Spring Issue, 2014

SERVICE 100 80 Wishing Well in Kenya It is often rightly said that experience is the best teacher. But this may well be an understatement if such an experience involves a journey into the “unknown”. When you throw knowledge-exchange into the mix, then perhaps the person who said “education and travel are the best teachers” was more accurate. This rang eerily true for 15 HKU students who set out last summer to a deprived rural village called Kogacho in Homa Bay County, Kenya. The village is unique in many ways. For one, it is home to some of the most jovial people we have ever met. However, its poverty levels are north of 90%, and it has an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of over 14%, easily one of the highest in Africa. In this village, nearly everyone has lost a relative to HIV and countless more to malaria and other illnesses. We are connected to the village in a special way; it is home to Erick K’Omolo, a PhD student in the Faculty of Law. Erick is also the first person from his village to ever acquire a university degree. Erick had told us that in Kogacho there is a desperate need for clean and convenient water, and that the women have to walk 2-5 kilometres a day to fetch water. So armed with no more than a conviction that every step counts, we committed to a 12-day trip during which we would construct what would be the village’s only safe water facility, and give a donation of books to several community schools that support HIV/AIDS and other vulnerable orphans. First, we had to overcome our biggest hurdle – mobilising funds. We divided into two core teams; the first team focusing on the water project and a second team for the education part. We went knocking on door after door for financial support from HKU professors, a few hospitals and, you guessed it, major companies. We quickly learnt that fundraising is, perhaps, the toughest challenge for young people armed only with ideas. Although the companies ignored our e-mails, we raised HK$25,900 primarily from individual donations. With HK$15,000 from the HKU Service 100 Fund, we set out to change a village on a very limited total budget of HK$40,900. All participants agreed to meet their individual expenses and Erick would host us in his village hut! After arriving in the capital Nairobi, we journeyed 360 kilometres by road to Kogacho where we were met by the darkness of the African wilderness. Gordon Tsui 徐澤邦 (MEd 2013) Jeffrey Chau 周鴻傑 (MBBS Year 3)