As a social enterprise promoting cultural education in the community, WEDO GLOBAL was able to offer Rai Jenny an internship which let her help others enhance their understanding of the lives of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. But the experience also motivated her to become a role model for young South Asians living in the city.
To showcase Hong Kong's cultural diversity, Rai, whose family hails from Nepal, helped in compiling reports and contributed Instagram posts to illustrate the lives of people from South Asian backgrounds, particularly Pakistani and Nepali, as they went about their daily business around town. This was an eye-opening experience which made use of technical skills and knowledge acquired in the classroom. “The research I conducted focused on several interesting aspects of these cultures, including their cuisines and festivities,” she says. “This information can be very educational. For instance, the accompanying text for images about Nepal includes such information as a list of dos and don'ts for visitors to the country.”
This work saw Rai moving around the city to explore small ethnic communities in different neighbourhoods, such as “Little Nepal” in Jordan. “I learned more about my own culture too,” she says. ”There are specialist grocery shops, travel agencies, and clothes and accessory retailers in the district, which I hadn't been aware of before.” After completing the basic research, Rai put together reports and a PowerPoint presentation to inform her supervisor about her findings and the stories behind her posts. Working independently most of the time, she learned to solve problems on the spot and realised the importance of paying close attention to detail during each assignment.
Rai's time with WEDO GLOBAL also included some projects designed to promote integration of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. For instance, she researched, designed, and then led a guided tour for primary school students – some of them from minority groups – to the Pakistani community in Sham Shui Po. She also volunteered to be part of a tour for both local and ethnic minority children, which visited Tai Kwun, the centre for heritage and arts in Central. The tour was organised in collaboration with Octopus Cards. “This part of the internship also called for me to speak in front of a group of ethnic minority students and share my experience of learning Cantonese,” she says. “I encouraged them to do that if they want to pursue tertiary education in Hong Kong. Overall, I feel the internship empowered me and inspired me to become a role model for South Asian children living here.”
