Monthly Archives

January 2015

Jan 27
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UNICEF’s “Project Tap” & ‘smell the box’ soap drive!

By | GIN & Clubs, Green | No Comments

The month of January has been dedicated to water, sanitation, and hygiene for the Unicef Club. Recognising the large number of people in developing nations (including those neighbouring Hong Kong) who have a lack of access to clean water, we have decided to continue Project Tap for the second year now. Project Tap consists of water fountains on the 2nd, 4th, and 5th floors being switched off in order to raise awareness about the lack of access to clean water. We hope that when people had to walk an extra floor in order to obtain water, they were able to think about those who have to travel miles on foot daily in order to access water that isn’t even necessarily safe to drink. In addition to Project Tap, we are also hosting our first annual soap drive this week! There are donation boxes on the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th floors for everyone to donate any used or unused bars of soap. We will be donating this soap to the local organisation that recycles soaps, in order to deliver them to developing nations. This small action of donating a bar of soap can help prevent a family from a multitude of diseases, many of which are deadly. Hopefully as a school community, we can help take a step forward in ensuring that water and sanitation are seen as basic rights rather than privileges.

Jan 27
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Habitat for Humanity’s “Paint Your Key” campaign

By | GIN & Clubs | No Comments

Last month, from December 8 to 12, Habitat for Humanity (http://facebook.com/hfhcdnis) hosted its 6th annual Lower School fundraiser, Paint Your Key. “Paint Your _____” is a series of events where Lower School students get to personalize a Habitat related item. This year, we chose a key because the key is a symbol to a safe and secure home. Additionally, at the end of our international build trips (to Thailand and Cambodia), there is a ceremony of a “key handover” to the homeowners. This year, over 200 students from Prep to Grade 6 had the opportunity to decorate their own wooden key, which were then displayed along the school’s main staircase before they were taken home. There were also many Upper School volunteers who were there to engage the Lower School students in a conversation to inform them about what Habitat is and to share their experiences with Habitat. Overall, the event was a success as we were able to spread awareness about the issue of inadequate housing to the wider school community.

See our event video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNn7jOXlXEo

For additional photos, please visit our Facebook page (link above).

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Jan 26
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Amnesty: Hungry for Change Campaign (with Justice Center)

By | GIN & Clubs, Social Justice | No Comments

On October 14, Amnesty International CDNIS hosted “Hungry for Change”, an event created by Justice Centre Hong Kong, to bring about awareness of the lack of human rights refugees have in Hong Kong. Refugees in Hong Kong have to collect food worth less than $40 a day. We invited a refugee experiencing these troubles to talk to students, pledged students to try and use only $40 every day for meals between Oct. 14-16, and participated in an online petition to call for the government to revise its policies regarding refugees in Hong Kong. In January, we received news that the online petition was successful and now the government is starting to hand out cash coupons to allow refugees to select their own food rather than receiving sub-standard food at collection centers.

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Amnesty: Vow of Silence Campaign!

On November 26th, 2014, Amnesty International CDNIS hosted an event called the “Vow of Silence” where Upper School students (Gr7-12) were challenged to not speak for the entire school day, from 7:45am to 2:25pm. This campaign was hosted in order to raise awareness for those without a voice worldwide and is a traditional event that Amnesty hosts yearly. During the campaign, the CDNIS Amnesty also hosted lunch time activities with participants where many participants confessed to have broken the vow and expressed through body language the difficulties they faced in class to communicate their thoughts and lack of voice. Peers, parents and/or relatives sponsored students to complete the event and all proceeds were donated to an NGO called Global Rights Organization (GRO). The GRO works with local activist groups in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to spread awareness and protect the rights of populations marginalized because of gender, ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, gender identity or disability.

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Amnesty: Family Fun Fair Identity Advocacy Campaign!

The Amnesty International Club at CDNIS aims to raise awareness and take action on various human rights issues on a local, national and international level. At the Family Fun Fair on November 30th 2014, CDNIS Amnesty International hosted an advocacy booth, raising awareness to our main foci Right to Identity. In order to promote our foci and address a wide target audience, we turned our booth to an arts and crafts one where we had participants decorate a puzzle piece with colours, symbols and words that represent themselves. The puzzle pieces would then be combined together and would portray a collage based on the focus of identity. Ultimately, the collage would show how each of us are like a little individualistic puzzle piece, but when put together can become like a big picture that represent a community.

