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The Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, today (December 15) visited a school in Wong Tai Sin to familiarise himself with the integrated education for the hearing impaired students. He also visited a social welfare organisation that provides social enterprise projects for the disabled.
Accompanied by the District Officer (Wong Tai Sin), Mrs Teresa Wong, Mr Tsang's first stop was the Chun Tok School, a mainstream school providing special education and supportive services for the hearing impaired students in its primary and secondary sections. The school combines activity-based teaching with guidance and discipline counselling to nurture the students.
Mr Tsang met some 30 hearing-impaired and able-bodied primary school students in a classroom group activity where he joined the students for an English interactive quiz. He also saw some students undergo hearing tests and speech training in the speech training room. He then walked through the garden plots in the study centre where students showed him their project of composting the kitchen waste.
Speaking after the dance performance at the playground, the Chief Executive said: "I am glad to see a school promoting a caring culture in the belief of that every child has the potential to succeed and none of the students should be neglected."
He noted that the children were helped to realise their full potential, building self-confidence for their future challenges in the community as well as teaching them to appreciate the importance of protecting the environment.
"We are glad to see that the caring study environment allows students with disabilities to enhance their interest in learning and grow into active children with great self-confidence," he added.
Mr Tsang then visited the studio of First Sense Design, the first social enterprise of the Hong Kong Federation of Handicapped Youth (HKFHY). Being one of Hong Kong's longest-running self-help organisations, the HKYHF serves mainly the physically handicapped. It furnishes the needy with temporary home care services, skills training and employment services, helping them integrate into the community.
The First Sense Design centre provides design, production and printing services for public and private sectors, promoting employment opportunities for the disabled.
After a briefing on the process of product design and production in the studio, the Chief Executive walked over to the HKFHY Jockey Club Activity Centre where specially designed facilities for the disabled have been built. Mr Tsang also saw the physically handicapped learning to use computers, which will increase their employment opportunities.
"Promoting self-help and mutual-help and encouraging the disabled to be self-reliant and to contribute to the community are not only the objectives of the federation, but also our hope for these people," he said.
Before ending his visit, Mr Tsang visited a shopping mall where he chatted with the business operator and customers in a cafe.
Ends/Friday, December 15, 2006
Issued at HKT 17:29
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