Underprivileged explore
potential sailing at sea

The Adventure-Ship offers many activities for young people of all abilities. (Antony Tam)

By Antony Tam

Under the blazing sun, students with mild disabilities from The Salvation Army Shek Wu School climbed onboard Huan, a traditional sailboat that helps the underprivileged build up confidence and enhance their self-esteem.

Ho Shu Ming, senior coxswain, greeted the students and said, “The ship is a remarkable classroom at sea.”

Enhancing self-confidence is one of the main objectives of the program.

In the program, students climbed up a rope ladder and crawled on a boom three meters above the main deck.

The next activity was acrobatic swinging, which tested a student’s self-reliance.

Each student held onto a ring tightly, stood at the edges of the deck, and swung in the air, over the deep blue sea.

Mr. Ho said, “These activities help students break through some psychological obstacles.

“Sometimes, intuition can affect a person’s judgment. Participants can actually accomplish tasks they considered impossible.

“Thus, they learn to face a problem instead of escaping from it.”

Learning to work together is the second objective of the program.

Each student had the chance to steer the ship and weigh anchor. Weighing anchor required everyone’s combined strength.

“Without the coordination of the crew members, teachers and students, it would have been impossible to pull it up,” said Mr. Ho

The emergency bell rang when students were listening to Mr. Ho.

Some students rushed to the lower deck to get life jackets and passed them to others on the main deck.

Mr. Ho said to the students, “I am impressed that all of you could keep calm as soon as the bell rang.

“Being teammates, you must take care of others who have difficulties in wearing the jacket; otherwise, in a real sea disaster, some lives would not be rescued.”

Fostering community spirit is the third objective of the program.

Executive Director Mimi Yeung said the Buddies Program offers interaction between volunteers and young people with special needs.

Each volunteer is grouped with one or two disabled buddies and they take part in various sea training activities.

Over the last decade, volunteers included social workers, high school students and police graduates. Recently, though, academic underachievers have been encouraged to take part.

Students of New Territories Heung Yee Kuk Southern District Secondary School have actively participated in the program.

Michael Mak, a student volunteer, said the program helped him ease misconceptions he had about the disabled.

“Before, I thought they were passive and couldn’t take care of themselves.

“But I found out that some of them are even more talkative and courageous than us,” he said.

Dorothy Wong, another student volunteer, agreed. She was impressed by her buddies’ bravery.

“I was frightened when attempting the acrobatic swing, because I don’t know how to swim. However, my buddies encouraged me and helped me conquer my fear.

“They are brave and nice. I don’t understand why they are often discriminated against.”

Daniel Yau, vice chairman of Adventure-Ship, has been a volunteer for 19 years.

He joined the Adventure-Ship Youth Association in 1984 and became a member of the board of directors in 1990.

He has helped many people, including the blind, the mentally disabled, as well as juvenile delinquents.

Despite his own disability, he often takes part in water sports such as canoeing and swimming.

Mr. Yau suffers from polio, an acute viral disease marked by the inflammation of the brain stem and spinal cord. He said, “Success does not depend mainly on physical abilities. Instead, positive attitudes count more.”

Throughout his life, the disabled gave him the most unforgettable feeling.

Mr. Yau said, “One disabled teenager was always accompanied with his parents since his birth.

“After the training, his parents realized that it might be wrong to overprotect him.

“Where there is a will, there is a way.”

Looking towards the future, he said, “I hope that more underprivileged can benefit.”

 

Left: A disabled student attempts the acrobatic swing to test self-reliance. Right: Youths aboard a boat escape a mock sea disaster. (Antony Tam)

Huan helps 150,000 youths

By Antony Tam

Huan was originally owned by three adventurous Euro-peans living in Hong Kong.

They planned to turn the ship into a luxury cruise liner. However, due to high operating costs, the trio were forced to sell the ship.

In January 1977, Dr. Philip Ney, a visiting professor of child psychiatry at The University of Hong Kong, bought Huan and turned it into a floating classroom.

Adventure-Ship was registered as a charitable organization in 1977. Her maiden sea voyage was in February 1978, with a group of underprivileged children. It became the first sailing program for youths in Hong Kong.

Initially, target groups included church groups, children in orphanage homes and juvenile delinquents.

However, over the last decade, one- third of the participants were either mentally or physically disabled youths.

The Adventure-Ship Youth Association was set up in 1979 to train young adults to work on the ship and be good volunteers.

In 1996, the ship started a Buddies Program to encourage people to help the underprivileged in Hong Kong.

In Huan’s 26 years of service, it is estimated that over 150,000 youths have taken part in its intensive and challenging activities.

Daniel Yau, vice chairman of Adventure-Ship, said the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has donated $24 million to build a new ship called Jockey Club Huan to replace the Huan in winter 2004.

The new ship will operate next year so that more new and challenging education programs can be offered soon.

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