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The following is issued on behalf of the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund Committee:
The Community Investment and Inclusion Fund (CIIF) Committee writes an article today (October 12) paying tribute to Committee chairman, Dr Raymond Wu wai-yung, who passed away last week.
The committee praised Dr Wu for his work and contributions in promoting the CIIF, saying that his passion and commitment for the well-being of Hong Kong never wavered, in health, in sickness and as he departed from us in such haste.
Under the dedicated leadership of Dr Wu, the CIIF took up the challenge to make changes to mindsets, values, networks and institutional relationships, as part of the social capital building process. Homespun values championed by the CIIF included the strong belief that there were abilities and talent amongst the most vulnerable that could be nurtured; that there was opportunity and hope that could be created through reciprocal mutual help and partnerships; that it was more blessed to give than to receive; and that human dignity transcended material gains.
Dr Wu had been working tirelessly to plant and cultivate the seeds of change. He went to every corner of all 18 districts and patiently coached over 100 projects into fruition. At policy levels, Dr Wu worked through policy bureaus to push for policy coherence in implementation. At project levels, Dr Wu encouraged a number of pilot initiatives to encourage cross-sectoral partnerships to create new opportunities. At the community level, he encouraged a jump out of the intra-group bonding to weave more dynamic and neighbourhood-based mutual help networks that bridged generations, social strata and backgrounds. His primary objective was to create the necessary conditions to foster social inclusion and social harmony in the community.
With the hard efforts of Dr Wu, the CIIF so far supported 116 social capital projects of varying scales in every district. More than 2,700 collaborators were engaged in joint implementation, with more than 10,000 previous service recipients transformed into givers, over 200 mutual help networks established and more than 300,000 people involved.
The committee said feedback from the participants whose roles and lives had been transformed was overwhelmingly positive. The effectiveness of the social capital building strategies had been affirmed by an independent evaluation undertaken by a CIIF Evaluation Consortium formed by five local universities.
Social capital theories and practice were being incorporated into a number of university curricula. Various advisory committees such as those for social welfare, women, elderly, youth, rehabilitation and social work training were generally impressed with the relevance and potential of social capital strategies for their policy areas. In August this year, Dr Wu was invited by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to present the CIIF experience to their staff. The CIIF experience was well regarded, contributing conceptual, strategic as well as implementation insights for a new community-driven development policy initiative that the bank planned to promote.
Acting Chairperson of the CIIF Committee, Ms Sophia Kao, said: "As a team, we feel abundantly blessed to have worked with Dr Wu. Throughout the last four and half years, we have been guided, challenged and nurtured by Dr Wu's exemplary unreserved giving, compassion for the 'little people' in the community, exceptional intellect, boundless wisdom, good-humoured challenges, quick wits and resourcefulness.
"There could be no better tribute to Dr Wu than our pledge to further innovate, enhance, sustain, develop and extend the impact of social capital development that he started in Hong Kong and elsewhere."
Ends/Thursday, October 12, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:08
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