By the academic year 2023-24 reaches its end, conveyed the summarise of the Lean Poverty Alleviation Initiative (LPAI) programme, the LPAI Debriefing Session was organised in Room 502 of Wong Foo Yuen Building, dated 22nd June, 2024. The programme was a cluster of multiple initiatives, including the "Fitness x Mentorship" Scheme, I·CARE Hong Kong Cultural Tours Project, I·CARE Cross-generational Integration Service Programme, and Community Inclusion Service Programme 2023-24. Over 50 students and staff of Office of Student Affairs participated in the event.
We are blessed to have the mentally impaired persons from the TWGHs Lee Yen & Lee Yuk Lun, BBS, JP, Father & Son Lohas Villa, coupled with the student volunteers in the Community Inclusion Service Programme 2023-24, perform African ditty, participants joined with their body swaying along the beat from djembes at the event. The interaction between students and the service recipients manifested the essence of community inclusion and echoedour our idea, that servicing is reciprocal, and the heart of giving was evinced in the famous quote of Mahatma Gandhi, “Reciprocity is the law of life – what you give, you get.”. On one side service recipients received our kindness and demonstrated their ability; on the other side we as the providers, benefited, conveying an equal relationship, and fostering inclusiveness and equality. After the djembes performance, students shared their achievements and reflections on the social services in the previous year, including, learning pickleball with hearing impaired persons, leading secondary students on local tours to understand the culture and history of Hong Kong, cooking for lunch and experiencing university’s life with elderly, being the guide runner to complete the short marathon with mentally impaired persons, etc.
Kudos to the students who devoted their endeavours and munificence in sparing their personal time to the betterment of lives among the service recipients of the respective programmes amidst the year, in addition to insights obtained, difficulties encountered and remarkable memories. It was indeed a platform for students from different programmes to situate and bolster each other.
Photo caption:
Photo 1: Group photo: LPAI Debriefing Session 2024
Photo 2: Community Inclusion we are! Students dancing and singing with service recipients
Photo 3: Students sharing their insights obtained over the past year’s devotion to programmes