1. Our Beginning
2. Our Mission and Operation
3. Our Scope of Service
4. Our Future
5. Our Organisation Chart, Project Selection and Financial Procedures
6. Our Past Charimen and Advisers

7.
Our Current Board of Directors and Advisors
8. Our Local Partners

1. Our Beginning





After a medical check-up trip for the students of Guangming Experimental Middle School in Qingyuan by the medical team of Project Concern Hong Kong at the end of 1993, Dr Kim-kwong Chan, one of the team members, took the initiative to found "Friends of Guangming Poverty Alleviation through Education Committee" to support the work of Guangming School.

"Friends of Guangming Poverty Alleviation through Education Committee" was incorporated in 1996 as "Hong Kong Friends of Guangming Association", a charitable organisation with the tax exemption status under Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance.


2. Our Mission and Operation



Friends of Guangming Association focuses on poverty alleviation through education in poor areas in China. Any person who agrees to our mission, and is willing to provide the means to actualise the said mission, may join us as a member, regardless of race, nationality, religion and/or gender. Directors elected at our Annual General Meeting would execute the affairs of the Association, where members would share all other general affairs on a voluntary basis.

All our staff and directors in Hong Kong serve on a voluntary basis, without incurring any administrative cost, in order to distribute our donations fully and directly to our donees. Our directors and members are responsible for their own liaison and travel expenses.

We collaborate with other organisations for the betterment of social and educational development in China. We promote our poverty allevation projects to people in Hong Kong, while also bringing in overseas resources to China.



3. Our Scope of Service


A.
High School Sponsorship for Poverty Alleviation (project completed in 2005)

  • Senior High School Sponsorship (tuition and living expenses): sponsoring all tuition and living expenses for students from the impoverished Northern Guangdong mountainous regions boarding at Guangming Experimental Middle School. A total of 392 sponsored students graduated through 1996-2005, with a lasting impact on close to 400 families.
  • Junior High School Sponsorship (tuition): sponsoring all tuition fees for impoverished students living in Qingyuan city and studying at Guangming School. Around 60 students benefited per annum.



B. Infrastructure for P
overty Alleviation

Over more than ten years, we have raised several million Hong Kong Dollars for various infrastructures in poverty-stricken areas in China, which includes the rebuilding of disadvantaged middle and elementary school facilities. For details (in Chinese), please click here.



C.
Miscellaneous Assistance

We have offered various material forms of assistance in Northern Guangdong, Shaanxi and Yunnan, such as clothings, beddings, teaching equipments, musical instruments, sports equipments, food and books.

Moreover, we have liaised with other organizations in developing their poverty alleviation projects, such as scholarships for tertiary students by Lisac International, English teaching training course by Centre for Cross Cultural Services, First Aid training course by medical team.



D.
Experience Sharing on Poverty Relief in China

Despite our limited resources, we have presented the urgency for poverty alleviation in China to friends far and near, and have arranged volunteers from Hong Kong, Macau and overseas to serve in an array of services (such as training, teaching, visits and medical services), as an attempt to promote international exchanges.

4. Our Future



As Qingyuan and Northern Guangdong have developed drastically over the years, our collaboration with Guangming Experimental Middle School has come to a succesful close (please refer to Newsletter January 2003, available in Chinese). We currently focus on pioneering poverty alleviation initiatives in more remote and poverty-stricken areas, mainly in the Yunnan province.

5. Our Organisation Chart, Project Selection and Financial Procedures

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6. Our Past Chairmen and Advisers
 

Year

Chairman

Adviser(s)

1994-1996

Ms Adelina Wei-kwan Wong

Dr Kim-kwong Chan, Dr Chin-huat Kang

1996-1997

Dr Ken YM Cheung

1997-1999

Dr May MC Cheng

1999-2008
Ms Adelina Wei-kwan Wong
Dr Kim-kwong Chan, Dr May MC Cheng
2008-2010
Dr Kim-kwong Chan
2010-2013
Dr Kim-kwong Chan, Mr Eddie Li
2013-2017
Ms Selma Fong
Mr Eddie Li
2017-2019
Dr Kim-kwong Chan, Mr Eddie Li
2019-2022
Dr Kim-kwong Chan
2022-2023
Mr Jeffrey KK Tang
7. Our Current Board of Directors and Advisers
Dr Kim-kwong Chan
Adviser
Jeffrey Tang
Chairman
Holly Ho
Secretary
Selma Fong
Treasurer
8. Our Local Partners


Our projects are only viable with the help of capable and trustworthy local partners, with whom we have gratefully collaborated over the past two decades. Major partners include:

Qingyuan (1993-2005) - Our pioneer one-to-one high school sponsorship and related projects started in Qingyuan, northern Guangdong with the help of Mr Gao Yong, then principal of the Guangming Experimental Middle School, and his dedicated team of retired teachers. The story was captured in the book Witnesses to Power (Tetsunao Yamamori and Kim-kwong Chan, 2001).

Shaanxi (1996-2013) - More than two dozen projects from pioneering sheep farming, school reconstruction, to counselling teacher training have been successfully implemented with the help of Mr Su Ming, former vice-chairman of Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee of Shaanxi Province. Upon his retirement, Mr Su continued working with us through Shaanxi Soong Ching Ling Foundation of which he was vice-chairman on voluntary terms.

Yunnan - Weixi (2003-2007) - More than a dozen educational projects including literacy classes for adults, were completed in just a few years with the help of Rev Yu Wenliang, head of the Yunnan Protestant Church (i.e. chairman of the TSPM and CCC), for Tibetan, Lisu and various etho-groups.

Yunnan (northwest) (present) - Recent efforts have been focused on serving various humanitarian needs of mountain sojourners through a local social services group in a sensitive manner.


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SU Ming (former vice chairman) and ZHANG Ying (staff)
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