A creative outlet

This year, the corporate gift distributed by United Overseas Bank (UOB) Hong Kong was a colourful calendar; consisting of pictures drawn at an art event they organised for children affected by cancer.

As a supporter of the arts and various other causes, the Singapore-based bank wanted to increase awareness of the Children’s Cancer Foundation, and the talented young people who remain so high-spirited in spite of the tremendous hardships they’ve had to overcome.

“These children are facing life or death issues,” says Christine Ip, UOB’s managing director and CEO, Greater China. “But no matter what they are going through, they stay strong and express their feelings through art.”

UOB wishes to make art more accessible to a wide cross-section of the community, and to nurture talent by giving people, especially underprivileged youths, opportunities to showcase their work.

For example, the bank recently sponsored five youngsters from Sham Shui Po to attend the Opera Hong Kong Summer School. At the end of the course, they had the chance to perform in a full operatic production as fairies and gingerbread men, showcasing their newly developed skills.

“It was something to remember and I was so happy,” says nine-year-old Mandy Wang Manfei. “I like singing opera and my parents came to see me perform in my beautiful fairy costume.”