Winter 2009 Newsletter

Words from Roots & Shoots Hong Kong….

Kennedy School

James' teacher is going to Phuket for Christmas, nothing unique about that. But when James, a year 6 student at Kennedy School, heard that his teacher was raising money to donate to an orphanage during his holiday it didn't seem that ordinary anymore.

Inspired by his teacher James' decided that he too could make a difference to the less fortunate children who lived in the Sunshine Village Orphanage, Phuket. All he needed was a chair, a musical instrument and a Saturday.

James spent an entire day playing his trumpet to raise money for the children in Phuket. Those who enjoyed James' music must have known that he was not raising money to buy a new ipod, no, James was playing in the true spirit of giving. At the end of the day James had raised HK$2500 to add to his teachers donation of funds, toys, exercise books & slippers. Well done James!

Beads for Life

Kennedy School Roots & Shoots is an active group of 5 students that have managed to create a craze for "Bead for Life".

Recycled paper hand rolled beads created by Ugandan women are a way to create income for poor families in the region.

JGI Hong Kong helped the school import the beautiful beaded necklaces from JGI Uganda and they have become a big hit at the school.

All proceeds from their sales are being donated back to Uganda to help with community development and conservation.

International College Hong Kong

Our student committee has conducted a green audit of many areas of the school (cafe, classrooms, administration office, staff room) and come up with recommendations.  The students selected two projects to start on. The first was to create recycling bins for all the classrooms, with notices drafted by the students on how to use them correctly. The second was to start our ICHK organic garden. We’ve also been looking at composting systems for the school.

All the students and teachers will be coming together to develop ideas for ICHK’s first Green Charter. We want to make our school – and homes – as green as possible, and also learn important lessons about renewable energies in the process.

King George V

Pass It On

Hundreds of newborn babies across the world are abandoned everyday, left in rubbish bins, on the side of the road, crying and not knowing their life lies on a teetering edge. Many people are unaware of this, and today, our group, Pass It On is determined to raise people's awareness through the means of a walkathon, supporting the charity Mother's Choice (HK). This walkathon will take place on Lamma Island and at the moment, we are trying our best to find as many sponsors as possible. 

3MH (3 Months for the Homeless)

We are a group of students eager to help the homeless in Hong Kong and therefore have established our own student led organization called “Three Months For the Homeless”; our mission is to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless in Hong Kong mainly amongst our student body and hopefully the community here. We will use this compassion to help alleviate the problems of those who are neglected and without homes.

South Island School

At South Island School we have just started our Roots & Shoots group in September 2009.
After meeting Dr Jane & being inspired SIS Y11 students have completed the most amazing advertisement, with the truly poignant message of ‘everyone can make a difference’. We have 19 members from across our school Year 7 to Year 13 & two teachers. 

Our first project was to collect cereal boxes to be re-used as ‘Peace Doves’ for the Day of Peace at The Peak. Our Public Relations Company OMG advertised the event in our school foyer as ‘the Wishing Tree’. A group of us then participated in, walked & did ‘the Green Tour’.

The Green Tour gave us our next idea – ‘Soap Nuts’ We purchased 6 packets originally. 4 teachers & 2 students have trialed ‘Soap Nuts’ in our washing machines and all have been impressed by the quality, results and impact on our HK waterways. Roots & Shoots then applied to the Student Council who have given us a loan to purchase 100 kg of ‘soap nuts’. We will start promoting the use of ‘Soap Nuts’ at our school fair. All members are involved & planning various activities including: designing face painting samples, collecting Trash & Treasure, sewing bags of all shapes, sizes & materials, and organizing action plans for paper jewelry from Uganda. All will be available at our  ‘Night Fest’ on Friday November 27th.

New Roots & Shoots Video -- Action through Media!!

If you haven't already seen the amazing video produced by 4 South Island School students, then check it out! This is a great way to raise awareness and make a difference.

Sha Tin College

The Sha Tin College Environmental Action Group, or EAG for short, is an umbrella of Environmental Groups led mostly by Y12 CAS project leaders. The last few weeks have been a productive time, with many groups implementing their ideas and putting them in to action. Our diverse teams include can, plastic bottles and paper recycling. The Cap and Trade group is also working with Teng Hoi, with the aim of reducing the school’s electricity bill by 10%. Another exciting initiative will be the composting of vegetable waste from the cafeteria, and the use of bokashi to compost wasted food. Our trials with Bokashi composting have started and we await our first batch of compost! The garden groups have also been busy harvesting the Pak Choi and radishes. We now eagerly await our tomatoes, pumpkins and choi sum. The next task of the EAG is the Sha Tin College and Junior Fair stall on the 28th November. We plan to sell plants, recycled goods and a bag with an R and S logo on it. Our profits will be ploughed back in to environmental projects at school. See you there!

Hong Kong International School

Last weekend, we also joined Friends of the Harbor and took part in the Walk for Harbor. We dressed up, brought our pets and helped raise public awareness on land reclamation. Although we soon found ourselves amidst a political campaign to 'return land back to the people' and 'greedy government makes money from land sells'. It was an interesting experience all together. I took part in another Walk for Harbour three years ago and had the chance to compare changes in both the attitudes of people and the physical changes on landscape.

A few of our members also began a joint project with Roots & Shoots and our school's Zonta Club in hopes of creating a recycling campaign drive for various materials. The girls plan on having recycling stations around the school, taking in CDs one month, clothing another...etc. The goods will go the various recycling organizations in HK such as St. James Settlement and Crossroads International.

Want to feature in our newsletters? Want to share what you are doing? Email photos and stories to corinne@janegoodall.org.hk