Hello, I’m Kam Yiu. I am studying law and politics at University of Hong Kong. Over the past 4 years, I have been involved in a student organization called Humanity in Focus (HIF), which operates small but sustainable social development projects in Cambodia and promotes global citizenship in Hong Kong. I will be graduating next year and is currently taking a more serious approach into looking at how I could build a career in social development in Hong Kong.
Below are the answers to my application to be part of the Student Communications Team.
Why do you want to be part of this opportunity?
I hope to work towards two visions through attending this conference
1st Vision: Hong Kong as a regional leader in social development, to which I think we are underachieving right now. HK is one of the richest cities in the Asia-Pacific Region, near many countries still struck by poverty like Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Vietnam etc. Given the resource and knowledge level of our people, and the fact that we are geographically proximate and culturally similar to these countries means that HK has every potential to play more active roles to these countries’ development.
2nd Vision: Civic engagement becomes sustainable in the society as a whole. What I see in HK now is that it is difficult to pursue a career on social development due to lack of opportunities and high opportunity costs. Moreover, there is a limitation to what CSR in businesses can achieve in terms of social development and the same goes to NGOs and political parties. And the final piece of the puzzle may be the idea of social enterprises and I would like to think how this can link so as to build clearer and safer career paths for students with the mission and passion.
What inspires you the most about the global civic engagement movement?
Youth can act NOW
There used to be an assumption that in order to do “great things” such as poverty reduction and safeguarding human rights/equality, one needs to garner experience and knowledge for a period of time, and get into big organizations such as the UNDP. Yet, what global civic engagement has done is to refute all these assumptions and let youth and people in general know that they are capable in making a difference NOW.
Youth’s viral nature
When youth accomplishes a feat, it seems to have very positive impact on other youth or people in general, delivering a message: “ You can do it too!”. And I think the spread of this belief is at the core of the civic engagement movement.
Global nature of movement
I think civic engagement movements in different countries come across different challenges and opportunities due to different circumstances. And in many ways, understanding these is like understanding the country as a whole, which is in itself fascinating for me, while on the other hand, thinking of ways to allow for countries to help each other is even a more fascinating task.
An hour away from our first meeting, see you all soon!
Kam Yiu
University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, China