Back to "Annual Reports" Main Page
3. Civic Education for Civil Society Project
We proposed a three-year project plan to actualise our effort to foster a stronger civil society among the youth through civic education. The project aimed at building resource platforms for young people to participate and develop their own perspective towards the public realm. The content of the project included connections between schools, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and universities to produce education material, organise a local exposure camp and an in-depth programme for schools, forums and an overseas exposure programme. In this reporting period, we focused on the exposure camp and an in-depth programme for secondary schools.
3.1 Exposure Camp: “Are There Poor People in Hong Kong?”
This is the second time we invited Christian NGOs to co-organize the exposure camp, and again, we made poverty the theme. The three-day camp at the Pokfulam Rehab Camp began on July 23 and ended on July 25. Three schools in Tuen Mun and Tin Shiu Wai and one church enrolled with 30 students participating, ranging from Form 4 to Form 7. The core exposure programmes were a four-hour poverty meal and a visit with an elderly person for an afternoon. The camp in 2002 was different from the previous one, for we used the making of videos as a tool to document and better understand poverty. In 2002, we also introduced a more artistic element: the production of popular theatre in order to make a cultural interpretation about the experience of poverty. At the end of the camp, we used economic globalisation as the framework to summarise the activities of the camp and pointed out the root cause of poverty in Hong Kong, which would continue to exist as long as the world economic system is based on structural inequality. The camp was taped and produced on a VCD for documentation and further reference. After the camp, some of the participants joined together to publish a small biweekly newspaper, Poverty Shouts!, in Tuen Mun to share their concerns.
We believe that the format of the camp is very effective in bringing young people together, to introducing them to poverty and to equipping them as our partners to respond to this important social concern. They are also a new young force in civil society. In the coming year, we hope that the same micro-movement can be launched in two more districts.
3.2 In-Depth Civil Education Project: Tseung Kwan O Mo Tak Collage and SKH St. Simon Liu Ming Choi School
In the past year, we worked closely with other NGOs concerned about human rights to promote a workshop on this topic. On Jan. 19, a two-hour workshop was held for students at which we discussed five topics, namely: human dignity, tolerance, the distribution of resources and participation and solidarity. The workshop consisted of various activities, discussion and an introduction to the U.N. human rights covenants. The students showed great interest, and we are going to hold another workshop in order to make our workshop more suitable for educational purposes.
Secondly, SKC St. Simon Liu Ming Choi School was one of the participants of the last exposure camp. After the camp, we were invited to join the planning and facilitation of a newly formed group of volunteers. The key concept of “from service to learning, from charity to social justice” used in the camp was utilised by the 17 volunteers from Form 3 and Form 4. The young people showed interest in environmental problems in general and the issue of pollution created by the use of incinerators in particular. We then organised a meeting that included the executive staff of Greenpeace to give them a basic understanding of the issue and visited the Castle Peak Power Station and the village of Lungkotan to more deeply appreciate the needs of the people. The students initiated a joint programme with the Environment Society of the school to collect signatures against the government’s use of incinerators to dispose of waste. In the school assembly on June 13, the students presented a drama and Powerpoint presentation to share their experience, findings and stance about the issue. The assembly ended with the launch of a signature campaign that collected 450 signatures during lunch. As a result of this effort, the students have been encouraged to follow up environmental issues in the district.
The experience of the volunteers group is very exciting, although very rare in Hong Kong. This was a joint endeavour with the school, and the resources in the community enhanced the momentum of the young people towards the aim of “from service to learning, from charity to social justice” and also from civil education to a civil society movement. Thus, we can be flexible enough for similar needs of support and cooperation.
3.3 Conclusion of This Section
This is a new project in which HKCI works closely with schools in the area of civic education to strengthen civil society. It is encouraging that we received affirmative responses among civil educators when we shared our project in several seminars. We will continue supporting our young partners to further develop their role in the movement. Meanwhile, we will make new plans in other districts and seek new cooperation opportunities with others. We anticipate that young people in different districts of Hong Kong can share their “local knowledge” with each other.
We also wish to develop a network of alternative educators that is in continuous dialogue with teachers in the mainstream formal education sector.
|
