Lighting up the lives of “hard-to-reach” elderly

A blessing from her grandpa, Eileen’s Chinese name carries the meaning of overcoming difficulties and achieving a bright future. She recalls that grandpa was an aspirational and educated man. Keen to open an art and design school in Shanghai, he devoted his time, energy and money to the project, but the journey has been very difficult due to the lack of a sustainable business model. His difficulties prompted Eileen to switch from science to business studies after taking her public exams. Sadly, her grandpa passed away before she became the top graduate of her school. Now whenever she has to make important decisions in life, she still remembers grandpa’s advice, “Be passionate about what you do. It doesn't matter so much whether history remembers you”.

Taking a Global Business Studies programme at university, most graduates either became investment bankers or consultants for multinational corporations. “The Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholarship gave me a lot of opportunities to explore what is happening in the world – I didn’t have to worry about earning money from tutorial work,” she recalls. Eventually, having organised a school volunteer team and experienced overseas exchange programmes, as well as internships with multinational corporations and social enterprises, she found her direction in life. Rather than chasing after money and fame, she wanted to bring positive changes to society. After graduation, she worked in the government, before joining the Charities Department of the Club where she proactively got involved in various social projects and tried to fill gaps left by insufficient resources.

Serving the elderly has always been Eileen’s mission. Now responsible for a project to engage and support “hard-to-reach” elderly, she notes that in Hong Kong, there are almost 130,000 elderly singletons and doubletons who do not have sufficient social support, requiring significant manpower and resources. Society has to connect with these seniors to help them access the social resources for improving their lives and health. “All of us will become seniors one day, if we are lucky enough,” Eileen points out. “We all have significant senior figures in our lives; to me, it’s been my grandpa and grandma.” With the ageing population, she hopes more people in society will pay attention to this issue and let Hong Kong's seniors live with dignity.