Children from Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities who are struggling with language benefit from charity cricket event

Pakistan beat India by four runs in the final of the Royal Commonwealth Society of Hong Kong’s annual Cricket Cup at the Kowloon Cricket Club. But the main beneficiaries are the ethnic minority kids who are struggling to integrate into life in the city mainly because of language difficulties.

Money raised in a post-tournament auction is to be donated to Integrated Brilliant Education Trust – a charity that helps non-Chinese-speaking children learn the language in the hope of breaking down racial barriers.

In outlining their vision, charity co-founder Manoj Dhar summoned the words of former South African leader Nelson Mandela, who said: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”

Said Dhar: “While social integration, dissolving racial barriers via providing educational relief and facilitating academic upliftment to Hong Kong’s marginalised non-Chinese-speaking children is key and core to our values, sports too has been quintessential to our unique operational delivery.

“The RCS HK’s tournament is just such a perfect platform. It’s unique as it created the opportunity to bring together the various Commonwealth consulates in a competitive yet fun-filled environment.

“The uniting common goal for the consulates was to brighten up the pandemic-stricken environs and create optimism and hope and the tournament certainly managed to do that.”