The Changemaker Project invite
Posted by Peter MUIR
Join teens from around the globe in this challenge to create a better world! Learn about social justice issues, gain tools and skills to solve them, and be part of a community of changemakers while representing Discovery College. You will be guided by the event organisers to help tackle big problems with innovation and creativity. Are you ready to be the change you wish to see?
This event is open to teams of 2-5 students aged 13-18. You will be required to complete a short online course, where you’ll learn about real-world issues that face our planet (affecting people, animals, and the environment). Next, you’ll decide on a problem to tackle with your team. The rest of the course provides valuable problem-solving skills and guides you through the design thinking process to create a project that solves a real world problem.
Throughout the course you will have the chance to connect and share ideas with students from all over the world, through our online discussion forum and weekly Google hangouts. You’ll also receive support from experts in the field who volunteer as virtual mentors.
In June, teams will submit their final projects. Projects will be evaluated by a team of judges, and finalists will be selected. If your team is selected as a finalist, you’ll be invited to pitch your idea to venture capitalists and philanthropists to win funding for your project!
It is expected that DC teams will not need to be the registration fee. If you are keen, please speak to Mr Muir. More details can be found here.
Rugby Referees required!
Posted by Peter MUIR
If you enjoy sport, why not get some training in referring? not only will you be supporting community sport, it will also provide you will skill and expertise that could at a later stage provide an employment opportunity.
The Hong Kong Schools Rugby Union are looking for Youth Referees to support the upcoming D Grade Boys & Girls Tournaments. Knowledge of the game would be beneficial but not required.
The Hong Kong Society of Rugby Football Union Referees is hosting Level 1 Referee courses on Monday 26 & Tuesday 27 February. You will be required to attend one of these courses. You will then need to referee either of the:
– D Grade Girls Tournaments (Tuesday – 27 February, 6, 13, 20 March)
– D Grade Boys Tournaments (Wednesday – 28 February, 6, 14, 21 March)
All courses and tournaments hosted at King’s Park, with the exception of Tuesday 20 March, which will be hosted at Harrow School.
Discovery College has teams in both competitions so you would travel with the team to and from the venue for these tournaments if you wish.
If you are interested, please email Mr Wilkinson (lawrence.wilkinson
Fundraising opportunity at The Race
Posted by Peter MUIR
This year DC will be hosting The Race, Hong Kong’s premier international Primary school running event, which presents an opportunity to spread awareness ro raise funds for a particular cause that they are involved in.
The Race 2018 is a running race for Year 3 – 6 students. Lots of schools will be involved, with teachers and parents from schools attending. It will take place at DC, Siena Park and the Foreshore on Saturday 10 March 8.00am – 12.30pm
If you are keen to host a booth, organise activities, sell some products or have an idea for something similar, then please email Mr Wilkinson as soon as possible – lawrence.wilkinson@dc.edu.hk
Ark Eden Training Project
Posted by Peter MUIR
Ark Eden is offering an opportunity for students to be trained as an activity leader for their eco-camps. Participants will be trained to manage and lead eco-activities with groups of young children (aged 5 – 11 years) who will attend Ark Eden Holiday Eco-Camps at Easter and Summer. Skills that you will acquire include:
- Leadership
- Management
- Team work and communication
- Effective teaching and learning methods
- Elements of safety required in transporting and managing groups of young children
- Planning, preparing, and logistics for children’s eco-group activities
- Managing resources, setting up and down programs
- Reflecting on process and results
Participants will need to attend a one-day training session and attend five days of the holiday camps. For more details, please email arkeden@gmail.com
Volunteers need – Girls rugby beach festival
Posted by Peter MUIR
A chance to get involved in supporting a community event. Please carefully and critically check the guidelines for Community Engagement / CAS applicable to your year level before adding this to your CE or CAS portfolio.
#MyFreedomDay 2018
Posted by Peter MUIR
CNN is asking students and schools to join them on March 14 for #MyFreedomDay.
The event will involved students from around the world organising events at their school on the day to highlight modern slavery and celebrate freedom.
Right now, 40 million people are trapped in slavery. At least 10 million of those are children. This day aims to develop awareness about this issue.
CNN will feature a selection of student action on CNN TV, CNN.com and CNN Facebook. A few schools will even receive a visit from a CNN correspondent, who will report live from the school.
If you’re doing something to raise awareness of modern slavery, let us know your plans by telling us on Twitter or Instagram, using #MyFreedomDay. (You must be aged 13 or older to post on social media).
Find out more at cnn.com/myfreedom
You can CNN coverage of the 2017 events here.
