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JC A-Connect: Jockey Club Autism Support Network

September 26, 2018

In recent years, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder ("ASD") around the globe, including in Hong Kong. ASD is an umbrella term for a group of developmental disabilities characterized by significant social, communication and behavioral challenges, covering a wide array of skills and levels of disability within the "spectrum". Most Hong Kong students with ASD attend mainstream schools, presenting a number of challenges to their families and schools.  Without widespread awareness and thorough understanding of ASD, students with ASD may be viewed as undisciplined in the classroom and struggle to get along with their peers.In response to this formidable challenge, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust initiated the "JC A-Connect: Jockey Club Autism Support Network" in 2015, a three-year, HK$167 million programme designed to enhance support for Hong Kong students with ASD.

Jockey Club Learn-To Swim Programme for Primary Students

September 26, 2018

Surveys have shown that more than half the city's schoolchildren have not received any swimming lessons before they start primary school, and around one in six can still not swim by the time they reach secondary level.Long committed to helping Hong Kong people enjoy a better quality of life, and to working with community partners to address some of the city's social concerns, the Club's Charities Trust decided in 2016 to take a proactive approach to this issue.  It committed funding of HK$61.42 million to launch an 18-month Jockey Club learn-to Swim Programme for Primary Students in partnership with the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association (HKASA), Ocen Park and The University of Hong Kong, incorporating innovative elements to give parents an added incentive to enroll their children.

CLAP for Youth @ JC: A Career & Life Adventure Planning Programme

September 18, 2018

CLAP, which stands for "Career and Life Adventure Planning", takes an integrated approach and aims to support youth through the journey from engagement and self-understanding to career exploration and planning. The Programme leverages innovation and technology to transform CLP service delivery in schools and the community. It also recognises the importance of the external environment, and takes a collaborative approach involving different stakeholders including parents, employers, Government, schools, and community organisations.

Impact Investments by Foundations in Singapore and Hong Kong

January 1, 2018

The study reviews the current state of impact investments in Singapore and Hong Kong, particularly those that have engaged with foundations. It further looks at the trends and challenges of the impact investment sector before presenting a list of recommendations.Impact investment assets globally represent a mere 0.2 percent of global wealth as reported by the Global Impact Investing Network. By increasing this share to just two percent, the potential of impact investments can reach over US$2 trillion (UNDP, 2016). Impact investments can play a significant role in sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region, potentially providing socioeconomic progress for the billions of people living in the region. Foundations in the region can potentially play a significant role given the billions of assets they can deploy. 

Globally Informed, Locally Responsive: Hong Kong's Common-Sense Approach to Expanding Methadone Treatment: Executive Summary

October 1, 2017

Methadone is one of the best-studied and most effective medication-assisted treatments for heroin dependence. Individuals and communities have found that methadone treatment not only reduces the use of opiates and the prevalence of overdose, but it also improves adherence to other medical regimens, increases employment, and improves family function. The systems that deliver methadone treatment programs, the conditions for their creation, expansion, and therapeutic success are just as important to understand as the treatment itself. Globally Informed, Locally Responsive: Hong Kong's Common-Sense Approach to Expanding Methadone Treatment presents a model for how localities can review best practices from other treatment delivery contexts and then adapt these recommendations to their local needs, resource availability, political realities, and community expectations. It captures how Hong Kong sourced ideas from New York and other locales to construct a methadone program that serves the individuals and communities who are most in need.Started in 1975, in response to a growing health and social crisis with an increasing number of opiate-dependent, heroin-injecting residents, the Hong Kong methadone program aims to make drug treatment accessible to all who need and want it through its 20 clinics around the territory. The program's success hinges on a number of features, including convenient hours and locations, robust staffing, and an understanding that abstinence should not be the only goal when supporting people with drug dependency.The approach deployed in Hong Kong is pragmatic and flexible. Hong Kong conducted research and scaled up at the same time, prioritized making treatment widely available, and expedited enrollment. This approach has worked for decades to control heroin dependence and its negative consequences, such as HIV and Hepatitis C infection and crime, which have been common in other communities with heroin use.Globally Informed, Locally Responsive offers an important insight for the design and provision of treatment services for people who use illicit drugs: the most effective systems are responsive to the needs of patients, not the other way around.

A Virtuous Economy: Hong Chi Association - Creating Green Opportunities for Hong Kong’s Disabled Workers

November 29, 2016

Through a unique tri-partite collaboration, Hong Chi Association has kick-started a glass bottle recycling project that has provided disabled workers with valuable life skills while changing public attitudes to the environment.Hong Chi, formerly known as the Hong Kong Association for the Mentally Handicapped, was established in 1965 as a school and care site for just four students, the parents of whom championed the cause for an educational center and environment for their handicapped children. In 1997, the name of the association changed to Hong Chi: in Chinese "Hong" means "to assist," and "Chi" refers to "the intellect," reflecting the organization's founding mission to assist mentally handicapped people to develop their potential as valuable members of society.Within three years of Hong Chi's founding, the school had expanded to 70 students across two campuses. With the help of dedicated teachers and the early recognition of these students' potential, some graduates went on to find work. At a time when there were no resources to support mentally handicapped individuals, nor was there a support system for their families, Hong Chi stepped into the breach. Today, it is dedicated to serving over 7,000 people of all ages and levels of intellectual disabilities. It operates 81 services that provide special education, job training, sheltered and supported employment, and adult education, among other things that are vital to supporting Hong Kong's people with intellectual disabilities (PID) to live their lives to the fullest.

