at Tuen Mun Hospital. Chin had been a volunteer on another programme for 10 years when severe acute respiratory syndrome broke out in 2003. That scheme abruptly ended because the hospital was worried about safety in the wake of the health scare. After seeing a child being sent to emergency foster care because the father had... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2097305/hong-kong-foster-mum-whos-given-loving-home-57?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2097305/hong-kong-foster-mum-whos-given-loving-home-57?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Jun 2017 08:24:38 +0000 Autistic children may have a hard time coping with their surroundings, but Professor Catherine So Wing-chee, armed with a background in language and cognitive development, has made it her mission to help them integrate into society – with the help of some robot friends. The 38-year-old from the Chinese University of Hong Kong also aims to change the mindset of Hongkongers towards those with autism. “There are still people in Hong Kong who discriminate against children with autism. You can see it... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2097135/robots-break-down-teaching-barriers-autistic-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2097135/robots-break-down-teaching-barriers-autistic-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Jun 2017 09:00:45 +0000 It all began about five years ago, when Ivan Chan Hon-man visited a complete stranger living alone at a public housing estate to fix some broken home appliances and furniture for free. As someone with a renovation background, Chan was just lending a helping hand to the elderly. At the time, he was running a renovations company that refurbished the offices of non-government organisations. His clients appreciated his work and had referred him to individuals who needed help with their homes but did... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096959/meet-handyman-who-serves-neediest-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096959/meet-handyman-who-serves-neediest-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Jun 2017 08:41:33 +0000 As a student, Lam Ka-lun didn’t have an affinity for the books, preferring instead to play video games, smoke and pick fights. He never imagined he would become a barista, but he was set on the path one day after school when he swung by Cafe Heato in Tuen Mun where his friend worked. Lam convinced his friend to let him try making coffee, even though he had zero experience. “I had no goals, there was nothing I really wanted to go after, but I was bored and I wanted a challenge,” he said. “I’d... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096827/hong-kong-coffee-shop-where-misfits-share-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096827/hong-kong-coffee-shop-where-misfits-share-new?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Jun 2017 08:17:54 +0000 When Chan Chat-fung’s sight started deteriorating in her 30s due to retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative eye disease, she knew she had to switch careers. She was working in garment merchandising at the time. It was then that Chan came across the Health Massage and Treatment Centre. The organisation’s mission is to provide employment opportunities for the visually impaired. It aims to give them a sense of achievement and belonging in a society which, according to the centre, is largely... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096350/hong-kong-massage-and-facial-care-centre-trains?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096350/hong-kong-massage-and-facial-care-centre-trains?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 31 May 2017 08:25:50 +0000 Tam Kuen-fai has been cutting hair since 1955. He started by taking a job for HK$15 a month at a hairdresser’s in Ap Lei Chau. Twice a week, he would go there to learn on the job. After a few years, he left and opened his own shop. In 1993, Tam was visiting his wife at Haven of Hope Hospital. She had had a stroke. He noticed that “people who lived in hospital for months on end had all these knots in their hair”. That’s when he decided it was time for him to do what he did best. “I’ve always... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096241/elderly-hong-kong-hairdresser-brings-happiness?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096241/elderly-hong-kong-hairdresser-brings-happiness?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 May 2017 09:58:40 +0000 Tim Lui Hin-wai is on a mission to prevent people from getting heart attacks. The 27-year-old Hongkonger studied biomedical engineering and uses his knowledge to help people who are most likely to suffer from such coronary events. Lui co-founded Heartisans, a technology start-up that has built a smartwatch predicting heart attacks up to 10 minutes in advance of their happening. Overseeing the technical side of the start-up, he describes the device as developed specifically for heart disease and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096119/hong-kong-entrepreneur-has-eye-preventing-heart?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096119/hong-kong-entrepreneur-has-eye-preventing-heart?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 May 2017 10:45:45 +0000 Throngs of women were crowding a social service centre in Sham Shui Po, as they waited for free food on a stormy day. The women, some of the 750 members of J Life Foundation, reached out for the bread, butter and broccoli handed out by the group’s chief executive Elli Fu Nga-nei and other helpers. Fu, who started the organisation to provide food for poor Hongkongers, does this every day. “I don’t want there to be a day when I don’t do frontline work and only manage, when I can’t be with the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096008/hong-kong-foundation-owner-mission-feed-citys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2096008/hong-kong-foundation-owner-mission-feed-citys?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 May 2017 11:36:04 +0000 Lam Kam-sing has been doing welfare work at Caritas Community Centre in Kowloon for 44 years, and the 72-year-old has no intention of stopping. It all started in the early 1970s when he was recruited as what was then called a welfare worker. As a young man, that meant joining a large group of like-minded individuals who wanted to help society. “I’m not religious, even though Caritas is a Catholic organisation. I just feel that I’ve learned a lot from society, so I am simply giving back,” he... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2095534/life-dedicated-caring-hong-kongs-citizens?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2095534/life-dedicated-caring-hong-kongs-citizens?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 May 2017 09:15:30 +0000 When Emily Tang started work on her final year project in industrial and product design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, she had her grandfather, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, in mind. Tang chose to create something that would help such patients. “A lot of people think [Parkinson’s] is brain-related, but actually it only involves motor skills. The brains of patients are still very active. It’s just their limbs that become slower and more rigid, and they suffer from tremors,” she... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2095375/hong-kong-designers-invention-may-improve?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2095375/hong-kong-designers-invention-may-improve?