In the spirit of serving the community, DSD staff actively participated in various types of volunteer services and charitable activities in their leisure time. During the year, the DSD Volunteer Team took part in more than 40 volunteer services, clocking over 1,220 service hours in total.

Among 40 volunteer services delivered, “Peering with the Children” was awarded for the first “Construction Industry Volunteering Award” presented by the Construction Industry Council at Zero Carbon Building on 15 July 2018, as well as the “Judges’ Appreciation – Top Ten Excellence in Construction Industry Volunteering Project” Merit Award. In addition, more than 500 volunteers participated in the “Construction Industry Volunteer Award Scheme” were commended, 10 of whom were from the Volunteer Team of DSD. Ms. Gigi POON Wing-chi, DSD volunteer, was recognised by the industry and crowned with the premier honour of “Judges’ Appreciation – Excellence in Construction Industry Volunteering” Gold Award.

On 30 June 2017, DSD Volunteer Team organised a guided tour for about 50 underprivileged children and their families to visit Siu Ho Wan STW. In addition to the introduction of the operation of sewage treatment facilities and solar power system, the Volunteer Team also led the children to the Hong Kong International Airport to participate in the “My Cup Noodles Workshop”. Apart from understanding the operation of a sewage treatment plant, participants could also learn the application and importance of renewables through the guided tours, with the hope to nurture the young with energy-saving practices and contribute to environmental protection in Hong Kong.

DSD Volunteer Team continued to participate in the “Life Buddies” scheme organised by the Commission on Poverty, and picked up the role as mentor of about 10 high school students from T.W.G Hs Lui Yun Choy Memorial College. The Volunteer Team organised a series of activities including communication workshops, job hunting skills, career planning, workplace visits, etc., with the aim to set their future goal in advance and facilitate youth’s upward mobility.

During the year, the Volunteer Team organised an activity of “Peering with the Elderly” with a group of elderly volunteers. The “Peering with the elderly” activity comprised of physical and mental activities based on 3Es (Experience, Excitement and Empathy), aimed to let colleagues understand the needs of the elderly, learn to be more tolerant, caring and appreciative to the elderly. During the first phase, we arranged the volunteers to participate in the “Experience with the Elderly” so colleagues could experience the inconvenience of the elderly in daily life.

We provided opportunities for these trained volunteers to participate in other elderly volunteer services, including home visits and home cleaning. The Volunteer Team designed a unique “Life Story Book” for each of the elderly volunteered for the home visits and exchanges, and presented to them by Mr. Edwin TONG Ka-hung, then Director of Drainage Services, in the sharing session on 16 February 2019.

In August 2018 and March 2019, the Volunteer Team and environmental ambassadors participated in the coast clean-up activities organised by the Inter-departmental Working Group of Marine Environmental Management. The group cleaned up rubbish on Wu Kai Sha Beach in Ma On Shan and Shui Kou Beach on Lantau with the aim to preserve our precious nature. The “Book Exchange” activity promoted exchanges of books and DVDs is used to be holding at the Wan Chai Revenue Tower and the Kowloon Government Offices only. The activity was held also in parallel to the music festival this year at Happy Valley Underground Stormwater Storage Tank on 23 February 2019, as to allow other divisional colleagues to participate in this environmental-friendly activity through promoting resource reuse and waste reduction.

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of DSD, DSD Volunteer Team has organised an innovative event named “30 Hours Volunteer Marathon”. Each of the divisions are encouraged to achieve 30 hours of volunteering target between 1 January and 29 August 2019, thereby encouraging more colleagues to participate in volunteering in their spare time, thus to further promote the volunteering culture and actualise DSD’s spirit of “Do it from the Heart”.