News

Winners of the Social Innovation Video Competition were revealed earlier. How did they come up with the concepts? The three winning teams were invited to an interview by the radio programme “笑容從家開始” of RTHK Radio 5 to share what triggered their ideas and how they thought about poverty problems. Accompanying them was Mrs Patricia Lau from the SIE Fund Task Force Secretariat, who was also one of the adjudicators for the Competition. Mrs Lau recapped the objective of the Competition and commended the students’ innovative ideas. Click here to listen to the interview (audio clip in Cantonese only), then you may understand more about the videos.

Chinese New Year is just a few days ahead. Festive mood is surging. While you may have planned for the holiday already, the SIE Fund Task Force is still working in high gear. Joined by three new members, the first meeting of the second term Task Force was held on 12 February. Progress of the Fund’s projects was reviewed and future development of the Fund discussed. Stay tuned for the latest news about our programmes.

A course on social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy run by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School has started recently. The course is held in collaboration with one of SIE Fund’s intermediaries-to-be, the Yeh Family Philanthropy Limited, and with funding support from the Fund. It aims to provide students with opportunities to work with social enterprises on poverty alleviating projects delivering social values and business sustainability. At its first session held on 7 February, Mrs Patricia Lau from the Fund’s secretariat was invited to give a welcome speech and introduce the Fund.

To help people have a better understanding of social entrepreneurship and consider it as a future career, a seminar ‘Social Entrepreneur - A Career That Makes A Difference’ was held in the 25th Education & Careers Expo.  Mr. Wayne Chau , Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Agent of Change Company Limited was invited to share his experience in starting a social enterprise. While Mr. Gary Tang, Supervisor of The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups talked about the general trend of social entrepreneurship. Around thirty people attended the seminar.

Advocates and practitioners of social innovation worldwide are striving to turn ideas into results. The SIE Fund is keen to learn from these experts. Mrs Chris Sigaloff, the director of Kennisland which is an independent think tank in the Netherlands, was invited by the SIE Fund secretariat to share her experience in turning ideas into fruitful projects. Two talks were held on 2 February, focusing on engaging stakeholders in the education field and in the public sector respectively. The talks were attended by about 80 participants including school principals, representatives from education institutions and civil servants from different government bureaux and departments.