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Jan 26
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E-Club: Reduce your Eco-Foodprint Campaign!

By | GIN & Clubs, Green | No Comments

During the month of December, the Environmental Club performed a food wastage audit for the 6th floor cafeteria during the Upper School’s lunch hour (Grades 9 to 12). Our aim was to raise awareness about the negative effects of food waste on the local and global community, and to assess the severity of our school’s wastage habits, while holding a simultaneous exhibition to visually represent the amount of food waste generated daily. Ultimately, we were able to compile our data into a report that we sent to other schools, and will hopefully be taking action to reduce our portion sizes and improve our menus in light of the comments that we received. Also, in order to fully round out our event, the E-Club has decided to donate all of its revenue from its Family Fun Fair sale to Feeding Hong Kong, the monetary equivalent of 44 bags of 10kg rice, in the hope that it will go towards feeding those in need.

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Jan 16
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Grade 6 Trip to Guizhou, China

By | PYP | No Comments

“This trip was an eye-opener for many of us. Even the village kids and the kindergarten students learnt a lot from this experience, and it was easy to see the effect on them. In just a few days, they learnt how to say hello and a few other english words, and they were more confident and participative. There were many learning opportunities for us as well. We experienced a part of China that we had never seen before, we practiced our teaching skills and Chinese skills, we learnt that we should count our blessings and appreciate what we have, and we learnt that we can make friends despite cultural and language differences.”

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Read about the 5-day service learning trip some Grade 6 students took to Leishan, China, where they worked with the NGO ‘Zigen’ and the initiative for literacy called ‘Bring Me A Book’: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-dg-0siOF_J95LAWmosbFmgmPiCqqB-tPibqfRP1p5k/edit?usp=sharing

Jan 16
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Service Learning Trip – Habitat For Humanity

By | GIN & Clubs | No Comments

The CDNIS Habitat for Humanity (HFH) club (https://www.facebook.com/hfhcdnis) focuses on promoting awareness of the global issue of substandard housing to the school community. With our annual lower school fundraiser Paint Your Key just around the corner, HFH would like to give a summary of the build trip we went on earlier this school year. All HFH fundraisers help to sponsor donation fees on trips, because we hope this will give more students opportunities to experience first-hand the importance of continuous service work.

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HFH holds two annual build trips, one local (China) and one international. This year, from September 30th to October 5th, 24 students went to Rayong, Thailand and participated in the Global Village build. It was HFH at CDNIS’s third time in the country after volunteering in 2010 and 2012. Students helped construct a safe and decent home for a family in need by doing a multitude of tasks, such as digging a well, moving bricks, mixing cement and laying bricks. It was a lot of physical work, but students thoroughly enjoyed the experience as they got to bond with people different grades and personally take action to help improve the global issue of inadequate housing. Below are responses from two of the trip participants:
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Ryan Wong, a grade 11 student, said: “There was a unique sense of accomplishment helping to construct a house, in the sense that we didn’t solve the family’s problems indirectly by donating – we went to the root of the problem, and stepped in to do the hard work.”

Ashley Zee, a grade 10 student, commented: “Being apart of yet another Habitat for Humanity build trip was truly an amazing experience. I am grateful for this opportunity in being able to take part in not only impacting the lives of the homeowners but also a baby stepping stone towards making a difference in eradicating inadequate housing.”

Jan 16
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INTERACT Club’s “Feeding HK” Food Drive

By | GIN & Clubs | No Comments

On December 14th, the Interact Club (https://www.facebook.com/groups/131451460286851/) hosted a “Food Drive” where members of the club delivered basic food supplies to Feeding HK (http://www.feedinghongkong.org/), an organisation which tackles famine problems in Hong Kong. Feeding HK donates the food supplies to families with financial struggles in the poorer areas of Hong Kong. Through this activity, we aim to raise awareness about about hunger and food waste in the city and we were successful in doing so. We ended up donating 9 large boxes of canned soups, canned fish, juices, etc. Thank you for all the donations!

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