Thank you for making OneSky’s 2024 Gala a success
Thank you for making OneSky’s 2024 Gala a success! Whether you attended in person or supported the event in another way, your commitment to quality care and education for vulnerable young children is clear.
At this year’s Hong Kong gala, we embraced the theme of “Planting Seeds of Hope: Cultivate, Nurture, Elevate” which raised vital funds for quality early childhood care and education so young children can grow and thrive.
With your support, more children will receive care that helps build resilience, curiosity and hope. Let’s continue to cultivate, nurture and elevate every child we serve. Thank you again for helping to make our 2024 Gala such a joyous occasion!
Every dollar makes a difference in young lives for years to come. Please donate to support OneSky.
Special thanks to our sponsors︰
DIAMOND SPONSORS
SILVER SPONSOR
CRYSTAL SPONSORS
SUPPORTERS
AUCTION PRIZE SPONSORS
SOUVENIR SPONSORS
OneSky Joins CoolPlay STEAM Carnival As Green Warrior
Children can discover STEAM —science, technology, engineering, arts, and math —by getting hands-on in their everyday life. The P. C. Lee OneSky Global Centre held two fun workshops at VESSEL on the Kwun Tong Promenade in mid-June, in which the workshops were designed to get children creating and learning, while helping caregivers support the children’s learning, growth, and emotional needs.
The STEAM Carnival is part of the CoolPlay Project supported by the Jockey Club, co-organized by YCCECE and Hong Kong Christian Service. At the carnival, OneSky’s Green Warrior team set up two activities: making seed bombs and eco-printing. These activities are designed to spark children’s creativity through sensory play, deepen their connection with nature, and inspire caregivers to respond to the development and emotional needs of children.
Creating seed bombs from recycled paper is not only fun but also an educational opportunity for children to get messy, feel different textures, and see how seeds sprout. They can also connect with nature in their daily life by using flowers and leaves to dye handkerchiefs with beautiful colors from nature.
OneSky promotes interaction with the young children through asking questions and keep an open mind. Caregivers can ask questions such as how do you make paper pulps? What helps seeds grow well? How can we get the best print on the cloth? Or, what are you feeling as you do this? This way, children and caregivers can grow and learn together, and form a closer bond.
Click here for more details of the activity.
OneSky Launches Respite Care Services for Caregivers
OneSky launches respite care services for caregivers. The service aims at helping caregivers to manage unexpected or urgent matters, alleviating their stress, and providing temporary care for children in a safe and child-friendly environment.
Parents or caregivers often find it challenging in caring for their children when unexpected situations arise, such as illness, medical appointments, job interviews, or other unforeseen family duties.
OneSky’s respite care service targets caregivers of children aged 0-8 years old. Our Early Childhood Development Trainers and trained OneSky Community Helpers are responsible for caring for the children. Activity slots such as play time, washroom time, lunch and snacks will be provided, catering to the needs of caregivers and ensuring children are taken care of in a suitable environment. Spaces are limited. Interested members please contact us for more information.
Details:
Date: Monday to Friday (Closed on public holidays)
Time: Two sessions – 9:45 AM to 12:45 PM and 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Location: P.C. Lee OneSky Global Centre for Early Childhood Development
Target audience: Caregivers of children aged 0-8 years old
Application:
- Users should register online one week in advance
- Every Monday at 12:00 PM: The center opens the reservation form for the following week;
- Every Friday at 6:00 PM: Deadline for registration;
- Saturday before 5:00 PM: Successful registrants will receive confirmation via WhatsApp.
Fee: Free of charge (excluding lunch)
Click this link for inquiries
Join OneSky to access our facilities and services.
Learn more: https://hkcentre.onesky.org/family-application-login-zh-hant/
Respite care service is generously sponsored by Fu Tak lam Foundation.
OneSky Spreads Love at Come Phil Festival
OneSky Spreads Love at Come Phil Festival P.C. Lee OneSky Global Centre is excited to be a part of the Come Phil Festival, the first large-scale street carnival in Sham Shui Po. Over 5,000 people joined the event, and OneSky had the pleasure of setting up a specially designed booth game called “Throw Your Love.” […]
OneSky Promotes Responsive Care And Everyday Learning Through Play at the STEAM Carnival
Co-organized with the Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education’s Jockey Club ‘CoolPlay’ Project, OneSky organized a parent-child STEAM Carnival at VESSEL, Kwun Tong Promenade. The aim was to encourage families to apply responsive care through STEAM play in their daily lives in order to strengthen their relationships with young children.
The event received an overwhelming response. Over 300 families participated in the Fun Fair. Family Mentors designed a game counter, “OneSky Rescue Team”, with three STEAM experiments about water and air. Caregivers and their children were able to explore the world of science as well as foster interpersonal development in children.
OneSky hopes to work with more organizations and community partners in providing diverse parenting education support, promoting the importance of parenting education, and encouraging caregivers to learn through play with their children.
The event attracted over 700 participants by ten inspirational and fun STEAM-themed game counters.
Family Mentors invited caregivers and children to be “OneSky rescue team”, demonstrating their creativity and problem-solving skills in finding suitable tools to create small balloons and save Sparkie and Comfie who fell down from the dragon boat. They searched for missing puzzles in a pool with different sensory objects, observed how the objects reacted in water, and learnt the concepts of sinking and floating. The games applied the responsive care approach which was developed from Reggio Emilia Approach, and encouraged caregivers and children to explore and learn through play.
OneSky Family Mentors prepared liquid in different densities at “Sparkie Tower Workshop”. Families were encouraged to observe and join the experiments while caregivers responded and assisted their children.
Engaging with Community Partners to better serve our community
The P. C. Lee OneSky Global Centre for Early Childhood Development continues to feel the effect of the pandemic’s fifth wave, which has battered Hong Kong’s economy and society.
