Caritas. Hong Kong Newsletter CARITAS SOCIAL WORK SERVICES. Message from the Editor

Transcription

1 CARITAS SOCIAL WORK SERVICES ISSUE 6 OCTOBER 2012 Caritas Hong Kong Newsletter MessagefromtheEditor ollowing the development of society, the lives of F people have been improved. The public becomes more aware of the need to protect our environment. In view of this, Caritas Social Work Services organize promotional campaigns, educational programmes and social services so as to raise the consciousness of people on environmental protection and to practice green living. It also encourages people to preserve and better utilize the natural resources. Besides protecting the environment, green living habits will contribute to the sustainable development of our society and to build a better living environment for our young generation. 150 TEEN LINK ( ueto destruction of the D typhoon, 150 tons of colloidal particles has fallen into the sea. This has seriously affected the ecological environment! Many community groups voluntarily collected the colloidal particles near the coast. Hong Kong citizens have been united to save the place we live in. Caritas Online Youth Outreach Program: Connection TEEN Ground Volunteer LINK (Volunteer Team) organized an event, Action to Collect Colloidal Particles and recruited volunteers online. The response was positive and everyone wanted to be part of this action. Because of the online recruitment, the publicity had a great effect on attracting many young people. It has been our most commonly used method. Some participants have been supporting our volunteer services for a very long time. 16 A group of 16 bring along gloves, baskets, shovels and other tools to Pui O Beach! enewsletter@caritassws.org.hk Website

2 C aritas Youth and Community Service has launched a free of charge mobile computer repair and maintenance service scheme Computer Master for low income families this year. This innovative project is supported and sponsored by the Standard Chartered 150th Anniversary Community Foundation. We hope some of the unemployed youths can work outside the recycling workshop. They travel by the maintenance vehicles and help the underprivileged families to fix their defective computers at different locations. This project not only helps the families to solve their computer problems, it also enables the young people to understand the living condition of the grassroots and learn to be appreciative in life. Through this service, it prolongs the life span of computers and reduces electronic waste. We are eager to make an effort in actualizing the concept of recycle, reuse and reduce for environmental protection. Enquiries :

3 Enquiries aritas City Farmer is a selffinancing project that C provides employment opportunities for the unemployed residents at Tin Sui Wai and Yuen Long. This project also emphasizes on promoting environmental protection and education. The farm utilizes organic fertilizer, organic pesticide, crop rotation and land fallow in organic farming so as to prevent permanent damage to the soil. With the great effort of the farmers, Caritas has successfully obtained the organic certification from the Hong Kong Organic Resource Centre Certification Limited. B esides, we have invited students from primary and secondary schools for site visit and promoted organic farming to the public. Through seminars and field trips, the participants have a better understanding on the agriculture and the importance of saving nature resources and food preservation. 3

4 15 Children learn how to distinguish the features of more than 15 plants What an aloe full of spikes! aritas Nursery School Ta Kwu Ling is adjacent C to the urban area of Ping Che in Hong Kong Northern District. The school has built up a reputation of Green School after years because of its beautiful natural environment. One of the school s objectives is to nurture the values of environmental protection for our children. Our programmes also help them to practice in their daily life such as reducing waste, saving natural resources and recycling reusable items. Through real life experience by observing ants and butterflies, planting over 30 species of flowers and vegetables, children have learned the reciprocal relationships of living things and the nature, as well as the changes in four seasons. rotecting the environment is P everyone s responsibility. We strongly believe that starting at an early age to learn about environmental protection, it can facilitate the children to love the nature and grow up in a healthy life style. Kids touching the uneven rough pattern of Kapok Tree 4

5 24 90% n order to make an effort in I protecting the environment, Caritas Jockey Club Lai King Rehabilitation Centre has started a new project named Happy Farmer Happy Farm. The content of this project includes food waste recycling, educational seminars and exhibition on environmental protection, and organic farming. he food waste produced from T the Centre was first separated and stored in designated bins according to its recyclability and degradability. The assorted biodegradable materials were then delivered to the composting unit. The microbacteria in the composting unit would reduce the volume up to 90% within 24 hours and produced fertilizer within the next 21 days. The fertilizer is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and many other ingredients. It will be used as the nutrients for organic farming. Approximately 1200 square feet of our Centre has been used for greening purpose and a portion of this area was planned for organic farming. As a result, not only we can benefit from the food waste recycling scheme by reducing the solid waste, we can also use its products as the fertilizers for organic farming. The Centre has employed two full time employees who have recovered from mental illness. They assist in collecting and processing the food waste, whereas the fertilizers are used for horticulture therapy. It also provides job training for the residents at our Centre Long Stay Care Home. By supporting the employment and creating job opportunities for people with disabilities through this meaningful project, please order these plants with the organic fertilizers to decorate your home now. Enquiries Ms. Ngai 5

6 4R(Reuse) (Recycle)(Reduce) (Replace) Fashion Remix he concept of environmental protection "4R" T represents Reuse, Recycle, Reduce and Replace. In response to the Government in promoting environmental protection, Caritas Social Work Services has established Caritas SecondHand Recycling Shop" five years ago. On one hand, we aimed at recycling used clothing and household items from different districts. On the other hand, it provided retail training courses and internship opportunities for the deprived groups. Participants of this project included the unemployed, new arrivals, single mothers and people with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses. It helped them to prepare for openemployment and to be selfreliant. This project also educated the public to preserve and make good use of our resources. The collected items were sorted by the trainees as onthejob training, and were sold to the lowincome people at affordable prices or donated to the poor families. If you have some used items that you want to give away, please donate them to our shop. Take action to protect the environment and benefit the people in need. Enquiries : Mr. Chiu aritas SecondHand Recycling Shop" C collaborated with the Youth Square to organize a fashion show Fashion Remix. A group of young designers created and made their costumes from the old clothes. They worked together with people with disabilities to do the sewing and trimming during the production process. The new customized costumes became fashionable with a message of protecting the environment. This year we have started a partnership with Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong to organize a joint program with the theme of environmental protection and social inclusion. All the donated and reusable items were sorted, cleaned, sterilized, and polished by people with disabilities for retail and donation purposes. 6 ~End~