Care for the Body and of the Spirit: Haven of Hope Christian Service - Helping the Elderly, Sick and Handicapped of Hong Kong

March 4, 2016

The case of Haven of Hope Christian Services (Haven) tells how a faith-based organization can stay true to its founding mission and values while responding to the tremendous growth of the community it serves. It tells how committed leaders, managers and staff integrate medical and social services to help comfort people in need, physically and spiritually.Today, Haven of Hope Christian Service's integration of medical and social services occurs at 46 locations, and has so far benefited about 100,000 people. It employs doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, social workers and personal care workers. Many reverends lead regularly scheduled services at its facilities, which often include chapels. Medically, it focuses on chronic disease and mental or physical disability rather than acute illness. It also focuses on mental and spiritual counseling, and operates many different home-based and community-based programs aimed at the elderly and mentally challenged people.Haven's approach and philosophy remain rooted in the beliefs of Sister Annie Skau, a Norwegian nun and missionary who "saw the need of not only providing medical care, but also psychological and physical care" for the people it serves, said Dr. Lam Ching Choi, Haven's CEO.

If You Build It, Will They Fund? Making Research Data Management Sustainable

January 7, 2016

Data management underpins current and future research, funder mandates, open access initiatives, researcher reputations and institutional rankings. While it is widely recognized that data management support is necessary, recognition that it requires sustainable funding is slower in coming. Even as the community is beginning to understand the costs, it must begin to address how data management might be funded. This brief report provides an overview of seven funding strategies and their standing in the US. Circumstances in seven other countries are described in the appendix.This work is part of our research collections and support efforts to inform current thinking about research collections and the emerging services that libraries are offering to support contemporary modes of scholarship. We are encouraging the development of new ways for libraries to build and provide these types of collections and deliver distinctive services.

Impact Investing: Trends and Outlook in Asia

May 1, 2013

Interest in impact investments is growing worldwide, with Asia in particular holding great promise for innovation. But who are impact investors and what causes do they support? Which organizations are working in this sector?

A Price Worth Paying: The Case for Controlling Marine Emissions in the Pearl River Delta

September 19, 2012

The Pearl River Delta (PRD) is a region with a single airshed, but different administrative and legal practices for controlling air quality. Under the Regional Cooperation Plan on Building a Quality Living Area (QLA Plan) released in June 2012 the Governments of Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau have outlined a strategy to collaborate in reducing emissions from vessels throughout the PRD. This report provides evidence designed to assist policymakers in the region with this objective. It focuses on regulating toxic exhaust emissions from ocean-going vessels (OGVs) -- the most significant contributors of marine emissions. The findings show that marine sources of sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions currently account for 519 premature deaths per annum in the PRD. These deaths could be reduced by 91% should an Emission Control Area (ECA) mandating the use of fuels with lower sulphur content be introduced. The report also demonstrates that three less comprehensive control measures would also reduce OGV emissions and associated public health impacts by 41-62%. Policymakers are encouraged to introduce these measures as stepping-stones on the way to establishment of an ECA for the PRD.

China Earthquake One Year On: Oxfam Hong Kong's Report Marking the First Anniversary of the 5.12 Earthquake

May 4, 2011

On 12 May 2008, the worst earthquake to hit China in 50 years destroyed lives and livelihoods in western China. Centered on Wenchuan in Sichuan Province, it also seriously affected people in the neighboring provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi.Oxfam Hong Kong responded with relief work in the first few months following the disaster, bringing relief supplies to 125 impoverished communities and getting children back into safe, temporary schools. As of 31 March 2009, we have worked alongside 20 organizations in 3 provinces, supporting about 700,000 people as they rebuild their communities; allocation for these 37 relief and reconstruction projects total over HK$33 million (USD$ 4.3 million).One year on from that terrible morning, the relief phase is over. Continued support is needed for some years to come, as millions of people have not yet returned to a 'normal' life, with permanent accommodation, an income, and a sense that they can plan for their future.This report provides an overview of this first year of work and our achievements to date. It is part of Oxfam's commitment to transparency and accountability both for our beneficiaries, as well as for our donors and the public.

Estimating variability in the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome to household contacts in Hong Kong, China.

May 10, 2007

The extensive data collection and contact tracing that occurred during the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong, China, allowed the authors to examine how the probability of transmission varied from the date of symptom onset to the date of hospitalization for household contacts of SARS patients. Using a discrete-time likelihood model, the authors estimated the transmission probability per contact for each day following the onset of symptoms. The results suggested that there may be two peaks in the probability of SARS transmission, the first occurring around day 2 after symptom onset and the second occurring approximately 10 days after symptom onset. Index patients who were aged 60 years or older or whose lactate dehydrogenase level was elevated upon admission to the hospital (indicating higher viral loads) were more likely to transmit SARS to their contacts. There was little variation in the daily transmission probabilities before versus after the introduction of public health interventions on or around March 26, 2003. This study suggests that the probability of transmission of SARS is dependent upon characteristics of the index patients and does not simply reflect temporal variability in the viral load of SARS cases.