The Battle of Poor Billionaire – The Sharing of Mr. Johnny Chan
On the 1st of June, our school had the privilege of inviting Mr. Johnny Chan to our school as a guest speaker in our school assembly to talk about his experience with the elderly in poverty a few months ago.
Mr. Johnny Chan is the chairman of an investment management company. Recently he starred in an RTHK documentary sharing his experience living with the elderly in poverty. He spent his days doing various jobs most elderly do; collecting and selling cardboard and cleaning public toilets, and spent three nights in a cage home, where most of the elderly in poverty reside. It proved to be a very emotional and life changing experience for him.
The sharing was beneficial to our students, especially for those who will be participating in the upcoming Service Outreach Scheme (SOS) in July during which our Form 3 and Form 4 students will be travelling to Cambodia, Vietnam, Beijing, Guangxi, Sichuan and Kaiping of China helping those in need. His experiences will hopefully inspire the students to give back more to the community.
One of the things Mr. Chan talked about was when he was cleaning the public toilets. He commented that physically, the task was bearable and manageable, but the toughest part of the job was after he finished his cleaning. He was left with nothing to do and was made to wait for another job. He taught our students to use our time wisely, as the elderly in poverty are left with not many things to do. We should feel fortunate that we are busy with so many things and should not waste our time doing irrelevant things.
He also said that helping the community does not only involve donating money. Many people do not realize the seriousness of elderly in poverty in Hong Kong. Therefore, we should do more than donate a few dollars to help them. Firsthand experience with those in need will thus open the eyes to see how serious the problem is around the world. It will also inspire us to help out with our community more often.
After the sharing, our student Jose Urbano expressed his view, said, “Mr. Chan’s sharing opened my eyes to the elderly in Hong Kong. I never knew that so many of the elderly live in poverty. It came to me that so many of the younger generation treat many of the elderly with disrespect. Many teenagers are unaware that they are living in hard times and what they are doing causes them emotional damage.”
The sharing of Mr. Chan is a precious lesson for our students which taught them they should learn to treat the elderly with respect, poor or not poor. They should also involve more with the community so they are more aware of the problems faced in the public.
