Sharing common goals to improve low-income dwellers’ rental experiences, ZeShan Foundation joined hands with ComHome Social Housing Platform (“ComHome”) in 2022, to pilot the development of a more socially responsible real estate agency model serving underprivileged families in Hong Kong.
The dire living conditions in many subdivided units (“SDU”) have been under media spotlight for years. However, frequent house moving, which is equally stressful for SDU residents yet being often discussed.
Law for Change Incubation programmes have blossomed in recent years, supporting myriads of passionate young people to generate social impact innovations. It is encouraging to see growing interests towards certain social topics but some topics seem to remain remote to young change-makers. “Access to legal support” is one of the examples.
Over the years, we have seen a rise of change-makers in different communities of Hong Kong. Yet, it is not easy to find the footsteps of secondary school students. Compared to their elder counterparts, teenagers are often considered lacking passion, awareness and know-hows around social issues. Such perception might also hamper the opportunities for the ones with the right hearts and minds to contribute.
Determined to dispel the myth, ZeShan Foundation is keen to cultivate an enabling environment for young people channeling their passion to positive impact, together with like-minded allies. Since 2021, ZeShan has supported HandsOn Hong Kong’s YOUTH EMPOWERED, a 10-month project focused on empowering Hong Kong youth to be active change-makers in serving the community. About 30 youth volunteering leaders representing a cross-section of Hong Kong secondary schools will be gifted opportunities to explore community needs and develop leadership skills. The volunteer leaders will also be missioned to develop and lead six new community service programmes, under the collaboration with HandsOn team and NGO partners.
By putting youth in the driver’s seat, ZeShan hopes to instil a sense of ownership and agency of young people, while at the same time, to initiate a shift in mindset in embracing youth capability, an indispensable element in building our community.
Alexa Li
Assistant Program Manager
ZeShan Foundation
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Since 2007, Peking University has been rolling out its social work program under its Department of Sociology, in a joint effort and strategic partnership with the Department of Applied Social Sciences (DASS) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). The primary purposes of the joint program are to foster the integration of social work theory and practice as a way to indigenize and professionalize social work in China, as well as provide training to enhance the problem-solving capacity of social workers towards achieving social development.
The two institutes co-founded the PekingU-Hong Kong PolyU China Social Work Research Centre. The Centre is devoted to the development and indigenization of social work theory and practice in China, aiming to develop a pipeline for leading scholars who are committed to the social change of China in the long term. To that end, strengthening the teaching capacity both undergraduate and graduate programs in social work is an integral part of the Center’s mission.
In 2012, ZeShan Foundation and Si Yuan Foundation jointly committed RMB20 million to establish a dedicated development fund. The fund will be critical to supporting the sustained growth of the Centre, so that it may develop into a leading institution for teaching and research in social work development, a think tank for social policy, and an international hub linking with social workers and social policy makers from mainland China, Hong Kong and the international community. The fund provides seed funding for research and program capacity building and enable PKU and the Center to leverage for external funding from the government and private sector.
In 2013, to commemorate the partnership, the compound of the Centre was renamed Si Shan Yuan (思善苑), taken from the names of the two sister foundations. During the unveiling ceremony on July 20, Prof. Zhou Qifeng, President of Peking University, presented Dr. Thomas Chen with the Outstanding Educational Contribution Award in recognition of his unwavering support for education in China.
In January 2014, a 4-day intensive training on social work curriculum development and capacity building was organized for about 100 Master of Social Work (MSW) instructors from various universities across China. Co-organized by Centre, the Social Work Teaching Guidance Committee under the Ministry of Education, and the China Association for Social Work Education, the training program attracted both local and international scholars and senior social work practitioners. Leading pracademics from the University of Chicago and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University participated as trainers in the workshop.
Peking University (PKU) is considered a cradle for higher education in modern China. It has been at the forefront in the teaching and research of humanities, social sciences and liberal arts education. Throughout its history, the university has distinguished itself in terms of intellectual freedom and leadership in social sciences and has produced and hosted man prominent Chinese thought leaders.
Established in 2018, Illuminant (registered as The Illuminant Company Limited) is a social enterprise dedicated to introducing the Japanese model of elderly care into Hong Kong. The concept behind this model is to create an environment and care culture in which older adults can give full play to their own potentials and capacity, enabling the ageing community to look after themselves and enjoy their late years. Its Chinese name “鐵樹銀花” literally translates to “silver flowers blossoming on iron trees”, an analogy that comes to mean “older people enjoying their life despite being frail”.
Illuminant derives its stream of income from movie screenings, experiential learning courses, training workshops, and talks, all of which are driven by the aim to enhance and improve the quality of care in elderly homes and family homes across Hong Kong. J-Care, their flagship virtual reality training program, is the first of its kind in Hong Kong, through which people can immerse themselves in a world afflicted by dementia. Through the simulated first-person experience of dementia, participants are able to personally experience the difficulties faced by dementia patients in different scenarios that arise due to different symptoms of the condition. Accompanied by a trainer’s guidance and explanation throughout the simulation, participants emerge from the experience equipped with a better understanding of dementia patients’ needs and feelings. Illuminant’s programs have the potential to reduce the stigma and fear toward different ageing-related conditions in our society, with greater hopes of eliminating the social exclusion experienced by these vulnerable communities.
In 2018, ZeShan Foundation supported the first screening of the Japanese Kaigo movie “Care-Nin” (“照護人 1”) and an accompanying training session, which was well received by practitioners and policy makers in elder care. In 2021, ZeShan also supplemented Illuminant’s material and staff costs to upgrade both the hardware and software behind their virtual reality program, which also indirectly helped to subsidize the organization’s financial shortage during a period of business re-strategizing. With the goal to broaden the reach of the J-Care concept to a wider professional and public audience, this more advanced VR program will enable the organization to more effectively deliver content remotely in online and mobile learning modes.
