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October 1999

Breakthrough - Dr. Choi Yuen Wan
Practising medicine was nice, but helping teenagers is nicer

By Pete Yeung

Another article from this beat:
Leung Shou Chi - The Engine Behind South China Soccer

After graduating from medical school, some of the graduates will work in hospitals; some of them will set up their own clinics. But there was a medical graduate who left his profession 25 years ago went to work for Hong Kong's teenagers.

Meet Dr. Philemon Choi Yuen wan, the general secretary and psychological counselor of Breakthrough Organisation. He is also one of the founders of the organisation.

All the staff working in the Breakthrough Organisation are Christians, and so is Dr. Choi.

Dr. Choi has long been in touch with this religion, as he studied in a Christian primary school for about 1 year in his childhood.

During his year of Form 6, Dr. Choi acquired a new friend, and this friend stimulated Dr. Choi's thinking about life.

Said Dr. Choi: "He is a very serious person. He had already decided to be a doctor when I met him the first time.

"He always thought of the meaning of life and we always discussed the riddles in our lives, such as creation, evolution, the nature of humans or anything concerning the world."

As a result, Dr. Choi began to read many books about religion and life. Finally, Dr. Choi concluded that the existence of The Bible was not an accident, there really was historic evidence to prove the stories.

"I found that The Bible was somehow more reasonable than some theories of science, such as evolution, so I finally became a Christian," Dr. Choi said.

His religion also influenced his choice of career. He said: "My belief asked me to choose something which could help as many people as possible.

"Actually, I did not think of my choice seriously at that moment. I simply felt that I was interested in medicine and being a doctor could help many people."

Unfortunately, Dr. Choi failed to enter the medical school at the University of Hong Kong.

"This failure created an impact for me and made me consider this matter more seriously," he said.

After this, Dr. Choi studied in the Hong Kong Institution of Education for 1 year.

"I found that I was quite interested in education," Dr. Choi said. "But my family noticed that I was still interested in medicine, so they supported my choice and sent me to Canada to study there."

Dr. Choi mentioned that he was not so hard working in secondary school.

However in Canada, Dr. Choi met a group of medical students who were about to graduate. They changed Dr. Choi's studying attitude.

Said Dr. Choi: "They studied very hard and enjoyed very much what they were learning. Their happiness in study impressed me a lot."

As a result, Dr. Choi studied very hard in those days and finally managed to enter medical school.

After graduating from medicine, he spent 5 years as a doctor. "I was very happy in those days because I actually helped many people from all walks of life," said Dr. Choi.

When he was working in the hospital, he had to see lots of patients. He found that when people were facing death, they began to worry about where they would go after death and what the meanings of their whole lives were.

This had another impact on Dr. Choi.  He said, "During the days in medical school, no one taught me about the meaning of life, where people came from and where people would go after death. In my opinion, these were the ultimate questions in our lives.

"Moreover, I noticed that 80 percent of Hong Kong patients were not physically ill.  Most of them were psychosomatically ill which originated internally from stress.  Thus just giving them medication could not cure them.  hat they need was psychological counseling.

"Furthermore, everyone has his own drive to push himself, no matter whether it was conscious or unconscious. I wanted to know what was driving me in my life consciously, so I left my career as a medical doctor and studied psychology."

After studying psychology, Dr. Choi spent some time on theology, studying the nature and philosophy of religions.

Sitting in his office full of books of psychology and philosophy, Dr. Choi recalled the days when he set up the Breakthrough Organisation.

When Dr. Choi was working part-time in the Evangel Hospital in To Kwa Wan, as he knew the principal of the nearby P.C. Lau. Memorial School nearby, and he was always invited to speak to the students. This developed Dr. Choi's interest in teenagers.

Dr. Choi said: "I like to talk with teenagers as they are in the prime time of their lives. They are creative, energetic and have a lot of potential. I like to discuss the things which are not taught in schools or issues that are seldom discussed in class.

"And the Breakthrough Organisation is a platform for youths to say whatever they like."

Thus Dr. Choi and a group of his friends who were also interested in teenagers' affairs set up the Breakthrough Organisation.

At the beginning, Dr. Choi worked part-time in the hospital, he continued his study and work in the Organisation.

It seems that when Dr. Choi worked as full-time in the Breakthrough Organisation, skills learnt from medical school were left behind and wasted.

But Dr. Choi said the skills he learny in medical school were not wasted, because the training in medical school not only provided the skills and knowledge tp become a doctor, but also trained him to think and gave him personal discipline.

"The training allowed me to have different points of view in understanding people.

"This helps me handle the work in the organisation, as it facilitate communication if I can understand the teenagers more," Dr. Choi said.

There is one major idea that drives Dr. Choi to spend so much effort on teenagers.

Dr. Choi believes that "There is a leader in everyone."

Dr. Choi said that every teenager has some potential awaiting to be explored. Once explored, everyone could become a leader.

Also, Dr. Choi had a second belief for teenagers: "Never give up."

Here is an example: A young girl who had got anorexia nervosa, one kind of psychological disorder, entered the Breakthrough Youth Village for help.

At the beginning, she refused to eat anything.  The workers in the village tried their best to help this girl and finally discovered the reason for the disorder had to do with the girl's realtionship with her parents.

The girl lived in the village for about 1 year and left.

Even Dr. Choi wondered if the treatment was successful or not as the girl was still very thin when she left.

To his surprise, Dr. Choi met this girl again at a function of the organisation and found that her weight had increased a lot.

The girl gave a letter to Dr. Choi at the end of the function, thanking him and all the workers who had helped her before.

In the letter, she told Dr. Choi that she had solved her problem deep in her heart and recovered her appetite.

Dr. Choi said that this response was worth 25 years of effort in the organisation.

He said: "At least we have tried our best and accompanied many teenagers to walk along part of their lives.

"My hope is to communicate with every young person walking on the street and I hope the organisation can help me to achieve this goal."

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