Operation Santa Claus: Hong Kong education charity clears hurdles for underprivileged pupils from ethnic minorities to become fluent in Chinese
- It is crucial to help marginalised ethnic minority residents assimilate and excel in the city, IBEL charity founder Manoj Dhar says
- Integrated Brilliant Education Limited received donations through Operation Santa Claus from Morgan Stanley to set up a kindergarten
“Good morning, Ms Una,” a five-year-old Nepali girl proudly told her teacher in Cantonese after she carefully traced Chinese characters at a tutorial centre in Hong Kong.
Yasmina Kapali barely knew any Chinese before she came to the charity centre run by Integrated Brilliant Education Limited (IBEL) in Jordan.
“I only talked a little bit of Chinese,” said the pupil. “It’s too hard.”
IBEL, founded by long-time city resident Manoj Dhar and his wife in 2015, offers subsidised Chinese-language tuition to 280 underprivileged ethnic minority children at that facility, as well as another one in Sham Shui Po. These youngsters, whose parents do not speak Chinese, face difficulties in becoming fluent in Hong Kong’s education system.
Dhar, an Indian former bank manager and IBEL’s CEO, said he and his wife decided to step in after they realised that children of blue-collar South Asian parents were falling behind academically and graduating from schools without achieving the Chinese fluency necessary to get well-paid jobs.
