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:

The Interact Club of Ying Wa College was established in 1991. We have been organizing more and more activities during the past 9 years. This year we have 180 members and 20 Executive Committee members. Our mother club, the Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile, helps us a lot in organizing our activities by giving us both financial and technical support.

We aim at encouraging teenagers to participate in social services, in order to broaden their horizons, and building up their communication skills. We would organize several social service activities during Christmas, Lunar New Year, Easter and summer vacation.

Brief summary of projects undertaken:

1. Sister School Scheme ("SSS")

In partnership with Poi To Middle School

Objectives: Through this project, we encourage students from our school to write letters to the students from the Hong Kong School for the Deaf. We also organized friendly basketball matches, pen-pal gatherings and a Christmas Party. We hope that Ying Wa Boys could try their best to serve others, not only caring about their own benefits but also for the needy.

2. Christmas Project

Date: 22 & 23 December,2000

In partnership with St. Rose of Lima College

Objectives: We aim at providing joy to those single-parent children during the Christmas holiday. On the first day we took them to the bottling plant of Swire Coca-Cola Hong Kong Ltd. They showed great interest when they were watching the coke filling up the bottles!

On the second day of the project, we held a party in a community hall. We organized a series of games. We also gave them a lot of Christmas gifts and had some delicious snacks and food with them afterwards. Finally the party ended under a joyful atmosphere.

3. Lunar New Year Project

Date: 20 & 22 January,2001
 
In partnership with Marymount Secondary School

Objectives: Interactors from both schools helped the elderly clean up their flats on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Our clients this time are a group of elderly living alone.

On the second day we organized a gathering fulfilled by games that were ‘tailor-made’ to suit the spirit of the Lunar New year. We then organized a workshop by teaching them how to make some lanterns by using "Red-Packets". The climax was the performance of a magician. He gave us a lot of fun and laughter! Followed by it were two performances – Chinese instrumental and Chinese dance. The elderly were very happy as we demonstrated our love and sincerity to them.

4. Easter Project

Date: 13 April 2001

In partnership with Holy Family Canossian College

Objectives: The children of this project are mainly new immigrants from mainland China. In the morning we visited the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Lots of exhibitions and education activities about the art and history of Hong Kong are organized there. The children learnt about Hong Kong’s history and nature through interactive hands-on exhibits.

After the lunch break we returned to the centre. Then we played a series of games with them. They were all enthusiastic! The children showed great interest in some of the games and, most of all, the fabulous magic show by a professional magician. (Actually he’s our teacher!) The children went home with smiles on their faces and Easter gifts in their hands!

5. China Trip

Date: 18 to 25 July 2001

In partnership with the Methodist Centre and Ying Wa Girls’ School

Destination: Xiao xing, Guangdong Province, China

Objectives: Aiming at promoting mutual understanding between Hong Kong and Guangdong province, our service clients are the students of primary and secondary schools as well as the farmers in this poverty-stricken region. We tried to achieve the following five objectives:

(1) To experience the hard farming lives of the poor farmers in the region;

(2) To encourage cultural exchange among the secondary school students from both places;

(3) To serve and educate the primary school students there by holding functions like interest classes and games;

(4) To enhance Hong Kong students’ knowledge of the traditional Chinese culture and life in the village, in order to achieve a sense of belonging and,

(5) To build up the idea of co-operation between all the participants of this project and let them learn throughout the whole process of the preparation work.

Final Comments:

If you want know more about our club and the projects we hold, please visit our website or send an us an email.  

On behalf of the Interact Club of Ying Wa College, I would like to thank Ms. Fung, Ms. Lam and Ms. Leung for their valuable advice throughout the year. 

Special thanks to our Rotarian advisor Mr. Norman Liu and to the Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile for their monetary support and suggestions and, last but not least, the committee members of our partner schools: Poi To Middle School, St. Rose of Lima College, Marymount Secondary School, Holy Family Canossian School and Ying Wa Girls’ School.

Michael Chan
Club President.
2000/2001