Cricket helps kids from Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities learn Cantonese and integrate into society
- IBEL co-founder and CEO Manoj Dhar says the RCS HK’s Commonwealth Cricket Cup plays a key role in raising awareness of their work with children
- The organisation has two centres in Hong Kong catering to around 250 children at kindergarten, primary and second school levels
Cricket is playing a part in helping children from ethnic minorities learn Chinese and better integrate into Hong Kong society, said Manoj Dhar, CEO and co-founder of charity organisation Integrated Brilliant Education Ltd (IBEL).
This past weekend’s Commonwealth Cricket Cup, organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society of Hong Kong and featuring teams from various consulates in the city, will help IBEL support the education of around 250 youngsters across kindergarten, primary and secondary school levels.
India won the fourth edition of the tournament, for which IBEL is the chosen charity.
“The most invaluable benefit [of the tournament] has been that of raising the awareness levels regarding the language-based educational marginalisation of Hong Kong’s underserved non-Chinese speaking children community,” Dhar said. “It was as humbling as it was heartening for IBEL to sense the vibrancy and enthusiasm of the esteemed Commonwealth consulates in supporting IBEL’s constructive approach.”
Launched in January, 2015, IBEL has two registered learning centres in Jordan and Cheung Sha Wan, offering daily support to the children. One of its goals is to help the kids become fluent in Chinese so they can make the most of Hong Kong’s education system.
“Our learning centres endeavour to provide an experience that is nurturing, immersive, one that helps the child to happily and fearlessly adopt and adapt to Cantonese language learning, thus facilitating their integration into Hong Kong’s mainstream social fabric,” he said. “This is because, we are most respectful of the adage, ‘language is culture and culture is language’.
“The IBEL team works hard to support the parental aspirations that their children are academically and linguistically proficient enough to enter the best of local mainstream schools and confident enough to integrate seamlessly into the ethnic majority student community.”
The RCS cricket tournament is an apt vehicle to raise awareness of the children’s needs with sport playing an important role in their overall development, Dhar said.
“From the get go, sports opportunities have been intrinsic to IBEL’s model and we have always encouraged our students to develop an active and healthy lifestyle,” he said. “As has been proven several time over via scientific research, this is a simple yet highly effective way to levitate academic, mental, emotional and physical well being.
“When it comes to team sports, the significance of and life lessons learning from these is far deeper for our students. Life in itself is a team sport as none can exist, survive or flourish in isolation.”
