Everbright Volunteer Team launches “Visually Impaired Pupils Sports Day” for Ebenezer School & Home, Bringing Care and Light to Visually Impaired Pupils
The Volunteer Team of China Everbright Limited (“Everbright”, stock code: 165.HK) visited Ebenezer School & Home for the Visually Impaired in Pokfulam on 27 September 2019 and co-organised the “Visually Impaired Pupils Sports Day” event with “HandsOn Hong Kong”, a local social enterprise, to care for visually impaired pupils. The organisers’ aims were to strengthen the body, develop the mental and physical fitness of the pupils, and enhance their communication skills, social networking abilities, as well as confidence through the sports day.
On the event day, the professional instructors introduced the basic gestures and skills of the visually impaired pupils first, helping the volunteers to understand general communication skills and what they should pay attention to when interacting with the pupils. After the introduction, the Volunteer Team played a simple game while covering their eyes, to experience the daily difficulties that the visually impaired face. After that, the Volunteer Team and the pupils played games together with continuous communication and encouragement, leading the pupils to complete different kinds of games.
The volunteers gained a better understanding of the visually impaired after the event, as the volunteers realised that they have a stronger sense of hearing, with some pupils even having very animated gestures. Seeing how joyful the pupils were after the games led the volunteers to realise that happiness can be very simple. Success will come, as long as they never give up and continue to improve over time.
“Visually Impaired Pupils Sports Day” is one of the events under the theme of “Bright Companion”, which is one of the four main corporate social responsibility focuses of Everbright. Everbright Charitable Foundation has been supporting charity events that are beneficial to Hong Kong society and national developments based on four main themes: “Bright Companion”, “Vitality Everbright”, “Education Support” and “Art Promotion”. The Chinese and English name “Everbright” denotes the company’s vividness and optimism. By actively sponsoring “Bright Companions” including “Lifeline Express” and “Orbis”, Everbright strives to restore eyesight of the visually impaired around the world.
Participants’ testimonial:
I had limited understanding about the visually impaired before participating in the event. This volunteer event gave me the opportunity to communicate directly and understand them through games. Visually impaired students are much more flexible than I imagined. They can learn through sensory means instead of visual means, communicate with people, and “watch” television just like other students. When they came up with a group name before the game started, they demonstrated great creativity. They also proved their ability to be positive and confident during the games session, which they enjoyed the process of, as well as the joy of a good challenge. In addition, the pre-event guidance provided by FMS instructors was very useful. The communication skills I learned will be beneficial to me for any volunteer activities in the future. I would like to express my appreciation again to colleagues from Everbright for their thoughtful arrangement of this event. – Kit Chan at Everbright Sun Hung Kai
I really appreciate that Everbright Charitable Foundation worked together with two volunteer organisations – HandsOn and FMS – to host the “Visual Impaired Pupils Sports Day” event at Ebenezer School & Home for the Visually Impaired. Through this event, I was able to deeply understand the difficulties faced by the visually impaired in their daily lives, and thus learn what their needs are and how to care for visually impaired pupils. I hope that Everbright Charitable Foundation will continue to support the blind and visually impaired, and carry out the spirit of “Bright Companion” and “Vitality Everbright” to not only pay attention to the current needs of the visually impaired but also, most importantly, to their bright future. I hope that Everbright Charitable Foundation can show constant support to help them adapt in society and live independently in the future, leading them to have confident, bright and brilliant lives. – Lai Kin Wai, China Everbright Bank Hong Kong Branch
I am very grateful to the company for arranging this volunteer activity, from which I learnt a lot of ways to get along with the visually impaired, and what points to pay attention to. After the explanation by a professional instructor, I now know more about the visually impaired and learned how to describe direction or distance with more specific adjectives. This activity has greatly benefitted me, and was truly a valuable experience for me. I appreciate that. – Josie Sam, China Everbright Limited
