Making a Real Difference

CityU’s Discovery-enriched Curriculum (DEC), with its emphasis on discovery and innovation in teaching and learning, is central to the educational strategy pursued in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS). Within the DEC, CLASS faculty guide students as they develop their sense of social responsibility, and their awareness around issues of sustainability, by conducting problem-focused research on people and societies.

Here we look at three of the projects, the social impact of which has been honoured in the CLASS DEC Awards 2018.

Undergraduate Champion (group)

The damage caused by discarded plastic waste can be seen, not only on the streets of Hong Kong, but even in some of the most remote corners of the world. The winners in this Awards category chose to tackle a specific cause of this problem, by organising an online petition to help persuade local McDonald’s restaurants to end the practice of handing out plastic bags to customer who buy just a single drink. The winning team consisted of Department of English students WONG Wing-pui Wilsy, CHAN Yin-po, Harshit SETHI, NG Wing-nam Jasmine, YUEN Ting Wei and CHAN Chin-nam Darian, supervised by Dr Carl NG.

The team not only pointed out to McDonald’s that what was happening in its restaurants went against its professed policy, they argued that changing it could simultaneously save the business money and boost its environmental standing.

Darian Chan is clear why he and his fellow students chose to work on this issue. “Plastic bags have been a huge challenge in terms of greener living. We want to create a more sustainable environment and contribute towards the betterment of our planet.”

The team first conducted onsite observation and interviews with customers, and calculated the scale of plastic bag usage. “Then we set up an online petition with the help of online campaign tools, such as infographics, posts and videos, which highlighted the problem and its underlying consequences.”

The project sparked a heated online debate on plastic usage and McDonald’s policy, but the company did subsequently revise its practice. “It takes time to cultivate the ‘go green’ mindset,” Chan said. “But we believe little things do add up.”

Dr Carl NG accepts that it’s hard to make a direct and causal link between the project and McDonalds’s environmental policy. “But it’s probably safe to say that, alongside other voices that have been advocating for corporations to adopt greener practices, the project contributed to a shift in its environmental policy,” he notes.

Ng was particularly impressed at the belief the group showed in what they were doing, and their resilience in pursuing the project in the face of resistance. “As the project gained more publicity, the students got quite a bit of flak for what they were advocating.”

Undergraduate champion (individual)

YEUNG Hiu-lam chose an appropriately attention-grabbing title – IMPOSSIBLE?! I’M POSSIBLE!!! – for her project, as it focuses on a demographic whose needs are frequently overlooked.

The student social worker, who is studying at CityU’s Department of Applied Social Sciences, believes that too often the physical weaknesses and limitations of the elderly are exaggerated in the public consciousness. Yeung therefore took it upon herself to show – through teaching the members of a day care centre to play a new sport – that the elderly still have the ability to learn new things, and that this process can help them enjoy a healthier, more energetic life.

“Being old doesn’t mean they need to stop doing the things they enjoy,” Yeung says. “That’s why I’m eager to help the elderly to live well with their impairments and improve their well-being. I want to help them cultivate a more positive attitude to life, and let them realise that they can also play sports.”

Yeung, who is herself a wheelchair user, taught the participants to play boccia, a game similar to British bowls and French pétanque, contested by players in wheelchairs. Once the full-time staff at the centre saw how much the visitors to the centre were enjoying the sport, they added it to their roster of recreational activities. And, following the completion of her practicum there, Yeung was also hired as a part-time boccia instructor.

“After I introduced boccia to the centre, the elderly developed a habit of using their strengths successfully,” she says. “Some of them are even able to teach other service users to play, which enhances their self-esteem.”

Her project supervisor, Dr Estella CHAN, explains that in the courses in the social work programme, students are encouraged to engage with the community, particularly during their practicum training. “We aim at nurturing our students so they can make good use of their strengths, and of the resources in the community.”

“What impressed me most about Hiu-lam’s work was her courage to accept the challenge to disclose her own condition, and her ability to turn her disability and related experiences into assets in her professional practice so that she could effectively help her service users,” says Chan.

Undergraduate runner-up (individual)

In her project, Department of Public Policy student Erica LEUNG focused on the difficulties faced by stay-at-home mums from low-income families.

Students on the Social Innovation and Public Policy course taught by Dr Yanto CHANDRA are each required to submit a “social art” project in the form of a short YouTube video. Based on research work into a problem and its potential solutions, the video has to frame the issue and set out one or more socially innovative solutions.

Leung says that when she first received the assignment, she looked at a range of problems affecting local society. However, she realised that in her own family background, and the challenges her mother had faced as a stay-at-home mum, she had an important and worthwhile subject staring her in the face.

Although they want to be breadwinners, women in this situation who cannot afford to pay for childcare are excluded from the workforce. The financial and domestic stress they suffer frequently takes a toll on their physical and mental health, and on their family relationships.

Finding a woman in these circumstances who was willing to be interviewed on camera was the biggest challenge Leung faced. However, when she did, it proved worth the wait. “In my conversation with her, I obtained detailed information on the current situation of the stay-at-home mother.”

One innovative solution to their problems Leung identified is the MicroForests social enterprise, which creates micro-landscapes by growing plants in bottles. These can then be sold as gifts.

“MicroForests, founded by Rainbow CHOW Choi-hung, provides training workshops in Sham Shui Po, where marginalised women can learn to design the micro-landscapes,” Leung says. The women can then go on to make and sell these micro-landscapes, or earn money by teaching other women how to do it. “Furthermore, they can then have the flexibility to balance their work and family lives.”

It was Leung’s storytelling approach that most impressed Chandra, her supervisor. “She was also willing to proactively go out to interview some of these mothers to get firsthand information. This is beyond what is usually expected of students,” Chandra says.

With a social enterprise movement gradually taking root in Hong Kong, Chandra praises Leung’s role in helping raise awareness. “Her work showcases the promise of social innovation as a new way of addressing the various social problems around us.”