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The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) today (June 26) held an award presentation ceremony for the Internet Memorial Service (IMS) Essay Competition to commend the winning students for their outstanding performance.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Assistant Director (Grade Management and Development) of the FEHD, Mr Chiu Yu-chow, said the department had strived to promote green burial by encouraging the public to use more environment-friendly and sustainable means of handling human ashes, including scattering them at sea or in Gardens of Remembrance (GoRs), and paying tribute to their lost loved ones via the IMS (www.memorial.gov.hk).
Mr Chiu said the department's promotion work has started to bear fruit as the number of green burial cases in Hong Kong has increased steadily in recent years. There was a total of 15 600 cases where ashes were scattered at sea or in GoRs from 2007 to 2014, and there was an increase of over 25 per cent from 2012 to 2014, reflecting an increasing acceptance of the concept of returning to nature through green burial. Meanwhile, as of end-2014, a total of 7 000 memorial webpages had been created under the IMS with a hit rate of over 2.16 million, showing a growing support from the public in paying tribute to the deceased via the Internet in place of burning joss sticks and paper offerings.
"The FEHD organised the IMS Essay Competition with the aim of encouraging young people to become familiar with and make use of the memorial website," he said. The competition, held between October 2014 and March 2015, was well received. Many entries were well written and touching, fully expressing the heartfelt feelings for the lost loved ones. The FEHD plans to upload the five winning entries to the IMS website to encourage more people to use the service.
The award presentation ceremony and opening of an exhibition for selected entries took place at the FEHD's Health Education Exhibition and Resource Centre at 1/F, Block S4, Kowloon Park, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. Members of the public are invited to visit the exhibition, which will run for 30 days starting today.
A champion, first runner-up, second runner-up and two merit prizes were awarded in the competition. The list of awardees is as follows:
Champion: Ng Lo-lo (Tack Ching Girls' Secondary School)
First runner-up: Chan Yuen-chung (Ng Wah Catholic Secondary School)
Second runner-up: Li Lut-sau (Elegantia College)
Merit prize: Chau Chun-pang (Ho Lap College)
Merit prize: Ma Hing-yu (Ho Lap College)
Ends/Friday, June 26, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:29
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