SCMP Interviews Students Thanking Frontline Workers

Part of the student-led initiative ‘Colour Away Covid’,

A group of Island School students are sending messages of gratitude to front line health care workers. Their ‘Thank you Postcard’ campaign is a city wide, student-led initiative, following on from the ‘Colour Away Covid’ project. They talked to the South China Morning Post about the project.

Their project has two main goals: to raise awareness about mental health issues and self-care in particular, and to thank frontline hospital workers.

Yu Hang (12R), one of the leaders of the project explains, “The idea started in September last year.  We originally wanted to send e-postcards but soon decided it was more meaningful if we could involve as many people as possible.  We also felt that there was no platform for people to thank them [the frontline workers] in Hong Kong.”

To create that platform the team: developed external partnerships, pitched for funding and marketed the final production. The team worked with various schools and organisations in Hong Kong, including Kids4Kids Actions for a Cause Programme (AFAC) and Bookazine. They spent 12 weeks in three Bookazine stores and collected over 1200 postcards written by the general public.

“We were overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm that the public showed. We only printed 1700 postcards at the beginning and soon realised we needed to print more!  The postcard stalls we set up in the bookstores were really popular, so we needed to text our friends for help!”

In the interview with SCMP, Mabel Sieh, Executive Director at Kids4Kids explained why the Charity supported the initiative.

“We supported the ‘Colour Away Covid’ postcard project because it was a simple yet positive idea, allowing members of the public to pay tribute to our frontline workers who have done so much for the city but are under-recognised. With the AFAC funding, they can turn their community project ideas into reality.”

The team added contact information for the Samaritans and Mind HK (mental health support groups) to each postcard.

As the project progresses to the final stage, the team will be sending 2500 postcards to 17 hospitals and the fire stations in Hong Kong.

Team Members:

Shawn Chan (12N), Yu Hang Hui (12R), Yuka Suzuki (12R) from Island School, and Yau Yau Tsang from RCHK

Read the interview in full here .

Note: ‘Colour Away Covid’ is a project founded by Island School alumni and now includes alumni and students from across the English Schools Foundation.