5E Lee Yin Wing

During the summer holiday, I joined an interesting and meaningful camp – Summer School for Effective Leadership: An Overture to Global Leadership 2014, which is organized every year. This camp aims to increase teenagers’ awareness towards the poverty of different kinds of people, and this year’s topic was working poverty. Working poverty refers to the group of people who work very hard and yet still cannot earn enough to support themselves. The course involved a lot of activities, for example lectures given by famous people about the poor, workshops for enhancing leadership skills, and community activities that enabled us to experience the lives of the working poor. These activities not only enriched our horizons, but also increased our understanding towards the difficulties, severity and actual living conditions of working poverty in Hong Kong. We also got a taste of university life by living in the hall, participating at the high table dinner, and participating in the popular university sport of Lacrosse.

Among the various activities, the most impressive which influenced me the most, was the community visit we made to Shek Kip Mei. There, we were asked to collect leftover fruit and vegetables that were still of good quality from the market, we then had to double check and remove any of those which we considered rotten or not suitable to be eaten. We then distributed the selected fruit and vegetables to the people in need. Through observing the expressions on their faces, I came to fully understand how hard and tough their lives are. Even though they worked for the whole day, they were still unable to make enough money to support themselves or their families. I came to realize that every day in Hong Kong we waste a tremendous amount of food, even though much of this food is still edible. We seldom think of the many poor people around us who still lack enough nutritious and clean food. It is very ironic and upsetting to see this phenomenon appearing in such an affluent society as ours.

Experiencing this camp gave me much to think about. People nowadays seem to be too selfish and uncaring towards those in need, despite their own personal situation, causing a wider disparity between the rich and the poor. I have learnt to offer help whenever someone needs it, and most importantly, treasure everything I have. I sincerely hope for an increase in people’s awareness towards this alarming issue and start working together more to help alleviate it.

5E 李彥穎

在剛過去的暑假，我参加了一個有趣而有意義的活動——九日八夜暑期青年領袖營。這次夏令營的目的是提高青少年對貧困問題的意識，今年的主題為「在職貧窮」。在職貧窮是指人們雖然勤奮工作，但你無法獲得足夠的收入維持生計。這夏令營包括許多活動，如探究在職貧困的講座，提高領導能力的工作坊，探訪及體驗貧窮社群的活動和研討會等，不僅廣闊了我們的視野，也讓我們了解香港在職貧窮人士的困難。我們亦透過入住大學宿舍，享用高桌晚宴，及參加長曲棍球活動來體驗大學生的生活。

在眾多活動中，印象最深刻是到石硤尾進行社區探訪。我們須向有需要的人士派發從街市收集得來的蔬果。觀察他們臉上的表情，我能深刻地感受到他們的生活是多麼艱苦。即使他們工作了一整天，但仍然無法賺到足夠的金錢養活自己或家人。反之，我們每天都在浪費數以噸計優質食物，而沒想到我們周遭有很多窮人，生活中仍缺少足夠的營養和乾淨的食物。在一個富裕的社會出現這種現象，實在是諷刺。

參加完這個領袖營後，我反省到現代的人似乎過於自私和冷漠，儘管他們有能力，卻鮮有向有需要的人伸出援手，因而導致貧富懸殊的問題日益嚴重。從這次活動中，我學會施比受更為有福，更加珍惜自己現有的一切。我衷心希望大眾對此問題有更多的關注，並能提供更多的幫助以紓解貧困。