Who we are
We are students who attend JEMS Character Academy and we are in the Yellow Level (P2 students). This year, we have been learning to grow in our empathy and compassion for people with hearing impairment in our community. The more we understand, the more we can be compassionate.
Why we careBy understanding more about the needs of people with hearing impairment, we can grow in our empathy and compassion towards them. In our community, people with hearing impairment may face challenges such as, feeling excluded or alone, misunderstood, underestimated for their capabilities and a lack of support and resources from the community in daily life for their needs.
To deepen our student's understanding and empathy towards people with hearing impairment, Yellow level students had an amazing opportunity to interact with, play games and set their own questions to have an interview with Ms. Fanny Li, an educator with hearing impairment with years of experience in teaching young children who are both hearing and hearing impaired in schools. too. From this memorable experience, our students gained a deeper understanding of people with hearing impairment, their experiences and life goals, and thus deepen their empathy and grow in their compassion towards them in our community.
Our Solution
Yellow level students have been learning the "Do's and Don'ts" in how we can respectfully and compassionately interact with people who are deaf. To be compassionate, students learnt that they should for example, include them in conversations, tap them on the shoulder or wave to them to get their attention, speak at a normal pace and in a well lit place to assist with lip reading, repeat or rephrase our words if necessary when talking to them and to write or draw to them too.
Learning sign language is another way to break the barrier to communicate with and to include those with hearing impairment more in our community. To take a step into being compassionate, Yellow level students enjoyed learning how to sign the alphabets, how to sign their name, and how to sign different animals in Hong Kong Sign Language.
We believe that every student can confidently make a positive difference in the lives of those with hearing impairment!
Who we want to support and why - HKAD (Hong Kong Association for the Deaf)
JEMS Character Academy has partnered with the charity - Hong Kong Association of the Deaf in previous years to teach children to have more empathy and compassion towards those with hearing impairment. Hong Kong Association of the Deaf’s mission is to provide comprehensive social welfare, medical and educational services to the deaf, hearing impaired, their families and other people with disabilities.
Our fundraising goal
We want to raise $10,000 HKD to help HKAD help more children with hearing impairment to be able to communicate better with others and to promote more understanding for people with hearing impairment.
More about our other projects
JEMS Character Academy was founded in 2009 and is an after-school learning centre with a vision to see children become junior excellent members of society. With a belief that education goes beyond transferring knowledge and skills, JEMS provides children with Character Education programmes throughout the year. As a part of encouraging students to give back to the community, it is JEMS' hope that students will grow in their empathy and compassion for different needs in our city through the unique JEMS curriculum where students are encouraged to make a difference in the lives of others. As a result, students across various school levels have chosen to start a campaign to fundraise for different charities that help and support some of the needs in Hong Kong.
