According to the “Equal Opportunities Awareness Survey 2021” published by Equal Opportunities Commission, people who experienced discrimination or harassment have been increasing steadily in 2021, comparing to the survey in 2015. It is no doubt that although Hong Kong is diverse, it is still far from inclusive. From the required survey, apart from the increasing cases of discrimination, it also showed that the awareness of equal opportunities’ education steadily dropped from 84% in 2012, 81.8% in 2015 to 60% in 2021. Therefore, the launch of “Care & Dare 2022: Label Labelling – Let’s Respect” is to promote social inclusion and reduce inequality among the public through a series of workshops and social media channels.
In the past, different media channels have been escorting and telling the public how “normal” the labelled people are. Time by time, this seems to spread a wrong message and may cause people to think they are abnormal instead. No wonder discrimination is still a rising social issue. We used a positive angle, ‘I AM WHO I AM’ to attract the public’s attention and show everyone is special and unique as everyone should be treated with manners. From April to July, we did a theme month on social media with over 50 posts to educate and spread awareness to the public among the topics of disabilities, single moms, LGBT+ and minorities.
At the same time, we would like to bring an important message to the public that everyone should be true and honest to himself or herself and not care too much about people’s thoughts as we could never change others’ minds but ourselves.
This project obtained over HK$500,000 in Cash Funding and In-Kind Sponsorship from various organisations and companies. We invited Mr. Daniel Chan (Hong Kong First Wheelchair Badminton Player), Ms Asha Cuthbert (Actress), and Mr. Vivek Mahbubani (Bilingual Stand-up Comedian) to be our project ambassadors and share their stories during the opening ceremony, followed up with 3 workshops and an epidemic-related kit donation to the Hong Kong In One Association Limited to support 50 grassroot families through a fundraising activity.
“Be Yourself” Sign Language Workshop was held in May to spread the importance of conveying messages and communications. All the participants were introduced to the fundamental knowledge of sign language, something that would not have been learnt in school.
Over 50 participants got to know and understand more about the needs of SEN children through “Speak Out Loud” Drawing Workshop. They ought to help raise the awareness towards SEN children.
“Better Me” Mindfulness Yoga Workshop had nearly 30 JCI members join the event, getting a chance to know more about one-self and calming ourselves by the positivity, inspirations, happiness and inner peace of the yoga session.
In August, “I AM WHO I AM” Concert cum Closing Ceremony was held at Sunbeam Theatre with over 400 participants. We invited more than 10 singers to share their stories and perform. At the same time, we also partnered with Chu Kong Plan to provide 150 tickets for the grassroot families and everyone enjoyed the night.
In result, there were more than 1,500 participants taking part in the whole project of “Label Labelling”. We worked with over 40 partners from different areas and professions, and have kept a good relationship for long-term partnership. Moreover, we reached over $2,000,000 media value and 450,000 people on social media. In the 3-years plan, we hope to expand the related project into an international affair program to our sister chapters or even doing exchanges with different countries to give a greater impact to the world.