Spirit of Hong Kong Awards: students make time after school to help disadvantaged groups
- Student volunteers at Sunshine Action nominated for Spirit of Teamwork Award, in recognition of commitment to helping elderly residents and grass-roots families
- NGO founder Sunny Mak says ‘sustainability’ key to community work, explains volunteers must be committed to helping others
It is 9am on Saturday, and inside an industrial building in Kwai Chung, a group of student volunteers have formed an ad hoc production line to pack food bags.
Without anyone giving them on-site guidance, each of the 19 volunteers methodically places staples such as rice and oatmeal into “Fortune Bags”, preparing them to be loaded onto a truck and delivered to care homes for elderly residents and community development centres across Hong Kong.
The teenagers come from different schools and are part of the Sunshine Ambassadors student group, which aims to support those in need during their free time.
Working together with the charity Sunshine Action, the student volunteers plan and organise events using their own skills and knowledge.
Each of the young ambassadors, along with volunteers they have recruited from their local communities, come to Sunshine Action’s warehouse on Saturdays to pack hundreds of fortune bags for distribution.
