Transformational Service-Learning

In summer 2016, we started taking teams of students on service-learning projects away from Hong Kong.  At first, we went to small cities and towns in central China, in Hubei province. Then small towns in remote northwest China in Gansu province.  Then urban and rural Cambodia.  Then rural Rwanda.  As time goes on, we take up more and more challenging, impactful, innovative projects.  In this summer (2023) the team installed solar panels to provide electricity for 400 households, which has never had electricity before - no meaningful artificial lighting after dark, ever. 

These summer excursions has become the highlights of our year, year after year.  For the students, as well as the teaching and support team.  I have read hundreds and hundreds of student journals and reports. I have led and participated in hundreds of reflection sessions with students and staff.  I have also reflected on my own experience, many times.  I keep asking myself - WHY?  Why do I enjoy them so much?  Why do I keep going again and again on these projects (30+ so far)?  Why do I keep going to the same place, for similar projects, albeit with different teams?  

One of the biggest emotions associated with these excursions is Feeling Alive! You are working on something with a clear, noble purpose.  You are working with a group of people with the same purpose.  You are achieving something that you would not be able to accomplish by yourself. You are working on something bigger than yourself.  You are achieving something that you feel proud to share with people whose opinion you value.   You feel this is what God would want you to do.  You are overcoming a challenge that takes significant effort.  You prove to yourself that you are capable of hard work.  You show character by suffering hardship.  You are making friends with people from far away places, with very different cultures, very different languages, very different beliefs - religious and otherwise.  You forget you are Hong Kong Chinese, Mainland Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian, South African, Indian, Nepalese, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Rwandan, Tanzanian, …   You forget you are Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, …  You don’t actually forget, but you feel that it does not matter.  

At the same time, you also escape from some debilitating environments - phoney people, people telling bold face lies, people selling their souls for power and money, people who feel they are more important than what they really are, bigots, tyrants, selfish people, bullies, cowards, people who want to occupy a high position without putting up the requisite effort, cruel people, selfish people, …  

For a short period of one to two weeks, issues are straightforward.  There may be some concern whether and how we can achieve the target.  But there is no doubt that what we are doing are beneficial for the community.  Everyone we come into contact with agree with the purpose - fellow teachers and students, local NGO partners, local community.  Everyone is working hard towards the same goal.  Your efforts and achievements are actually acknowledged.  People are actually kind to each other.  How often do we encounter that on any given day in our daily lives? In Hong Kong?  Elsewhere? 

Service-Learning, when done right, has that power to highlight what is important to us, focus our attention, unify our minds, and purify our souls.