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The wife of the Chief Executive and Volunteer-in-Chief, Mrs Selina Tsang, said today (December 3) that after years of efforts, volunteerism has been integrated into local culture and has permeated the various strata of our society. The ever-increasing involvement of youngsters and retirees has enlarged the volunteer fleet and enriched the service variety.
Speaking at the 2011 Hong Kong Volunteer Award Presentation Ceremony, Mrs Tsang said that the Volunteer Movement is widely echoed by volunteers from all walks of life, including corporations, community organisations and residents' organisations. They all have contributed numerous volunteer projects for building up a caring community.
"Through the new theme, 'Volunteering - New Attitude to Life', we strive to encourage volunteers to integrate the core values of volunteering into their daily life to support and care for the needy at any time, as appropriate. We expect more people, especially our youngsters, to put this new attitude to life into practice and inspire their friends to join them so that our community can become more caring and harmonious," she added.
Speaking at the same occasion, the Director of Social Welfare, Mr Patrick Nip, said that with the gradual development of the Volunteer Movement in the past, episodic and sustained volunteering projects have become more and more mature. As such, the Steering Committee on the Promotion of Volunteer Service would steer toward promoting Level Three Volunteering and encourage volunteers to integrate the spirit and core values of volunteerism into their daily life so as to foster volunteering as a life attitude, and make volunteering part of our life.
"In 2012, we will launch the Community Caring Shops Recognition Scheme to encourage more local small businesses to utilise their expertise, strength and network to serve the needy in their community during their business hours or free time," Mr Nip said.
The annual award presentation was organised by the Social Welfare Department's Steering Committee on the Promotion of Volunteer Service to recognise the contribution of volunteers and to further promote the Volunteer Movement.
Today, awards were presented to various types of volunteers for their outstanding contribution in 2010. The awardees included 68 volunteers who had served the community for over 20 years and nine families as winners of the Outstanding Family Recognition Scheme. Also commended were individual volunteers and volunteer organisations for the highest number of service hours. Please see the Annex for a list of awardees (Chinese only).
Also officiating at the ceremony were the Convenor of the Sub-committee on the Promotion and Publicity of Volunteer Service, Mr Michael Wong; the Convenor of the Sub-committee on the Promotion of Corporate Volunteering, Mr Herman Hui; the Convenor of the Sub-committee on the Promotion of Volunteering in Community Organisations, Mr Caecage Siu; and the Convenor of the Sub-committee on the Promotion of Student and Youth Volunteering, Mr Lee Kam-chung.
Since the promotion of volunteer service by the Social Welfare Department in 1998, more than 980 000 registered volunteers and more than 2 230 Volunteer Movement Participating Organisations have committed to volunteer service. In 2010, registered volunteers devoted more than 22 million hours of service to the community.
Ends/Saturday, December 3, 2011
Issued at HKT 17:06
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