For several decades, Chung Nam has had a deep social commitment to support education and other social services. We believe that our corporate social responsibility can be expressed in the form of charity donations as well as in the form of establishing social business.
Chung Nam’s Response to the Sichuan Earthquake
Besides donating money to the various emergency initiatives in Sichuan, Chung Nam has also donated “human assets” by supporting a senior staff member to work on the reconstruction and redevelopment work in the disaster areas.
Ada Ho (何靜瑩) was invited by Beijing Normal University to establish Wenchuan Earthquake Taskforce (WET) 汶川地震應對政策專家行動組 in Beijing on May 16, four days after the May 12 earthquake. WET is an emergency policy think-tank for the Central Government and local governments regarding catastrophe management and resettlement policies.
In addition, Chung Nam also believes that psychological traumas of the bereaved people must be addressed. Hence, Ada simultaneously initiated a music mass counseling program (香港特種樂隊) in the disaster areas beginning from May 26. Within a month, Ada led two trips to Sichuan to provide music and play therapy services in various hardest-hit disaster areas, directly reaching out to almost 20,000 bereaved people in a variety of audiences such as the PLA camps, hospitals, schools, settlement areas, summer camps, city squares, village markets. On the whole, the most typical stage for their “music mass counseling” was a safe crossroads where hundreds of people could sing and dance with the music squad for an hour.
The second phase of work deepens the impact and broadens the scope of music therapy in Sichuan, with a focus on building community engagement and social capital in the settlement areas. Beginning from July 29, she has led groups of Hong Kong volunteers to collaborate with local partners in using music and artistic expression to build social cohesiveness, stimulate neighborhood engagement and community networks, and ultimately build social capital in various settlement areas.
