基金會為答謝各位委員、義工及各自助組織一直以來的支持及幫忙，在3月28日（星期日）於九龍富豪酒店舉行義工聚餐，藉此機會讓各方友好能聚首一堂，分享過去一年的喜與樂，及一起展望美好的將來。
當日先由基金會主席游寶榮先生揭開序幕，代表基金會表達對各位義工及委員的謝意，活動便正式開始。大家一邊享用豐富的自助午餐、一邊唱卡拉OK及玩電子遊戲，大家都非常投入，場內氣氛非常熱鬧。
這一個下午便在歡笑聲中完結，大家都非常期待明年的聚會。
The “Touch the Soul” charity concert was held on
12 April 2009 (Sunday) at Concert Hall of Hong Kong Cultural Centre to raise part of the funds needed for these programmes and featured the world famous pianists Uriel Tsachor from the University of Iowa to perform the Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5 “Emperor” and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique.
HKARF collaborates with the Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, on this Psycho-social Program. The program will provide the much needed counselling service to help our arthritis patients to overcome their emotional and social problems and to improve their quality of left.
The scopes of the programme are as follows:
Hotline Services
To provide hotline services which give information about the diseases and access to clinical services for those in need
Peer Group Support
To provide mutual support within peer groups through sharing of experiences from patients’ volunteers
Professional Counselling Referral
To provide professional counselling referral services and to help those with financial difficulties
Proceeds from this Concert will be used as daily operational cost for the program and fund to subsidize those who need professional psychosocial counselling. The concert was successful and we would like to thank all the parties support.
HKARF Ambassadors to Guangzhou and Shenzhen took place from 27 March 2009 to 29 March 2009.
This has been a very successful trip from the point of view of awarding the second batch of HKARF Ambassdors: providing them an enjoyable trip and study tour to neighbouring cities as we promised; giving them an experience and knowledge about how arthritis patients are being treated in China; and providing them with an opportunity to act as our good Ambassadors.
Our Ambassadors all ‘carried out their duties’ brilliantly and did the Foundation and their family members proud, not only in passing on their experience as rheumatic patients to peers with similar ailments in China, but also in helping educate the Chinese doctors and patients about the work of the Foundation and the benefits of patient self-help groups.
The trip is also successful from the point of view of building up good will and relationship by the Foundation with rheumatic professors and doctors in the Third Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, and in the 4th Peolpe’s Specialist Rhematism Hospital in Shenzhen, as we had a good tour of the two hospitals facilities and chatted with a number of their patients.
Besides having short tours of a few tourist attractions and trying some interesting meals, we also visited the HK Rehab Society’s Yee Hong Elderly Home in Yim Tin in Shenzhen, toured the facilities and stayed there overnight.
The fund from Hong Kong Arthritis & Rheumatism Foundation Ltd. is mainly from the social donation, pharmaceutical companies support and volunteers effort. In Xmas of 2008, a pre-Xmas party was held on 13-Dec-08 (Sat). This was a great chance for donors, Foundation Executive Committee members, Patients self-help groups’ representatives and beneficiaries to celebrate the joyful and warm Christmas together!