Operation Santa Claus: Detective game helps St Mark’s School pupils learn about social issues, raise funds for charity
- Students at the school in Shau Kei Wan organised events to help participants develop empathy while donating to those in need
- All proceeds from the activities went to Operation Santa Claus, the annual charity fundraising drive organised by the South China Morning Post and RTHK
St Mark’s School pupils have learned about different social issues through their fundraising activities. Photo: HandoutStudents at St Mark’s School explored social injustices and got a taste of what it is like to be at the bottom of the social ladder through fun detective and role-play games in an experience camp that aimed to raise funds for charity and help participants develop empathy.
The December 17 activity was part of the school’s programme of events in 2022 supporting Operation Santa Claus (OSC), the annual charity fundraising drive organised by the South China Morning Post and public broadcaster RTHK.
The student-led programme also included a football match and a basketball competition held last December. All three events raised money for OSC through participation fees and donations.
Marking its 35th anniversary, OSC has raised a total of HK$353 million to support the Hong Kong community through 323 charitable projects since its launch in 1988. A total of 15 projects are being funded this year.
“For the experience camp, we designed a detective game for participating schoolmates to explore various forms of discrimination in our society,” said Ng Ho-tai, a Form Five student and one of the event organisers.
In the game, five teams of students were asked to “investigate” and deduce from hidden clues the storyline of a tale that the camp organisers had prepared and would subsequently share with the participants.
Playing sleuths, the students scoured the campus for the clues, and the first team to make the correct deduction was the winner.
Takeaway shop owner uses her profits to rescue stray cats in Hong Kong
The story turned out to be about the adverse consequences of social hierarchy, injustices and discrimination. Some students also played the roles of beggars to experience life on the bottom rung of the social ladder. The participants were guided to reflect on the issues and urged to refrain from discrimination.
“Discrimination prevails in our metropolis. It is of crucial importance to enable our schoolmates to develop a sense of empathy for the sake of building a harmonious society,” said Ng.
“We hope our schoolmates will not discriminate against others, but will embrace social differences and help build an inclusive community, in line with the OSC spirit to bring people together to brighten the Hong Kong community,” he added. “That was the camp’s objective in addition to fundraising.”
The school has been running an OSC programme annually since 2005.
“The OSC programme has become a tradition at St Mark’s, something that students look forward to every year,” said Lam Man-kit, another programme organiser and Form Five student.
“Besides raising money for the underprivileged, one of our major objectives is to draw schoolmates’ attention to disadvantaged groups and give them love and care,” he added.
For more information on this year’s beneficiaries, please click here.