Dear readers,

The first quarter of Year 2020 is indelible for us in Hong Kong and for our Earth in the way that World War III seems to have started from here.  It is, however, a war without tanks, aircrafts, guns and bombs.  The remarkable offensive weapon is a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus which can be caught at any time by anyone, no matter how vigorous, superior or powerful these people are.  According to the compiled figures from Johns Hopkins University, as of 3 April 2020, 1,016,401 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed globally with 53,160 deaths recorded.  Many countries have unleashed decisive wartime efforts by taking various restrictive measures like city lockdown, travel ban, mandatory quarantine and shelter-in-place order.  This is going to be a long war, over the next months, entering into perhaps 2021.

Launched by this Centre in 2015-16, the Social Enterprise Startup Scheme has been encouraging CUHK students and recent graduates to make good use of their expertise to establish or expand their social enterprises.

The I·CARE Social Service Projects Scheme encourages students to organise and implement self-initiated social services.  Three rounds of vetting are available in 2019-20.  Students may submit applications according to the commencement date of their projects and the amount of funds required.  Despite the cancellation of the 1^st and 2^nd rounds of application which resulted from the persistent social movement and COVID-19 outbreak respectively, the 3^rd round (i.e. the last round in this academic year) prevails.  Details are as follows:

The 14 CUHK students recruited for I·CARE Hong Kong Cultural Tours Project of this academic year have been engaged in field trips at the two selected districts (Jordan and Sai Ying Pun) since December of last year.  They explored the history and development of both districts before finalising the tour routes based on the themes below.  They also videotaped partial process for production of the guiding kit later on.

The University, through this Centre, generates Report of Experiential Learning Activities to help its graduates better prepare for career development and further studies.  Graduating students of the 2^nd term of 2019-20 (based on the graduate list from Registration and Examinations Section, Registry) may make on-line application here by 31 July 2020 (Friday).  One copy of this report will then be issued to the applicant free of charge.  To avoid duplicate applications, each graduating student only needs to enrol for once.

The character traits under character education (e.g. “Gratitude”, “Kindness” and “Hope”) form an integral part of whole-person development.　 In response to the global efforts in promoting character education in recent years, this Centre has represented CUHK to register in the Character Day Hong Kong in 2019-20 as a recognised participating institution.

Affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, the 3^rd, 4^th and 6^th tours of Mother Nature Rocks (respectively on “Chinese New Year × Flower Photography × Hiking”, “Wetland Exploration × Hiking” and “Star Gazing × Sunrise Seeing × Hiking”) were postponed.  Since the 5^th tour titled “Backwoods Cooking × Hiking” was rolled out when the epidemic situation had manifested signs of relative stability, it could be held on the 1^st of last month as planned, coupled with the strict implementation of precautionary measures as advised by the medical expert.  Participants went hiking at Ma On Shan and climbed to the Ngong Ping Plateau to enjoy the beautiful bird’s-eye view of Sai Kung.  In the middle of their journey, marshmallows were chosen as a means to demonstrate how to set fire for barbecue.

The Yunus Social Business Centre@CUHK, which is an affiliate of this Centre, has introduced the S.I. Leadership Award for application by the CUHK students and alumni who are interested in social innovation.  Through training, mentorship and competition, this award scheme encourages participants to advance existing services or products to meet social needs.  In this academic year, a total of 21 teams have enrolled to compete for the S.I. Leadership Award.  The winning projects will each receive a maximum of HK$160,000 as seed money to develop their services or products in an innovative way.

There were media reporting in early last month that the city’s some 400,000 domestic helpers have not been well informed of the updated precautionary measures under the COVID-19 pandemic.  Many of them are also short of personal protective equipment.  In this circumstances, they will easily get infected when spending their weekly day off in the form of outdoor gatherings on a mass scale.  Given the close contact with their serving families, transmission of the virus within the community is on the verge of explosion.  As such, this Centre gathered the CUHK students to conduct an onsite inspection in the Central district so as to observe the congregation of the foreign domestic helpers, and decided afterwards that the I·CARE’s Warmth Giving - A Day for Foreign Domestic Helpers would be held on the 22^nd of last month.

The illness caused by novel coronavirus has been spreading across Hong Kong and worldwide.  Areas affected by this pandemic are facing a severe shortage of personal protective equipment.  Over the past two months, this Centre had thus assisted the University in distributing its “homemade” handrub to more than 40 non-governmental organisations for onward transmission to the social vulnerable groups.  To further provide immediate relief for the needy people, face masks and alcohol pads etc. received from donors by this Centre were transferred to the medical staff and carers.  The beneficiaries include elders, people with visual/ hearing/ intellectual impairments, physically disabled persons, chronic patients, homeless people, and families living in sub-divided flats, etc.

Please click on the image below for more information.