Staff Sharing

Sharing Love

(Chinese Only)運動是……由我，變我們

保良局社工籃球隊最初只由幾位來自保良局夏利萊博士伉儷綜合復康中心（夏中）的同事組成，現在已有二十多位來自不同社會服務部的單位同事參與，包括院長、社工、事務長、宿舍導師等，更愈打愈有默契，並在社工機構籃球賽中多次奪標。原來球隊成立初期，夏中院長希望透過籃球增加同事歸屬感和交流，便組成一支球隊，報名參加社工機構籃球賽。球隊成立之初，球員之間不太熟稔，實力參差，純粹旨在參與。後來漸漸培養默契，實力和戰術方面均有所提升，陸續亦有新成員加入帶來新火花，並投選出教練和隊長，球隊狀態漸入佳境。其後每年都組隊參賽，近兩年的社工機構籃球賽事中更奪冠。奪標靠團隊默契社工籃球隊至今成立九年以來，領隊楊子奇（Steven）( 上圖右一) 一直都是重心球員，曾與不同組合的隊員經歷了一場又一場的比賽，讓Steven 印象最深的可算在第二十五屆的社工盃季軍賽。他憶述當時與另一位隊員相繼扭傷，士氣一度低落，憑著隊友冷靜和嚴密防守下，終捧得季軍。Steven 分享︰「由於隊員來自不同的服務單位，各自因為工作及家庭關係，即使賽季也只能一星期練習一天，能夠勝出比賽全靠隊員自行練習，而領隊、隊長和教練就好像蒸氣火車頭一樣帶動著整支隊員，凝聚團隊向心。一個有團隊合作精神的團隊並非著重獎盃的多寡，而是靠隊員向著一致的目標勇往直前，互相感染方能取得成功。」

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”.