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Matthew

Annual Home of Love Donation Drive

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The LSSC has once again conducted a donation drive to support the Home of Love in Sham Shui Po, which feeds and provides emergency housing for those most in need. The LSSC were able to raise over 450kg of food and various other important items and hand-delivered these before the Xmas break. Well done LSSC!

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CarePack Drive for ImpactHK: Make a Change!

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The CarePack drive held by two G11 students, Oceanna and Ricca last May of the 2020-2021 school term, has ended successfully. CarePack is a student-started drive, aiming to alleviate the burden on the homeless especially during the rise of Covid 19 within HK through collaborating with ImpactHK, a NGO focused on this issue. They would like to thank everyone who donated masks and hand sanitizers, and CISPA as well as the GGC for their amazing support for the drive!

They had initially set a goal of 50 care packages to be sent to ImpactHK with 5 masks and one hand sanitizer per pack. Each care package was packed in paper bags to be environmentally friendly. By the end of the drive, they had packed more than 200 care packages and donated 1200+ masks to ImpactHK. This drive was supported and promoted through our grade-wide advocacy campaign. They donated the care packages to ImpactHK during the summer, who distributed them to the homeless around Hong Kong. Additional masks were sent to ImpactHK as well to support the volunteers there who greatly inspire us for their service. 

Note from the Students:

We are also currently the executives for SAGE for the 2021~2022 school year, please also support SAGE and our activities there. If you would like to have a drive with SAGE or would like to work with us on this campaign, please reach out to us at holamyik2023@cdnis.edu.hk and riccayip2023@cdnis.edu.hk

  

CDNIS x ImpactHK Final Poster

UNICEF Club Food Drive

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The UNICEF club‘s food drive that was held throughout the month of November has ended with a very successful finish. We set a goal of matching the weight of food waste that occurred during August, which totalledto +280kg, in order to emphasise to the school community the value of food. This goal relates to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 of ‘Zero Hunger’.
With the combined effort of our students, parents, and staff, we’ve been able to far surpass this goal. The final numbers are: 193 bags of rice (approx. 386kg), 182 cans of sardines, meat, beans, soup, etc. (approx. 72.8kg), 87 bags of pasta/noodles (approx. 26.1kg), and 53 bottles of oil (approx. 47.7kg).
With the hope of making the food drive even more effective, educational posters and social media posts were shared so that our community would be more aware of the lack of access to food that exists in Hong Kong.
The donations are distributed to local vulnerable populations with the help of the foodbank FeedingHK.

Mask Making for ‘A Common Thread’

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Trisha (6E) and her family took part in the ‘A Common Thread’ mask-making drive. Using repurposed materials and working together as a family they made 20 hand-made and reusable masks that will be distributed to Hong Kong community members in most need through our NGO partners.

Toy Donations for Refugee and Asylum Seeker Children

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My name is Diya and I am a student in grade 11. As part of my CAS project I have chosen to work with refugee children and am currently creating various efforts to improve their lives and their unfortunate situations. One of these projects involves helping to facilitate a toys drive for refugee and asylum seeker children this year at Christmas time. This initiative was started by the refugee organization Branches of Hope and the toy subscription box company Happy Baton. By working with Branches of Hope and Happy Baton we have been able to facilitate a toys drive at CDNIS. The toys drive aims to collect Christmas presents for the refugee and asylum seekers community this holiday season and to help the over 600 families in need. Refugee and asylum-seeking families are not eligible for government-assisted schemes and anti-Covid essentials, they face difficulties in finding affordable housing and many are unable to work meaning they struggle to make ends meet with insufficient monthly assistance from the government. With the Christmas season right around the corner, these families cannot afford to buy any gifts for their children, making this project the children’s only source of gifts this year. The generous children and parents of the lower school have worked together to help contribute to this drive and filled up two boxes of toys for the community.

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Teachers Take Action Too

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Ms Bonnie Calanchini works with Lower School Inclusion for grades 2-3 and is also the Roots and Shoots Coordinator. Over the summer she has been volunteering with Plastic Free Seas to help collect over 2 tonnes of microplastic pollutants (from infill from an artificial pitch, you know those little black rubber balls on the football pitch?) that drained into the sea and are covering a beach in Discovery Bay. This spill has called attention to addressing this problem across Hong Kong.
She is also taking part in the collection of contact lens casing, to ensure they are responsibly recycled as these are rarely recycled correctly.
If you would like to learn more about these initiatives and get involved then don’t hesitate to reach out to Ms Calanchini at bonniecalanchini@cdnis.edu.hk
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HandsOn Hong Kong Youth Empowerment Program

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Anjali:

Hi everyone! My name is Anjali T and I am a Grade 12 student. This year, I am a member of HandsOn Hong Kong’s first ‘Youth Empowerment’ programme. The goal of this programme is to develop long-term, sustained initiatives for youth volunteers to support our community. Our council of approximately twenty students, from a range of different schools and backgrounds, works alongside the HandsOn team to identify specific needs in our community, create six new service programmes that address issues important to youth and ideal for young volunteers, participate in programmes throughout the school year as volunteer leaders and act as ambassadors for HandsOn Hong Kong. My programme specifically is targeted at how young people can support the refugee community in Hong Kong, and while we are starting small with a mentorship programme for young refugee children, we hope to grow our programme into addressing a larger range of the needs of the refugee community and we intend to launch our programme in mid-September. 

