The Lok Man Alice Kwok Integrated Service Centre organised a two-year scheme, “Love Creates Miracles”, since September 2016, to let young people experience the physical difficulties of senior citizens and show care to the elderly. The scheme arranged visits to the elderly and experiential activities for young people. These activities were intended to help young people understand the needs of senior citizens and design tools that would provide them with the support they need, thus facilitating intergenerational harmony.
Funded by the Welfare Council’s “Innovative Service Fund”, the “Love Creates Miracles” scheme has partnered with 12 groups to train over 450 teenagers and serve 320 senior citizens. The scheme proved to be a success: it collected more than 330 blueprints and was concluded with a ceremony in the afternoon of 30th June at the H.K.S.K.H. St James’ Church. Fifteen mock-up elder-friendly aids were exhibited in the ceremony to showcase young people’s brainchild and loving hearts. Also, the scheme’s participants, Dr James Cheung, Senior Scientific officer of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Mr Brian Lee, Assistant Professor of the School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and two young inventors were invited to lead discussions on the topics, with a view to enhancing young people’s understanding towards the needs of senior citizen and gerontechnology.
During the ceremony, Alex from the Kowloon Tong School (Secondary Section) and Adrian from the Diocesan Boys’ School shared with guests their experiences in the scheme. They said that through home visits they had plenty of time to chat with elders and found out more problems encountered by them on a day-to-day basis, which gave them inspiring ideas for designing suitable elder-friendly aids. Wearing special suits that mimic the physical difficulties of senior citizens was also a unique experience to Alex and Adrian as it allowed them to feel the challenges of ageing. Alex hoped their products could put into production so as to benefit the elderly. Meanwhile, singleton elderly Uncle Cheung applauded students for their innovative ideas. Cheung shared his opinions of the designs to help young people improve on the products. He also encouraged students to think outside the box for more creative elder-friendly devices.
During the discussion session, Yip Po-ying and Choi Pui-lam, awardees of the third place award in chemistry of the 69th Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, told us their path to science & research and belief. Dr James Cheung, meanwhile, introduced some advanced biomedical technological tools supporting senior citizens, bringing fresh ideas to young people interested in developing elder-friendly products. At the end of the discussion, Professor Brian Lee taught guests about design thinking and innovative designs. Brian commended the scheme for adopting a person-centered approach in designing elder-friendly aids. For instance, it arranged experiential activities for young people to understand the needs of elderly while inviting senior citizens to participate in the design process, all of which could add a human touch to the final products.
The organiser also presented awards to participating schools, groups and young people to encourage them to go the extra mile on their design concepts in order to create an age-friendly society.