The Centre has been doing its best to serve low-income families living in Sham Shui Po, despite the closure of face-to-face services due to Covid-19. Family Mentors have continued to provide innovative support to vulnerable families virtually. And now, they are also collaborating with like-minded organizations and institutions to provide continued parenting education support and promote responsive practices.
Online parenting skills sharing on language and emotional development
OneSky’s training team organized online parenting skills workshops entitled “Combating Intergeneration Addiction 2.0,” sponsored by Beat Drug Fund. Early Childhood Trainers introduced responsive ways to foster children’s growth on language and emotional ability through games and storytelling.
Online workshop for early childhood professionals
OneSky and Jockey Club CoolPlay Project of Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education (YCCECE) joined hands to invite kindergarten principals, in-service and pre-service teachers and early childhood educators, to exchange ideas on early childhood education, enlightenment and development during an online workshop.
Over 130 participants from more than 75 organisations attended the event. Dr Wen Zhao, Senior Program Advisor of OneSky, explained the relationship-based education philosophy of responsive practice, while Susanna Lee, Executive Director of OneSky’s Global Centre, introduced the application of responsive practice through the Centre’s activities, environment and program design. After a discussion on STEM’s integration into daily lives by the Jockey Club CoolPlay Project team, participants discussedthe feasibility of applying the pedegogy in early childhood professional development. OneSky and YCCECE will collaborate again to provide YCCECE students with a sharing session, and to offer OneSky families a STEM workshop, followed by joining a parent-child carnival in May.
Exchange on professional practice with postgraduate students
An exchange on responsive practice and its application was held for postgraduate students from the Education University of Hong Kong. It illustrated how OneSky helps vulnerable children reach their potentials at welfare institutions in mainland China and at the Centre in Hong Kong. By collaborating with institutions and organizations, OneSky hopes to promote a professional, supportive network, as well as increase best practices in early childhood education.
OneSky supports vulnerable families through the ongoing Covid pandemic in Hong Kong
The recent fifth wave of the Covid pandemic has severely affected the most vulnerable members of the Hong Kong community. And, In areas like Sham Shui Po, where the P. C. Lee OneSky Global Centre for Early Childhood Development is located, OneSky’s Family Mentors are helping to serve low-income families as best they can.
Families like that of 5-year-old Tung Tung, who all tested positive for Covid.
Unexpectantly forced into isolation in their cramped Sham Shui Po apartment, the little girl, her elder brother and mother did not have sufficient food, test kits, or medical supplies to get through their quarantine.
“We had no rapid antigen test kits so I dared not go out,” Tung Tung’s mother recalled. “We were running out of food at home and I felt so helpless. I didn’t know what to do.”
In desperation, she reached out to OneSky’s Family Mentors for help.
When OneSky’s Family Mentors heard of the family’s difficulties, they gathered together items for Tung Tung, her brother and mother, including Covid test kits, food and cleaning supplies and delivered them to their home.
The Family Mentors kept in close contact with Tung Tung and her family, to help them cope throughout the quarantine period. They provided the two children with fun, online learning activities.
“I was really touched. In such a severe environment, OneSky Family Mentors never gave up on us,” Tung Tung’s mother said.
With the generous support of community partners and donors, OneSky has been able to distribute emergency supplies to Sham Shui Po families in need to help them through this very difficult time.
Like many, Tung Tung’s family was isolated due the current Covid outbreak. Crowded living conditions and lack of childcare support has brought great distress to affected families, particularly in regards to the children’s learning and personal development.
OneSky’s Senior Family Mentor Yannis Chan noted: “The pandemic has posed great challenges to children’s growth. We have tried to help as best we can by providing emotional support in addition to the material supplies.”
“We have offered parents support in storytelling, how to play-at-home, parenting tips, and other information to support their caregiving needs. Looking at it from a different angle, we have tried to help parents and caregivers to use quarantine as a positive time for the family.”
Throughout the pandemic, OneSky Family Mentors have continuously adapted and remained connected with the families, like that of Tung Tung — providing emotional and daily support —virtually and in-person as circumstances allow.
Barclays Bank: Supporting Vulnerable Communities in Hong Kong
Thanks to our partnership with Barclays Bank (Barclays), the P. C. Lee OneSky Global Centre for Early Childhood Development in Hong Kong has amplified its support of vulnerable families living in Sham Shui Po.
Across the Asia Pacific, Barclays is working with selected charity partners, like OneSky, who are providing pandemic relief to the communities where Barclays has a presence — to help vulnerable communities impacted by the Covid-19 crisis and those working on the frontline of response.
Most recently, through the Barclays LifeSkills Programme, the Centre trained over 100 local women in an evidence-based methodology to care for young children, and is now helping them to secure employment.
And, to help vulnerable children manage through the Covid crisis, important pandemic-related information was relayed through interactive storytelling and activities. In addition, with further support from Barclays through its global programme, the £100m COVID-19 Community Aid Package, COVID-care packs (including sanitizing spray and masks) were distributed to families through the Centre’s network, benefiting more than 800 vulnerable families.
“Barclays has a long-standing commitment to supporting the communities in which we operate and an important duty to help the most vulnerable through the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is why we partner with organizations like OneSky who play a critical role in our society, providing vulnerable communities with life skills and employability opportunities as well as ensuring that tangible support is getting to those who have been hardest hit by the pandemic,” said Anthony Davies, Chief Executive, Barclays Bank Hong Kong Branch & Senior Relationship Management, Asia Pacific.
During the season of giving last year, Barclays employees also came together to spread festive joy by delivering 280 gift packs to children visiting the Centre, sharing the Christmas spirit with low-income families in Sham Shui Po.
