The Review 2014

THE REVIEW 2014 ⎜ 17 Service Learners and Providers Service learning is a fixture on campus. Students, faculties and the Centre of Development and Resources for Students (CEDARS) all initiate service projects that, while not specifically tied to disciplinary studies, still offer meaningful and instructive experiences. The student projects are often organised in poorer areas of Asia, and CEDARS is helping them enhance their impact. It has provided training workshops on building lavatories and hand- washing facilities in rural settings, and in 2014 teamed up with Shanghai Jiaotong University to enable students to continue serving a community after they had visited. The students joined a project at a rural secondary school in Yunnan and later maintained formal contact with the students there, so as to provide them with a window on the wider world. Service learning can also conjoin with the curriculum, as a project in Pokfulam illustrated in 2013-14. Initially, the project involved Landscape Architecture students, who were working on an experiential learning project on village enhancement. They made drawings and took photos, created a detailed village map, and organised a workshop with the villagers to understand their needs and aspirations. The results were included in two external exhibitions. Around the same time, funding also became available for a service project and it was decided, with input from the villagers, to earmark the money for painting village roofs (see opposite). Some 40 houses were selected for painting and about 200 student volunteers helped to carry out the work. Projects like these provide opportunities for students to experience the value and reward of using their expertise and labour to help improve communities, in Hong Kong and elsewhere. For many centuries, fishing families were the main inhabitants of Hong Kong Island. Yet today most people know little about them. HKU students have joined a project that seeks to educate the community about the unique way of life of the city's fisherfolk. With funding from HKU's We Are With You Project, under which the Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation donated $10 million to support social capital development in Southern District, students helped to organise guided boat tours around Aberdeen to introduce visitors to the local fishing community. They also produced a brochure on the fishing community and its vessels, and organised three workshops on fishing life and fisheries. Retired fishermen were also recruited to help share their knowledge with participants. The project was carried out in summer 2014 and BSc student Sam Leung Ka-ming was one of the student guides. He said he learned how to organise workshops, and he learned more about his city. "I knew that Hong Kong used to be a fishing village but I had no idea about the history of the industry and what the life of a fisherman was like. I was able to learn more about the culture of this special population in Hong Kong." As part of the site and research phase of the Pokfulam Village rooftop painting design project, a group of Landscape Architecture research assistants also took the opportunity to create a high resolution composite photograph of the village using grassroots mapping techniques – a 1.5-metre diameter weather balloon. This shot of HKU students and villagers painting roofs was one of the over 10,000 images they captured in five balloon launches from various parts of the village. Learning about Life on Our Doorstep A Bigger Perspective on a Small Community Sam Leung Rooftop painting in Pokfulam Village. Teaching and Learning