If you are interested in joining our programmes or HandsOn Hong Kong’s servathon to take advantage of leadership and CAS experiences, follow their Instagram account @handsonhongkong and keep an eye out for our orientation session soon. I look forward to seeing you there!

 

Arjun:

Hello! I’m Arjun S and I’m an 11th Grade student here at CDNIS. Along with Anjali, I am the second CDNIS member of the HandsOn Hong Kong’s Youth Empowerment committee. I was initially introduced to this program by Mr. Schulte which immediately appealed to me as it was a program that enabled the youth of Hong Kong to engender real change within our local community.  HOHK recognizes the potential of youth to the discover and innovate unique solutions to problems that riddle Hong Kong and entrusts us with resources as well as connections to implement our programmes that Anjali described. 

Specifically, I am working on a program that aims to alleviate stress and anxiety in youth where we are planning to implement 3 different programs that in a 9-month rotational cycle that each address a specific aspect of mental health: a mentorship program, a cathartic mindfulness hike, and a product design activity. 

Again, if you are interested in helping out with any of the six programs – mental health support for youth, mental health support for the elderly, food assistance for low-income families, education for disadvantaged children, support for refugees and asylum seekers, or environmental conservation – feel free to follow the HandsOn HK Instagram account or contact me at arjunsahney@cdnis.edu.hk!

Hand sewing over 100 masks for homeless people in HK

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Kashish M in 11H has spent the last 8 weeks hand-sewing reusable masks using a second-hand sewing machine, that she will hand out to homeless people in Hong Kong through NGO partner Impact Hong Kong.

Kashish has been passionate about breaking the cycle of poverty through education and has been involved in other initiatives including tutoring students from underprivileged backgrounds through Concerns for Grassroots Alliance HK.

”Since I cannot continue to tutor these children since I too am stuck at home, I have been thinking of how I can help during the pandemic.  After doing some research on the efficacy of masks,  I understand that facial protection is important to reduce infection during the pandemic. So, I have been making homemade washable masks… They are 100% cotton, and reusable. To supplement the safe use of masks I have made a video and paper instructions on how to use a mask safely and how to wash it. I hope this will be informative and useful for the community.”

Kashish is exploring further plans to run workshops on how to make homemade masks. This will empower community members with the knowledge and skills needed to continue making masks and spread awareness about remaining safe during this time.

Great initiative Kashish. The CDNIS community is both proud of and here to support your efforts.

 

 

 

Mira C (8E) leading the way with community service and engagement during online-leanring

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Mira C in 8E has dedicated her time and energy during the COVID pandemic to a range of volunteer and community service initiatives. 

She engaged with various NGO’s and activities during the lockdown of schools including Hands On HK and Plastic Free Seas where she completed beach cleanups and waste audits, visits to elderly care facilities and was involved in a soap recycling project. 

Most recently she joined impact HK for kindness walks every week (except during the government quarantine restricted times and always following safety and social distancing protocols) to visit homeless people on street to distribute food, hygiene necessities, mask and to engage in conversation. Regular participation has been important for Mira to build trust and relationships. 

Thank you, Mira, for setting a great example to our community and finding ways to continue serving our community during this time

Soap Recycling

DB South Island Beach Cleanup 

DB North Island Beach Cleanup

Kindness walk with Impact Hong Kong.  

Glohelp non-profit initiative to support hospitals in Brooklyn and Brookdale

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Glohelp is a non-profit initiative founded by 4 students across Hong Kong (Joanne T from CDNIS and Bernice W from VSA) and the USA (Katie H and Liz B from Peddie School) that aims to help medical workers during this time of crisis. Inspired by the many heartbreaking stories found online as well as the continued effort of these workers, they decided to work together to try and help out. The team helps to collect donations from the public to help fund medical supplies such as masks, sanitisers among others that are to be donated to hospitals in the USA, specifically the New York Area near where the US students attend school. 
America, the country with the highest amount of confirmed Coronavirus cases worldwide (as of May 25 2020), has been under much pressure. Healthcare systems and hospitals across the country have been put under enormous strain, and workers only have a quickly dwindling supply of equipment to protect themselves. Thus, while working alongside suppliers and various hospitals, the Glohelp team has decided to work together to help alleviate the burden on medical workers and slow the spread of disease.
Since their launch, they have already sent out two shipments of masks to Brooklyn Hospital Center and Brookdale Hospital Centre but are looking forward to launching more shipments with the help of donors and donations from the public!
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