Staff Sharing

Sharing Love

Let the life on life interaction continue - JACKY

But for Jacky, he chose to stay at the service unit after work and taught teenagers dance till midnight, so as to inspire them to pursue their dreams of being dancers. Jacky was once a rebellious teenager that had run away from home. After reconciling with his family and returned home, Jacky decided to devote his future career to navigating youths for their directions in life. Later when he joined the Po Leung Kuk F.S.F.T. Children and Youth Development Centre, he discovered that the youngsters in the district were lack of love and care, caused them wandering the streets, and turning into non-engaged and at-risk youths. Jacky believes that these youths are talented. Many of them are great street dancers. He then tried to encourage them to reach their full potential through joining the Centre’s dance workshops and dancing with them till midnight. His dedication eventually opened their hearts and put them back on the right track. The youngsters at last won the prizes in the “Dream Stage” Dancing Competition. Some of them has also joined the Po Leung Kuk family afterwards to serve other teenagers at the Centre, and let the life on life interaction continue.

The General Attendants of the Po Leung Kuk Kindergarten-cum-Nursery - Auntie Fan and Auntie Kwan

Who is the most unforgettable person in your few years of kindergarten life? Teachers? Classmates? Or if you can remember, the General Attendants who made relentless effort to prepare your diets and clean up the kindergarten premises? The work of Auntie Fan and Auntie Kwan, the General Attendants of the Po Leung Kuk Kindergarten cum Nursery, is just like any other attendants with the same duties, they are always the earliest staff arriving the school. Before lesson starts, they need to clean up all classrooms and teaching aids to ensure everything the toddlers touch are clean. After students coming back to school, they need to assist the chef in making refreshments, take the kids to toilets, as well as get the children to sleep and cover them with blankets during nap time. Auntie Fan and Auntie Kwan both joke about their roles are just like the kids’ mothers. Full-time kindergarten students need to spend almost whole day at school. Therefore, their development and growth greatly rely on school education, in which General Attendants can fill in the gaps to the tasks that teachers do not have time to manage, such as leading the students through toilet training, tutoring them how to use chopsticks or washing hands. All the trivial tasks performed by the General Attendants create a more comfortable learning environment for the children. Even though the work is busy, Auntie Fan and Auntie Kwan are still satisfied with their jobs. It is because witnessing children’s growth is a beautiful thing for them.

Sum Miu, Welfare worker

Comprehensive residential care services bring colors to children’s life. “Why do the children need to be suffered at such a young age? Every child deserves proper care.” Po Leung Kuk offers a variety of residential care services to children with family difficulties. One of them is the “New Comers’ Ward” at the Headquarters, which is the only gazetted place of refuge in Hong Kong providing urgent and short-term residential care for children who are under family crisis. It is common that children would feel nervous and anxious when they entered the new environment. The support and companionship of our frontline caregivers are therefore important to create the warmest shelter for the children. Sum Miu is one of the welfare workers who has been working in the Ward for 3 years already. She has looked after more than 300 children with inadequate family care due to sudden family crises, divorce /decease /imprisonment / hospitalisation of parents, or child abuse. “Sometimes police rang the doorbell at 2 or 3am and brought the kids around. The top priority at that time is to prepare sufficient food and bed to meet the children’s physical needs.” Emotional support is another crucial duty of the staff. Sum Miu pointed that the Ward has set up the “Golden 2 Hours” system. Each new-coming child will receive exclusive child care by a specific staff as their ‘Buddy’, who will answer their concern for living in the Ward so as to soothe their anxiety. Emotional and behavioral problems are often found in the Ward’s children with complicated family background. It requires substantial effort to open up their hearts and educate them. “Patience is the key. For instance, if they were in temper, we will teach them to clench their fists, stand aside and try to calm down. Afterwards we will explain the reason to them and solve the problems step-by-step. I hope the children can leave with the knowledge learnt from the Kuk and develop the proper attitude to get along with people.”

Cheung Sir

25 is simply the golden age of everything, some people work hard for their career, while some people are getting prepared to form their own families. But for the 25-year-old Cheung Ka Fai, he is already the “dad” of 14 boys. This Cheung Ka Fai is not the renowned actor we see on screen. He, dubbed as “Cheung Sir”, holds a Master of Social Work and is the “parent” of the Po Leung Kuk’s dormitory in Children Section, responsible for taking care of 14 “sons” regularly. Cheung Sir needs to take care of 14 boys aged between 6 and 18 living in one of the Kuk’s dormitory. Every day, Cheung Sir the “dad” needs to wake up his sons for school, ask them to brush up and get dressed, make them breakfasts, tidy up, pick them up after school and teach them homework. But his role is not only limited to “dad”, when he got along with children in secondary schools, he treats himself like their “brother”, who can chit chat and joke around with them, or confide in each other, and built up their relationship in a comparatively casual way. Cheung Sir is also like a “tutor” in after-school care class, guiding them to study and finish their homework in the self-study periods. During weekends, he then turned himself into “fitness coach” to train up their physique and supervise them to do more exercise. Being the parent of the dormitories need to work long hours, but the wish of spending more time with the new generations has triggered Cheung Sir to move from a student discipline teacher in secondary school to the big family of Po Leung Kuk. Children living in the dormitories cannot receive adequate cared for by their families due to various family problems, and often lack father’s care during their growth. Therefore, Cheung Sir hopes to give them care and love by the identity as a “dad”. He also mentioned that each child has a unique background underlying different family issues, it is necessary to adopt different tailor-made approaches to get along with each child, so as to establish relationships with them, gain their trust and give them a sense of security; but at the same time need to ensure everyone is being treated equally, in order to let them realise the common standard in dealing with serious problems. Helping the children to understand themselves, explore their dreams, discover their ways of life, and among all to learn to be a good boy, are all the meanings for him to be a “dad”.

A Mother of 70 Children – Mrs. Chan, Parent of Small Group Home

This belief has driven Mrs. Chan to be persevere in providing meticulous care to 70 children in the Small Group Home of Po Leung Kuk no matter rain or shine for 23 years. Mr. and Mrs. Chan are the “parents” of the Kuk’s Small Group Home. They rendered home life and residential care to children who are in need of out-of-home care due to family difficulties at the Small Group Home. The couple accompanied them in every festival. They cooked the kids a big meal in Christmas, or brought their “sons and daughters” to the flower market during Chinese New Year…… Recalling her road to become a full-time “mom”, Mrs. Chan said, “The news often report that many kids are led astray because of family problems. When I occasionally read the Po Leung Kuk’s advertisement about parents recruitment for the Small Group Home, I found this job so meaningful and want to contribute myself to raising up good kids for the society.” Mrs. Chan does not ask for any rewards from her “sons and daughters”, she feels contented as long as they grow up kind and healthy. “One of them is now a boss of his own logistics company.” The couple’s excitement is beyond words whenever talking about the achievements of the children. On the other hand, their “sons and daughters” are also very well-behaved. They often sent their “parents” with surprising gifts, for instance, their hand-knitted scarfs and own drawings at the reunion dinner on Chinese New Year’s Eve. The little goodwill from the children always motivates Mr. and Mrs. Chan to keep up their commitment as the parents of Small Group Home.