When Life Gives You Lemons - Make Lemonade!

It’s my first time meeting ethnic minorities who live in Hong Kong. My past tutoring experience has always been with helping locals. My students, Qais and Simki, were very enthusiastic to learn. The older brother always helped his sister keep up with the pace. With his help my job was made much easier. I enjoyed meeting them and learning more about their cultural background.

- Kay, a summer program mentor

Hong Kong’s ethnic minority community had a problem: COVID had forced schools to start summer holidays early, and with little-to -no warning parents were forced to find activities for their children.

Enter our Mong Kok Centre staff. The students were officially in ‘lock down’ in their homes and so we organized a custom, one-to-one Summer Tutorial Class taught by volunteers! Dubbed “Power Up EM Summer Vocation”, it also included two Workshops and benefited 16 families.

What was accomplished? Firstly, the mentors helped the students complete their Chinese homework, which is a subject that many of them are very weak in. But more than that, it used popular songs and pictorial sketches to make learning fun and break down barriers. Critical thinking & problem solving skills were also taught!

God made us to live life in community. What truly inspires me about this story is how much richer life became for everyone in the “Power Up EM Summer Vocation” program - students, their parents and our wonderful volunteer mentors and staff when they came together as one! Thank-you all!

To learn more about giving and partnering with us please click here!

During the summer holidays I cannot go out because of COVID-19. At first I thought the class was strange. My teacher was Miss Kay. She’s very nice and friendly. She teaches me Chinese. When I don’t know the Chinese words, she translates them into English and then tell me the meaning. Together with other children, we sang Cantopop songs. I had a really fantastic time!

- Qais, age 9