The Japanese Kaigo Movie “Care-Nin” promotes the profession and the value of frontline carers, and brings out an important message that “having dementia does not mean your life is coming to an end.”
Carers experiencing dementia perspectives through VR devices
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
During the COVID-19 crisis, we supported Health in Action to address three aspects (physical, psychological and community) of needs and empowerment of low-income families, including working poor and ethnic minorities, in Hong Kong who suffer more under strain of the pandemic. About 100 most at-risk families will be invited to join the first level of intervention to address the physical needs through cash transfer on fresh food and enhancing health awareness. Families with mental stress will be invited to participate in second level of interventions on psychological needs and stress management to promote self-care competence. The third level is a Food Buddies program where ‘kai fongs’ will be empowered to co-create a mutual help platform toward a healthy community.
Project Goals:
Provide timely monitoring and support to low-income families to relieve the negative impact of food shortage and mental stress;
Engage and empower the low-income families by enhancing their health awareness, knowledge and behaviour; and
Motivate and mobilize the working poor and ethnic minorities families for providing mutual support to increase community resilience potential and facilitate them to co-create their own healthy community.
Many NGOs and social enterprises have been struggling with their operations as a result of the various restrictions put in place amid the COVID-19 outbreak. During this time, ZeShan Foundation has utilized this opportunity to reflect on approaches taken toward funding the creative sectors. This unrestricted grant awarded to Dialogue in the Dark Foundation (“DIDF”) not only provides the organization with about one years’ financial support at a time of capacity development, but also embodies ZeShan’s efforts in maintaining diversity in the civil society landscape and funding ecosystem, as well as the long-term vision to strengthen the philanthropic ecosystem in order to enable organizations and stakeholders to make greater impacts in our society. DIDF has spent more than 10 years developing a successful model that combines employment of visually impaired people with talent development. Through their efforts, social inclusiveness has been enhanced in both the NGO and business sectors, and at the same time, underprivileged groups have been empowered on the social platform. It is strategic to keep this model up and running in the social landscape to foster social inclusion, equity, and diversity. Additionally, ZeShan’s support is essential for DIDF to strengthen its capacity and develop new online delivery platforms, a wider monthly donor base, and more diversified programs. This growth will enable DIDF to empower currently unreached groups, scale up their practices, and sustain its impact in the long run.
In Hong Kong, there currently is no flexible funding scheme to support the general operation and capacity building of social enterprises, many of which are not subvented and are often under-resources in both normal and unprecedented times. ZeShan hopes that this grant will set an example in the philanthropic landscape and catalyse similar efforts by other parties. For more details on our rationale, please visit “Our Approach”.
As of February 2021, DIDF has not only managed to break even once again, but has also reached new target groups through recently developed online workshops.
“Facilitator Training” hosted our PoDs (People of Differences: VI and HI) with the very popular Marshmallow Challenge
When an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit…Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
When an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
In 2014, ZeShan Foundation again supported the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to promote university social responsibility (USR) by sponsoring the Second Summit on University Social Responsibility cum International Conference on Service Learning.
The 3-day summit, held on November 19-21, attracted over 300 participants from around the world, including higher education and business leaders, practitioners and students, as well as received extensive media coverage.
The program consisted of academic conference and workshops on topics pertaining to university social responsibility and service learning, offering opportunities for sharing, networking and fostering partnerships. During the summit, various institutes and collaborating organizations agreed on the formation of a USR Network.
Subsequent to the roundtable discussion convened by ZeShan Foundation in April 2014, a cross-sector working group has been formed with a focus around Hong Kong elderly services. The group was comprised of three task forces to take lead on forum organization, policy and advocacy, and dementia, respectively, which collectively work toward addressing issues raised during said roundtable discussion.
In the face of a rapidly ageing population in Hong Kong, the working group believes that an effective public-private partnership is required to mobilize the community and the government to work in concert towards the needs of this shifting demographic. Only in coupling policy change with innovative solutions can Hong Kong be made an exemplar of quality elderly services for the region.
In line with the group’s goal of encouraging cross-sector collaboration, the twenty members themselves are representatives of different sectors, such as grant-making foundations, academia and service providers, so as to join forces and work in synergy towards the common goal of improving elderly services.
Task Force 1: Conference Organization
The first task force organized a 2-day forum with a focus on building sustainable public-private partnership in elderly services, which was held in Hong Kong in mid-November 2015 just ahead of Hong Kong’s Senior Citizens’ Day. The goal behind this forum was to bring together private foundations, policy-makers, academics and service providers in a platform to develop private-public partnerships, as well as to demonstrate the importance of creating sustainable partnerships detailed through case studies.
Task Force 2: Policy & Advocacy
Convenor: Mr Patrick Cheung, Managing Director, The Jade Club
The second task force reviews elderly-related policies and advocates for greater cross-sector collaboration. In meetings convened with Miss Annie Tam, JP, Permanent Secretary for Labour and Welfare, and Dr. C. K. Law, Principal Investigator of the Consultant Team for the Elderly Commission’s Working Group on Elderly Services Program Plan (ESPP), members of this task force introduced the work and future plans of their respective organizations, discussed policy developments, and expressed views on the role and involvement of private foundations in the development of elderly services in Hong Kong.
Task Force 3: Dementia and Caregiver Support
Convenor: Ms Florence Ho, General Manager of the Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing & Jockey Club CADENZA Hub
The third task force looks specifically at dementia, diving into the policy and institutional support given to caregivers of dementia patients in Hong Kong. There are some 18,000 new cases of dementia every year in Hong Kong, and with the city’s ageing population, this neurological condition is expected to affect some 280,000, or 4% of the local population, by 2036.