DE CE groups Sem 2 2018
Posted by Peter MUIR
Now that Semester 2 of the academic year has begun, it’s time to get involved in new CE activities! The CE Captains have worked hard to take each year level’s common interests within the UN Sustainable Development Goals and have started groups for you to join – scroll down to see if some catch your fancy!
For Year 7-8 students
Did you know that oceans absorb about 30 percent of carbon dioxide produced by humans? This enhances the impacts of global warming, especially for marine life. If we don’t change our ways, before long all existing marine life will become extinct. On top of this, future generations would be unable to experience the ideal beach holidays which helps people to let go of all their stress. Nor might they be able to enjoy freshly caught fish, as subsidies for fishing are contributing to the rapid depletion of many fish species and are preventing efforts to save and restore global fisheries. Sign up to join the “Life Below Water” group to help take some small steps to help make a difference for our oceans.
We are losing our forests, and this means animals are losing their habitat. forests are key to combating climate change, protecting biodiversity and the homes of the indigenous population, yet we are losing the equivalent of 27 soccer fields of forest every minute. And eating red meat plays a key role in this! Please come and join the Y7/Y8 “Life on the land” group to take action on this issue
For Year 9-10 students
Children have a right to an education, a quality education. Including learners who are healthy, well-nourished and ready to participate and learn; environments that are healthy, safe, protective and gender-sensitive, and provide adequate resources and facilities; processes through which trained teachers use child-centred teaching approaches in well-managed classrooms and schools and skilful assessment to facilitate learning and reduce disparities. All of which we have the privilege of experiencing, but many don’t. Click HERE to join this group and make a difference.
Imagine you are discriminated against simply because of your gender. Well, this is the reality for many females around the world. For example, why should an employee receive a different salary simply because of their gender? Come on Year 9 or 10 students, sign up HERE to get involved in doing something about Gender equality!
For Year 11-13 students
Everyone agrees that it is a right to have access to health and education, but what if you were denied these necessary services? In developing nations, income inequality increased by 11% between 1990 and 2010 on average. Children in the poorest 20% of the world are 3 times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than children born into richer families. If you are in year 11-13, and believe that this issue needs to be eradicated, you can make a difference by JOINING the UN DC CE Goal 10: “Reduce inequality within and among countries”. Click HERE to learn more!
It is very simple knowledge that once the provider is exploited, producing the resource becomes more difficult. Humans so far have utilized the Earth to the point where we have used up almost all its natural resources. Less than 3% of the Earth’s water is consumable, and 2 2.5% of that freshwater is frozen. And only ⅕ of the energy consumption globally was from renewable resources. We can’t expect our constant needs and demands to be met without taking any action. If YOU are a year 11 or 12, feel free to click HERE to learn more about this issue, and click HERE to sign up to take action.
Opportunity to develop English literacy in Peng Chau
Posted by Peter MUIR
The Holy Family school, a small primary school in Peng Chau, is seeking some volunteers to help its students develop their English language capabilities. This would involve you developing then teaching lessons to 8-10 year old students at the school. Lessons will take place Friday afternoons between February to May. You will need to be committed to leading at least 5 lessons. Lessons will start at 3:00 pm, meaning you would need to leave school at lunch time to take the 2:35pm ferry to Peng Chau. Lessons would finish at 4:00 pm (4:15pm return ferry). You would need to seek permission from your parents and the teacher of the lessons you may miss in order to get involved. Please email Mr Muir (muirp1@dc.edu.hk) if you are interested – only committed students should apply.
GIN852 conference a big success
Posted by Peter MUIR
Over 50 students representing eight schools participated in the GIN852 conference recently. Organised by a group of Discovery College students, the event aimed at providing students with a direct insight into global issues in a Hong Kong context.
GIN, or the Global Issues Network, is a network of students who are passionate to tackle global issues in their communities. The Hong Kong branch of this network, named 852 after the country calling code, hosts a conference annually. This year’s conference theme, BeGIN, provided a number of meanings. Firstly to ‘begin locally, act globally’, reminding us to think about local involvement before looking further abroad. BeGIN also reminds us to embodying the concept of GIN, that is, to consistently be a global citizen.
Part listening, part contributing, the conference saw participating students be involved in a variety of activities to develop their understanding of local issues, and contribute to plans for taking action on these issues.
The conference welcomed six different guest speakers, each of whom delivered an insightful message giving students helpful tips and ideas on how to make a difference. Ranging from a variety of backgrounds their advice still shared a common message – that every action, no matter how small helps, and to start small, start local, and do it with enthusiasm!
