Inconvenience is one of the biggest obstacles to recycling, a challenge that prompted a Hongkonger to establish a one-stop recycling service. Jorch Wong Ching-hei left advertising in 2019 and started The Loops Hong Kong after finding that recycling different materials often required travelling to different collection points. With no prior background in the industry, he contacted recycling operators, visited plants and learned how paper, plastics and metals were processed. Wong also taught...

Veteran Cantonese opera teacher Leung Sum-yee does not expect every child who enters her classroom to become a performer. If they leave knowing what good Cantonese opera sounds and looks like, she considers that worthwhile too. “My purpose was not to train stars or idols. I wanted more people to understand Cantonese opera and to have more audiences,” she said. That approach has guided Leung through more than three decades of teaching and cultural advocacy. She founded an opera organisation in...

At 17, Hong Kong secondary school student Agastya Rekhi has been teaching finance and economics to younger children for nearly three years. Meeting families struggling to understand how prices, investments and economic news impacted their daily lives during voluntary work convinced him that access to information was only part of the problem. How that information was communicated was just as important. Rekhi, a finalist for the Spirit of Youth Award in this year’s Spirit of Hong Kong Awards, has...

About 300 Hong Kong students applied this year for roughly 30 places on an overseas programme to help children in need, up from about 50 applicants last year. Dream Compassioneers co-founder Chan Yik-yeung said the response also showed what students could achieve when trusted with responsibility. Founded in 2020, the organisation runs local and overseas service programmes and is a member of the International Association for Volunteer Effort. Its recent projects have taken volunteers to Cambodia,...

Hearing loss made it difficult for Ivan Fung Wing-hong to find work in Hong Kong’s construction industry after graduation. Nearly three decades later, that early setback has led to a teaching career spanning young children, postgraduate students and elderly people. Born with a hearing impairment, Fung struggled with language subjects at school because he could not always hear clearly. He was stronger in maths and art, which eventually led him to study building-related subjects at what was then...

Hongkongers can be struggling with severe mental health problems but still not be considered urgent cases, according to mental health advocate Minal Mahtani, who wants community groups to play a bigger role before individual cases reach crisis point. Mahtani, founder of OCD & Anxiety Support Hong Kong, said better referrals between hospitals, community mental health services and specialist charities could help people receive timely support while they wait for formal treatment. Her work has...