A presentation ceremony organised by The Fred Hollows Foundation today recognised 33 Upper Primary students for their compassion, integrity and kindness.
Organised by The Fred Hollows Foundation, The Humanity Award acknowledge Upper Primary students who make a positive difference in their community.
Today’s ceremony is the first Humanity Award to be held in Hong Kong. The Award has recognised more than 1000 primary school students in Australia since 2012.
The Award praises 33 students for a number of achievements, including donating hair to cancer patients, designing a phone app for emotional support, serving different groups of people in need, as well as environmental protection.
Advisory Group member of The Fred Hollows Foundation and eye doctor Dr Geoffrey Lam said the Primary Four to Six students were making a positive difference in their communities.
“Founder of The Foundation Professor Fred Hollows used to say that the greatest attribute of humankind was our ability to help one another. This Award recognises students who reflect this value in their own lives.
“Fred would have been incredibly proud of the contribution these students are making to the society and of The Foundation for recognising and encouraging them to help others, no matter how big or small their actions.”
More than 20 school nominated about 200 students to the first Humanity Award, which is proudly supported by Faust International Youth Theatre, PizzaExpress and Plaza Hollywood.
“This high level of participation proves that our students are actively serving the community. All we need is to provide an opportunity to encourage and acknowledge inspiring and positive actions,” Dr Lam said.
Ambassador of Hope – Albert Haustorfer
Two years ago Albert, a Primary Six student at Kellet School, learned about the importance of us being a part of the community. He decided to donate his hair and at the same time raise some money to help make someone's wish come true. Albert learnt a lot about himself during this time. As his hair got longer he was told he looked like a girl. As upsetting as this was for Albert he made a conscious decision to carry on with what he believed in. Over two years he grew his hair until it was 30CM long and focused his energy on creating a donation page. Albert finally donated his hair to a charity in Australia and raised HKD$17,927 for Make a Wish Foundation in Hong Kong.
Ambassador of Kindness – Mo-fan Dong
Emotional health is of great concern to Hong Kong people in recent years. Mo-fan Dong from Lok Sin Tong Leung Wong Wai Fong Memorial School
found out from The World Health Organization that an increasing number of people are suffering from depression and anxiety. As a result he decided to design an app in his computer and general studies class which helps people to tackle their emotional problems. When the users have a difficult mood, they can pick an emotion and the app will provide some pictures, music or a space for them to draw so as to calm themselves down. The app will also provide soothing words and hotlines for people to seek help.
Ambassador of Compassion – Lok-tin Man
Lok-tin Man is in Primary Five at the Sha Tin Wai Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School. He started thinking of helping elderly people when he saw an old lady in the community not offered help when needed. Lok-tin’s grandfather lives far away from him so he joined the school’s moral education program and picked helping the elderly people as a topic. Under his teacher’s guidance, Lok-tin initiated ideas and designed activities to better understand the elderly in the neighbourhood. He found out that it took time to build a relationship with elderly people and open up their hearts. Lok-tin also changed his thoughts towards the elderly when he served. He started calling his grandfather more frequently too and encouraged his fellow students to be more active in serving other older people.
The Humanity Award 2018 is proudly sponsored by Faust International Youth Theatre, PizzaExpress and Plaza Hollywood.
List of Awardees
Ambassador of Hope
Kellett School Albert Haustorfer
Grew and donated hair to cancer patients
Ambassador of Kindness
Lok Sin Tong Leung Wong Wai Fong Memorial School Mo-fan Dong
Designed an app to help people tackle their emotional stress and challenges
Ambassador of Compassion
Sha Tin Wai Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School Lok-tin Man
Proactively serving elderly people
Junior Ambassador
Sir Ellis Kadoorie (S) Primary School Utkarsh Roy
Utkarsh actively participated in the school’s social inclusion programs “Learn with Fun”. The program was a series of activities which engage non-Chinese pupils to get involved in the community through lessons, visits and services. The school teacher saw Utkarsh deeply committed to helping a new friend with learning needs in a day trip. Utkarsh tried his best to communicate with this new friend, walk with him and involved him in the activities. In addition, Utkarsh who learned magic at a school program, voluntarily performed for people with a disability in Wan Chai. The school praised him as kind and has a readiness to serve. It is impressive that a boy of only nine years old is so caring for people in need.
Junior Ambassador
Harrow International School Hong Kong Aimee Roychowdhury , Freya Robson
Aimee and Freya have great passion for saving the environment after learning the importance of taking care of the world around us. Both girls organized a beach clean-up in their own free time. The girls together with other friends also created a presentation about saving the environment which they presented to the whole of Year Four.
Students of Merit
Harrow International School Hong Kong
Edward Alexander
- Collected books and stationary to create A Box of Hope and personally delivered to children in deprived villages in The Philippines
Chan's Creative school Isaac Fong
- A long term volunteer and joined the school’s Small Teacher program
Ma On Shan Ling Liang Primary School Keiki Chow, Emily Wong, Chit-to Kwok
- Member of Shatin Student Ambassador Scheme and served people with visual impairment
Po Leung Kuk Camões Tan Siu Lin Primary School
Lai Yan Kiu, Pandora So, Jonathan Shu, Daniel Chan, Wong Nim Tung, Charles Choi, Emily Chung, Cherrie Ng
- Collected over a hundred story books at school and shared them through ToHome in To Kwa Wan
Po Leung Kuk Horizon East Primary School Tsz-tung Tse, Tsz-kiu Choi
- Both are long term volunteers. Activities joined this year include visiting elderly homes, served the people with a disability, cleaned the beach and tree planting.
Fukien Secondary School Affiliated School
Kelly Cheung - Studied lives of the homeless and shared at the school’s open day
Gaile Wong - Took care of new classmate and engaged him in school and after class
Michelle Sit - Helped an elderly lady to transport trashed cans and paper to recyclable collection points
Bosco Bud - Helped a classmate who broke his arm with homework and reminded him to take his medicine
Hoi Pa Street Government Primary School Yuk-yi Lam
- Joined Girl Scout since Primary Two and is the school’s Care Ambassador to help Primary One Student
Pui Kiu College
Chun-yin Leung - A long term volunteer including serving at elderly homes, selling flags help teacher with class duties
Ka-yue Lau, Ka-tsz Lau - Collected used books and donated to people in need
Wong Tai Sin Government Primary School Carmen Ou
- A long term volunteer. Often helps classmates with homework and volunteers to clean the classroom
St. Bonaventure Catholic Primary School
Candy Cheung, Roy Kee, Ming-san Lai
- Joined the school program to throw a Christmas party for the visually impaired and designed a lucky draw ticket in braille