Staff Sharing

Sharing Love

(Chinese Only)抱持服務初心承傳社工心志

「當年我社工學系畢業後，並非立即入行做社工，我曾做過中環OL幾個月卻不太習慣，於是決定返回社工界，一做便廿多年。」實用學校當年主要為對正規課程不感興趣或面臨輟學的學生，提供中一至中三實用科目的課程。Iris坦言，當時的工作很有挑戰性，每天要處理有情緒、行為或家庭問題的學生、籌備學校開放日、策劃學生發展活動等，工作至晚上八、九時都是平常事，但Iris從不覺累。「當時大部分學生的情緒或行為問題頗為嚴重，講粗口、吸煙，甚至吸毒、墮胎、誤入黑社會等，見盡人生百態。要走近學生的心一點都不容易，他們不時試探你的底線，要花很多心思建立信任和關係，同時也考驗自己的反應和智慧。每次費盡唇舌都以為徙勞無功，後來發現他們有把自己的說話放在心上，見證著學生的蛻變，讓我有莫大的成功感。」 Iris憶述最難忘的一次經歷，當年她入職才第二年，不幸遇到女學生被性侵個案。首次處理如此嚴重的個案，需要安撫個案及家人的情緒、調查和評估事件、協調不同單位跟進事件……對初出茅廬的Iris是越級挑戰，壓力爆煲，更一度在上司面前落淚。「多得時任丁永興校長(現為百周年李兆忠紀念中學校長)，同事吳婉玲(Sally)和黃紹發(Kelvin)支援，感恩大家互相補位，毫不吝嗇分享工作知識和交流經驗，讓我在互相扶持中成長，工作並不孤單。」憶起當年的工作點滴，Iris一度眼泛淚光。在實用學校任職駐校社工十年間，每天都有新的案件要處理，常因擔心因幫不了學生而睡不好。「不要著急，慢下來就會看見出路。」丁校長的一席話一直記到今天。Iris自言性子急，每接到學生個案，就希望可以馬上幫到他解決難困難，故常以丁校長的說話提醒自己。「我最感激的是丁校長，他以身作則，對工作有熱誠，讓我更加確定自己要謹守社工崗位。」這份堅持，直至Iris轉職至社會服務部仍未改變。 2009年，Iris獲上司推薦升任為保良局社會服務部學生輔導督導主任，負責為駐校社工提供督導、危機處理和服務發展等等。Iris重新摸索自己的定位，「記得上任後不久，即遇上第一次大型校園危機事故。當時在緊迫的時間，馬上與校方進行危機處理會議、擬定入校支援方案，並調動廿多名前線同事提供入校支援等，充分感受到整個團隊彼此合作無間，更獲得校方及教育局代表的讚許。」歷經此事，讓Iris深深明白珍惜前線人才的寶貴。「看見新入職的社工，我會覺得他們是一面鏡，讓我看見自己過往及當下的不足，令我鞭策自己做得更好。同時，我也會毫無保留地信任和支持他們，分享自己的經驗，看見他們願意聽取自己的意見且有進步，會為他們感到驕傲。」見證著同事的成長，為Iris帶來莫大的滿足感，自此決心引導更多駐校社工的後浪。團隊由開始時只有約十位同事，慢慢建立至至今有三、四十人。「我常跟同事說，1+1不是等於2，只有同事之間互相支持，互補不足，彼此便會有更多得著。」就好像這兩年，面對突如其來的疫情，Iris沒有停步，聯同服務單位的一眾主管同工及前線社工構思「疫」境同行計劃，希望可以在停課期間，繼續在線上關注學生和家長的精神健康及學習需要。她希望，下一代年青的駐校社工無論在處事態度或工作質素上都要對自己有要求，抱持初心與學生同行，讓他們有能力面對問題、有勇氣面對人生，即使只是為他們帶來微小的改變，也不計較付出，這便是作為社工的責任。

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”.