HK unites in fight against poverty

"Children who are impoverished and poor in their studies are often neglected by the education system. They are often lost, having no clue and feeling abandoned. I want to give them a hand," Chan said.

Once a week, volunteer teachers give one-hour one-on-one tutorials to students at fast food restaurants, community centers and other public areas near the teachers' and students' homes.

Ng and her tutor spend 15 minutes going over her homework. The rest of the time is spent studying English.

Lam's tutoring covers listening, speaking, reading and writing. On the day China Daily visited, Lam was instructing the girl on identifying topic sentences in text.

"The topic sentence is often the first sentence of a paragraph. Usually, it is the summary of the whole paragraph," Lam told Ng. The girl used a marker pen to underscore such sentences, and got two correct.

She has been under Lam's guidance for more than a year, and her grade has risen from D to C

Ng presented Lam with a card she had drawn in crayon, showing a house, with herself and the tutor holding hands. The Chinese characters for "thank you" were inscribed on the card.

Chan, 51, said: "We want to give hope to poor students. We want them to learn that they are not stuck, or being neglected. We want them to see there is a road leading forward, and there are people to accompany them." He now manages two centers that provide tutoring to underprivileged children.

Patience and a willingness to commit to at least three months' service are required of volunteer teachers. The level of schooling is a secondary consideration-apart from the stipulation that volunteers must have completed senior secondary education, or higher.

Chan repeatedly tells volunteer teachers they are under no pressure to produce remarkable academic progress in their students.

"Free tutorials are remedial, rather than for enhancement. Therefore, the most important thing is that the volunteers should let the students think they are capable of handling their studies and, further, their lives," he said.

Up to January, pairings of volunteer teachers and students had reached 12,441. Still, some 3,000 students have applied for the service, but no volunteers are available to help them.

Chan's goal for this year is to hold a fundraiser in the hope of collecting HK$400,000. That would go toward hiring more staff members to do the behind-the-scenes work of matching students with volunteer teachers. It would also be used to promote the service and "spread the word" in the hope more volunteers would come forward.

Beating poverty is a community effort. No single agency or entity is capable of turning the tide. Taking an optimistic view, there is hope, as Hong Kong is a city that takes pride in its warmhearted people.