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 May 2017 09:07:39 +0000 Edward Tse Kam-man is not your ordinary teacher. Having retired late last year, he looks back at his time as a visual arts instructor at Kwun Tong Maryknoll College with fondness. Tse, 61, was ahead of his time when he started teaching at the boys’ school 34 years ago. Instead of sticking to the strict local school culture, Tse did away with seating plans and bought a fridge, water dispenser and coffee pot for his students. He also brought along a CD player because he felt music should be played... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2095222/teacher-who-pushed-boundaries-hong-kong-education?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2095222/teacher-who-pushed-boundaries-hong-kong-education?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 May 2017 08:15:45 +0000 For many locals in Hong Kong, the decline of Cantonese amid the rise of Putonghua – the unifying speech of mainland China – is inevitable. Surprisingly, an American living in the city has taken it upon himself to preserve Cantonese. Professor Robert Bauer, a fluent speaker of Cantonese, said he believed Hong Kong’s predominant tongue would die out “in another couple of generations” if the present trend continued. Bauer did not think many Hongkongers were concerned about upholding Cantonese. “As... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2095090/american-professor-speaks-cantonese-preserve-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2095090/american-professor-speaks-cantonese-preserve-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 May 2017 04:00:00 +0000 Father John Wotherspoon has been fighting an anti-drugs campaign since 2013. As a prison chaplain, he has met his fair share of smugglers who want their family and friends to stop bringing drugs into Hong Kong and stay out of jail. Since he convinced a Tanzanian drug mule to write a letter home warning people not to follow his footsteps four years ago, Wotherspoon, 70, has made the issue his top priority. “I would estimate the campaign has stopped one drug mule a week from coming to Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2094665/prison-chaplain-who-has-stopped-150-drug-mules?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2094665/prison-chaplain-who-has-stopped-150-drug-mules?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 May 2017 08:15:30 +0000 David Cheung Wai-sun is not your typical engineer. As a child, he battled severe depression because of family violence and poverty. By the time he was 13, he had attempted suicide five times. After his last attempt, doctors put him in the psychiatric ward at Queen Mary Hospital and forced him to undergo electroconvulsive therapy, more commonly known as electroshock therapy. Proponents of the controversial procedure say it “cures” depression by inducing seizures that alter brain chemistry, but... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2094527/how-hong-kong-inventor-conquered-his-demons?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2094527/how-hong-kong-inventor-conquered-his-demons?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 May 2017 09:17:30 +0000 At his shop in Yau Ma Tei, Mak Kam-sang’s walls are covered in calligraphy signs he has written. Passers-by stop and peer into the store, curious about what it sells as it is so different from everything else in the area. Mak is the last calligrapher in Hong Kong behind the red and blue signs informing would-be passengers where a red minibus is going. Now 60, he has been in this business since 1978, when he first opened his shop to serve all kinds of businesses from restaurants to individuals... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2094271/how-hong-kongs-last-minibus-sign-writer-forging?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2094271/how-hong-kongs-last-minibus-sign-writer-forging?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 May 2017 07:00:00 +0000 Davis Dai Kim-ping was 11 when he was hit by a truck while crossing the road. The accident put him in a coma and his right leg was severely injured. Two days later he woke up to find that doctors had amputated his leg. Being a child, he thought nothing of it and assumed it would grow back or he would simply get a replacement robotic leg. During the year he spent recovering in hospital he realised that something else was seriously wrong. “I watched TV and I couldn’t hear it very well, but I... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2093782/hong-kong-paralympian-inspiring-others-chase?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2093782/hong-kong-paralympian-inspiring-others-chase?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 May 2017 08:28:30 +0000 The words “heritage conservation” normally bring up images of old buildings around Hong Kong, but we do not think about cultural preservation underwater very often. That is the sort of mindset engineer Rick Chan Kei-yip wants to change. He believes that Hong Kong needs to gain a better understanding of the city’s cultural identity as a trading port, and that we should do more to learn from and appreciate the past. That is why he spends a lot of his spare time with his friends diving for... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2093570/history-buff-dives-deep-protect-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2093570/history-buff-dives-deep-protect-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 May 2017 06:53:20 +0000 Small Luk was born with both male and female genitalia, but early on doctors classified her as male because she had what appeared to be a boy’s reproductive parts. Being unable to urinate like other boys at school, Luk underwent more than 20 operations in five years. All of them failed. The unsuccessful surgery, bullying from her peers and pressure to act as her family’s first-born male caused her to twice attempt suicide. Confused about why she was forced to continuously endure hospital... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2093440/hong-kong-intersex-campaigner-whos-tearing-down?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2093440/hong-kong-intersex-campaigner-whos-tearing-down?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 May 2017 09:15:45 +0000 When Comma Chan Hin-wang lost his sight to glaucoma in his 30s, he could barely come to terms with it. “Helplessness, fear, the feeling of not being able to solve it – I had suicidal thoughts,” he recalled. “I had no one to turn to.” Chan worked in property management at the time. He said everyone thought his life would never be the same again. Eventually, though, Chan, now 41, picked himself up and got involved with a society for the visually impaired. The community taught him to do daily... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2093323/blind-hongkonger-who-began-theatre-group-helps?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2093323/blind-hongkonger-who-began-theatre-group-helps?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 May 2017 00:33:31 +0000 Twenty-four unsung heroes have been nominated this year for the Post’s Spirit of Hong Kong Awards, which honour organisations and individuals who make a meaningful difference in the city. Over the next few weeks, the Post will feature stories about the finalists, including a former triad member who employs ex-convicts to reintegrate them into society; an intersex person who is campaigning for an end to forced genital normalisation surgeries; and a man who started a theatre group to help the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2093313/spirit-hong-kong-awards-see-24-unsung-heroes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2093313/spirit-hong-kong-awards-see-24-unsung-heroes?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 May 2017 00:33:31 +0000