What is an Interact Club?

Interact is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young people age 14-18. Interact Clubs can either be school or community based and are required to carry out at least two service projects annually; one which serves their school or community and another that furthers international understanding.

Although each club is sponsored by a local Rotary club whose members offer guidance, Interact clubs are responsible for planning, financing, organizing, and executing their own projects.

Report from the President:

As always Interact Club has been‚ we have held one two-day project in each long holiday throughout the year so as to provide a chance for our students to participate in various social service activities. They are namely the Christmas Project‚ the Lunar New Year Project and the Easter Project, which are held jointly with St Rose of Lima's School‚ St Mary Cannosian College and St Catherine's School for Girls respectively. Our main aims in these projects are‚

1. To provide our students with more chances to serve the community‚ such that they can gain valuable experiences.

2. To encourage them to have more interaction with the needy‚ so as to broaden their horizon.

3. To let the needy know that the society cares about them

At the same time‚ we have been organizing a programme called Sister School Scheme with Pui To Middle School and Hong Kong School for the Deaf throughout the year. Many activities are held from time to time with them. Similarly‚ being the member school of the Joint Interact Council‚ we have been participating in the activities they held‚ and also help organise some functions with them.

Brief summary of projects undertaken:

1. The Christmas Project

The Christmas Project <繽紛聖誕迎千禧> was held on the 24^th and 28^th of December with St Rose of Lima's School. In this project‚ we cooperated with the social center in Shatin called Jat Ming Children Centre and the client we served this time was the children from the centre. On the first day of our service (24^th)‚ we held an indoor function in the centre. Games‚ lucky draws and a newspaper-clothes-making competition were held. On the second day of our service, which was an outing in the Kowloon Park and the Science Museum‚ we played an orienteering game with the children and lead them to pay a visit to the dinosaur exhibition. All the participants and the children were having an enjoyable day trip that day.

2. The New Year Project

The New Year Project was held on the 29^th of January and the 4^th of March‚ the first day was an outing held with the Green Power. All the committee members in our school and St Mary of Cannosian College had attended this service which is to help the Green Power to organize a one-day activity on a ship. And the Second day of service(4^th) was an indoor party held with the復康會which was held in the covered playground in our school. This time‚ the clients are the mentally disabled children from the organization. The function started at noon and ended at about 5 p.m. ‚ and we could get along well with the clients and guide them to follow our instructions. It was a new experience for us to serve the mentally disabled children‚ and we did have a successful trial.

3. The Easter Project

The Easter Project (大自然紛紛Fun) was held with St Catherine's School for Girls. The service consisted of two days which were an indoor games day on 25/4/20000 and an outing on 26/4/20000 .The clients were children from 觀塘基督教順天青少年中心. The indoor game day was held in the hall of St. Catherine’s School For Girls .We had set some games for the children on that day in order to make them familiarize with their group members and had fun with each others. A trip to the Green Garden and Penfold Garden was the schedule for the outing of the second day. The workers and the children paid a visit to the Green Garden and experienced the farming activities themselves. Due to the bad weather‚ we could not hold the outdoor games in the Penfold Garden and the programme was forced to be carried out in the center. But still a joyful atmosphere was built up there and all the programmes were run smoothly that day.

4. Sister School Scheme

Sister School Scheme is a long term project held throughout the whole year‚ that includes the penpal scheme‚ the school visit in the Hong Kong School for the Deaf‚ the Christmas party‚ a friendly basketball match and a gathering of the penpals. This project was followed up by our F4 committee members and all activities were successfully held.

5. Telephone Tutorial Scheme

Throughout the year‚ we have been sending out voluntary workers to a social service center in Wanchai for this tutorial scheme. This scheme aims at helping the newly immigrated children from the mainland China. Not only do we help them to do revision‚ but also aid them in adapting to the environment in Hong Kong.

6. Summer Trip:

In this summer holiday‚ we will be organizing a summer trip to the mainland China with Ying Wa Girls' School. The date is from the 17^th to the 24^th in July. The destination is Siu Hing‚ which is in the northern part of Guangdong. We has found the Methodist Centre as our supervising organization and three staff members from it will go with us. Each school will have 18 participants in F6. The main aims of this project are to experience the farming life‚ to serve the primary school students and to have cultural exchange with the secondary school students there. We will be organizing a board display‚ a memorial booklet and an assembly after our trip.

Points to remind the coming year's committee:

1. Hello letters should be sent to other interact schools as soon as possible after the committee is formed.

2. Better communication should be obtained between committee members

3. When facing difficulties in organizing projects‚ don't hesitate to ask the former committee members.

TSANG Yiu Cheung
Club President.