April 2013
The “We Are With You” Project is a social innovation project on community development in Southern District, supported by the Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation. Students and staff of HKU will contribute to community development and engagement, improve the condition of the underprivileged groups and empower them to improve their own conditions in the long run. It is estimated that 1,500 HKU students and staff will participate in at least 80 projects benefitting more than 16,000 service recipients.
A kick-off ceremony was held on February 23, 2013. On the day, 100 HKU students and secondary school students together made dumplings for more than 200 children and elderly people in Southern District, so as to bring them festive joy and warmth in the Lunar Chinese Year. After the ceremony, a volunteer team of students from the Faculty of Medicine and School of Chinese Medicine provided health check to elderly people. And a group of HKU students and secondary students visited and gave out dumplings and gifts to elderly people and low-income families in the Tin Wan district to spread love and care.
This 4-year project adopts a multi-dimensional approach and hopes to reduce poverty in the district in the long run. The project will focus on three areas at its first stage: students and alumni initiated service learning projects, documentary development of history and heritage of Southern District, and social enterprises.