Saturday morning saw participants venture out into different locations in Hong kong working with five different community partners – Sunshine Action, Society for Community Organization(SoCO), Green Glass Green, the Home of Love, and Soap Cycling. Each experience provided a different lens to life in Hong Kong, and the significant problems faced by different members of our community. These issues were then investigated further in workshops, each of which allowed students to collaborate on ideas for action.
Congratulations to the following members of the organising committee for their work: Trillian Cheung, Judith Wong, Anoushka Shahi, Christina Chan, and Khusi Rana of year 11, and Letícia Macedo Magalhaes Ayres and Lucy Fillip of Year 12. Discovery College now looks forward to being involved in future GIN852 conferences.
Give a meaningful gift this Christmas
Posted by Peter MUIR
This year the DC CE captains give you the opportunity to give this Christmas by offering Xmas Care Cards.
The Xmas Care Card is where you give a friend or loved one a gift of a donation to a community organisation, who will then use that donation to make a meaningful difference this Xmas.
Rather than adding to our piles of waste and using valuable resources that buying a gift contributes to, or buying something that is not really wanted by the recipient, give a gift that show you care!
How it works
- Choose a community partner you wish to donate to from our list
- Choose the amount you wish to donate
- Make the donation
- Provide the email address of your gift recipient
- Your gift recipient will receive a digital card, indicating that you have given them a caring gift that supports an organisation making a difference in our community
Buy your care card in the school foyer before and after school next week!
Here are the community partners the DC Xmas Care Cards will support this year:
- Soap Cycling’s MEY Program
- Centre for Refugees
- Society for Community Organization (SoCO)
- PUSPADI Bali
- Gawad Kalinga
Soap Cycling’s MEY Program
The MEY (minorities, elderly and youth) Program is Soap Cycling’s new initiative being implemented in Hong Kong with a chief focus on empowering Hong Kong’s disadvantaged youth and elderly.
It aims to utilize the wasted energy and skills of the elderly, and is a step toward fulfilling Soap Cyling’s mission of promoting sustainability, improving hygiene for disadvantaged groups, and developing the next generation of social leadership in Hong Kong.
Soap Cycling’s MEY program will provide employment and training opportunities to those suffering from lack of opportunities. This program will also enrich HK as a whole as it increases community engagement with volunteer sessions, outreach events, and raises awareness of sustainability.
Centre for Refugees
Christian Action’s Centre For Refugees at Chungking Mansions is a well-established service provider assisting some of the 10,000 refugees living in need in HK. The centre relies on donors and sponsors to continue the work that they are doing. Every month they give direct support, including counselling, psychosocial and mental health support shelter, food and clothing to over 500 refugees, and provided continual support to their full database of over 4,000 refugees. Examples of how donated funds can assist include:
- $150 provides a refugee baby or toddler a month’s supply of nappies;
- $500 gives a refugee child the means to attend school for a month;
- $1,600 provides for 100 meals from Hong Kong’s only daily soup kitchen
Society for Community Organization (SoCO)
Society for Community Organization (SoCO) is a registered non-profit making and non-governmental human rights organization for the underprivileged since 1972. Their work for the underprivileged includes supporting caged lodgers, tenants with financial difficulties and living in appalling conditions, street-sleepers, mentally ill patients, and ethnic minorities. Funds donated here will go towards SoCO’s Caged Homes and housing project, and elderly rights project.
PUSPADI Bali
PUSPADI is Bali-based NGO that works in disability rehabilitation, education, training and empowerment organisation, that is committed to working with people with a disability in Bali and Eastern Indonesia.
PUSPADI Bali has helped more than 4,000 of people with physical disabilities in Bali and Eastern Indonesia, to regain control of their life and independence as well as lead productive, fulfilling lives. The organisation’s staff regularly travel out in the field to find more people with a disability in need of prosthetics, orthotics, mobility aids, wheelchairs, or other support.
PUSPADI is a partner in our No Boundaries programme. Donations will be used to support their newly built community centre, and help fund individual clients in helping them gain mobility and independence.
Gawad Kalinga
Gawad Kalinga (translated in English as to “give care”) is a Philippine-based movement that aims to end poverty by first restoring the dignity of the poor. It employs an integrated and holistic approach to empowerment with values-formation and leadership development at its core. The Foundation currently works with over 2,000 communities, one of which we have been working with as a part of our No Boundaries program – Georgetown GK Village in Cavite. Donations will be used to support this community in celebrating Christmas, and go towards their education programmes.
