Dynamic, dedicated and caring; all terms used to describe the youthful members of “Humanity in Focus”. HIF is a Hong Kong based non-governmental organization striving to make a real difference in the world around them. Today’s youths are the dreamers of tomorrow so via this informative interview, we learn about the work HIF does to give back and empower those less fortunate in society. Here, they share their opinions and thoughts on their work and how their lives have changed due to their recent experiences.
iCUBED.us Interviewer – Chris Lau
Humanity in Focus (HIF) – Various Members
iCUBED.us: How did “Humanity in Focus” begin? What are the core ideals behind the organization? What inspired you to start?
Humanity in Focus - Wendy (Founder and Youth Consultant):
HIF was founded by 5 students from Hong Kong University who returned from a one-month volunteering field-trip in Cambodia. This life-changing experience had not only enabled us to witness inequality and poverty in its ugliest forms, but more importantly it opened our eyes to the interconnections between our lives in Hong Kong and those of our impoverished neighbors from developing countries. Out of empathy, and more importantly due to a sense of responsibility as young global citizens, we created HUMANITY IN FOCUS hoping to fill-in some of the gaps we saw in Cambodia and back in our home city.
We hope that through carrying out small-scale development projects in rural and urban areas of developing countries, we would help to provide those children and families in need with necessary support and eventually empower them to escape from the poverty cycle.
More importantly, we believe in the power of youth to make a difference in this global village. Through public awareness campaigns and youth education events, we hope to inspire and train young people in our society and in developing countries to become advocates for changes in their societies and to bring about a more just and sustainable community for humanity.
iCUBED.us: Was it hard to begin these operations? What were the main challenges you had to overcome?
Humanity in Focus - Yves (Founder) :
It was not hard to start operations. With a small number of people, we could communicate efficiently and effectively through emails and meetings. Decisions could be made within a short period of time as consensus could be reached easily.
Yet, the main challenges at the very beginning were how to prove our credibility and extend our network and connections in Hong Kong. As university students, our connections were limited and it was difficult for us to find sponsorship and funding for our projects. On the other hand, the general public would treat us as "kids" with regards to humanitarian work. Therefore, we contacted our professors and staff at HKU, groups such as Oxfam, to seek their advice and comments. We came up with an organizational structure and dealt with the legal procedures to set up an organization under the Societies Ordinance, in order to show that we were serious in running an NGO (non-government organization).
The other challenge was how to keep a good and stable relationship with our partners in Cambodia. As we did not know how to speak Khmer, we relied on our partner in Cambodia to work on our development projects in Cambodia. Due to different cultures and working styles, it was a bit difficult to communicate properly with our partner and thus this affected the progress of our development projects in Cambodia. Therefore, we worked closely with our partners in Cambodia via emails and msn, so that we would understand each other more. The progress of our projects has improved with better communication.
iCUBED.us: Your slogan is “By the youth, through the youth, to the youth of the world”. As the first student run NGO in Hong Kong, do you consider yourselves role models for others to follow? Do you receive any assistance and support?
Humanity in Focus - Georgina (Founder) and Jessica (2007-2008 Spokesperson):
One of the most remarkable aspects of our organization is that all the activities, ranging from devising the organization structure, administrative works and tasks, to the overseas project development projects are all led by young people from all walks of life with a diversity of background and expertise. We were fortunate enough to realize our responsibilities as global citizens after our journey to Cambodia, hence we bore the mission to tell people around us about what’s happening on the other end of the earth; and most importantly, to take ACTION. We truly believe in the potential of youth. We hope that young leaders are nurtured to become global advocates and dedicate themselves to the international security field in the future and make a vow to "Make Poverty History!"
We realize that as a youth-run NGO, we are closely connected with other youth in Hong Kong and that we are at a very advantageous position to influence our friends, our fellow classmates and other youth to realize their responsibility as a global citizen and to take action now. In this way, we might be role models in terms of WHEN to take action, as we are determined to take action NOW, whereas others might take action only in the future after earning enough money. We have proved to others that one does not need to be in a position of fame and wealth to make a difference! However, we may not necessarily be the best role models in terms of HOW to take action; since we are still learning in many aspects (such as development projects) from others too!
We consider HIF as an interactive youth platform where we share our awareness on global issues and make a commitment to educate youth and children in impoverished countries. HIF is a place for youth to pursue their dreams and to take action together as a group.
Others may devise different ways of taking action, even though we may be pursuing the same dream; and we truly treasure others’ creative and innovative ideas. We appreciate and fully support other youth action groups which are all “filling in the gaps” and contributing to other arenas in civil society. We are also learning from others in terms of HOW to take action. And we believe that this is the most interesting part of “through the youth”, to collaborate with different youth and to learn from others in the process.
When we first started off in 2006, as Hong Kong’s first entirely youth-run international aid and development organization, we were lucky enough to support and encouragement from different institutions and individuals:
Since HIF was founded by participants of the Project SEE Program, organized by the General Education Unit of HKU, we received kind support from HKU staff, mainly from the General Education Unit and CEDARS. We are also glad to have experienced advisors, like Mr. Chong Chan Yau, the then Oxfam Director, Mr. Albert Chau, the Dean of Student Affairs and Mr. David Bagbie, the Director of Crossroads International.
We are also very glad to receive Oxfam’s support to provide funding for our Young Global Citizenship Programme, and workshops organized by Oxfam Hong Kong to give us training on the concept of “Global Citizenship”. Media support from newspapers and magazines; interviewed us and helped us to spread our the message and to tell people about our work.
Above all, HIF is supported by a group of devoted young volunteers, our own members. Though most of them are still studying and some are working, they strive to fulfill the roles and responsibilities as global citizens by making contributions to end poverty and inequality in this world.
iCUBED.us: Via your projects, what do you hope to achieve in countries such as Cambodia?
Humanity in Focus - Simon (Overseas Project Team Director 2008-2009) :
We understand every organization and every project has its own limitations. Yet these limitations are not the reasons for us to stop what we are doing, but are where we could seek improvements. Every project we hold in Cambodia has distinct and clear aims. Through these projects, we hope the core values of Humanity in Focus can be spread, and the roles of youth to improve to world can be valued. Basically our overseas projects focus on education, local empowerment and hygiene, with emphasis on not creating new troubles while solving old ones, we plan each project carefully with the help of local support in Cambodia and experienced foreign workers in Cambodia.
iCUBED.us: Amongst your peers in HK, is there interest in overseas NGO / charity work or is there still a general sense of apathy towards these issues? What can be done to change certain attitudes?
Humanity in Focus - Wendy (Founder and Youth Consultant):
Young people have gradually become more aware and interested in global and cultural issues in Hong Kong. Therefore, Cambodia is no longer a name unheard of among our peers, as it was a few years ago. However, we often find the passion to ‘make a difference’ rather short-lived among youth in HK. It is often easy to motivate youth to take part in short-term projects, yet when it comes to long term commitment say for two years or more, very few passionate youths remain.
We believe that there’s an important role for the media to play to change the attitude of youth, or the society at large, regarding their views and interest towards global humanitarian issues. When the local media is dominated by topics such as ‘young models at book fairs’ or the ‘underground marriage of celebrities’, these are unfortunately also the topics that catch the attention and dominate the discussions among HK youth rather than more serious news about Aung Sang Suu Kyi in Burma or the humanitarian crises in Darfur and Congo.
That’s why in HIF we deeply believe in the importance of Youth Education. We attempt to ‘make noise’ in the society, to share about our experiences in developing countries, to discuss and debate about humanitarian issues. We believe that youth are only empowered to make changes when they become aware of what is going on in the globe, and begin to understand and to care.
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