Over 1 000 elders, middle-aged and young people took part in "The Elder Academy Sports Day," at the Stanley Ho Sports Centre of the University of Hong Kong on November 16.

 

Officiating at the event were Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Minister of the Department of Publicity, Cultural and Sports Affairs in the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR, Mr Chu Wen, Chairman of Elderly Commission, Prof Chan Cheung-ming, Chairman of the Committee on Elder Academy Development Foundation, Dr Leong Che-hung, and Chairman of Senior Police Call (SPC) Central Advisory Board, Assistant Commissioner Chung Siu-yeung.

 

The event was organised by New Territories West Elder Academies Cluster, Yan Chai Hospital, the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies of Lingnan University, Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council and the University of Hong Kong. 

 

The theme of the event was "Healthy and Happy Sports for all Ages". In addition to physical fitness assessment, Chinese medicine consultation and carnival games, the organisers offered a series of sports competitions such as sprinting, beanbag throwing and lawn bowl. In the "invitational team match", a team of four Fight Crime Ambassadors of SPC Western District (WDIST), led by Chief Inspector Lee Kwok Chung from Police Public Relations Branch, won the third place, marking a perfect ending for the sports day.

 

 

Sha Tin District (STDIST) arranged a visit to the Sha Tin Road Safety Park for 55 new SPC members on November 22. During the visit, STDIST Police Community Relations Officer Teresa Chiang encouraged the participants to pass on road safety messages to their friends and family members. At the same time, officers from Traffic New Territories South Road Safety Office also offered a talk to remind the elders of the importance of road safety.

 

 

Yuen Long District (YLDIST) SPC joined forces with other stakeholders in the community in disseminating crime prevention messages on a Senior Citizen's Day on November 16. 

 

At the event co-hosted by Caritas, St Peter and Paul Church and Yuen Long Catholic Secondary School, the SPC members set up a booth to disseminate messages on prevention of phone scams through interactive games. In addition, one of the members shared with hundreds of elders her own experience of handling a phone scam and called on the audience to alert police of any suspicious phone call.

 

On November 17, the SPC members also helped out in an event organised by a Yuen Long District Council member, Ms Yau Tai-tai, and promoted crime prevention. SPC member Ah Lung, who is a retired Sergeant, has been very active in crime prevention since joining the YLDIST SPC programme in August, making the most of his police knowledge.

 

 

With the arrangements made by the Police Community Relations Office of Eastern District (PCRO EDIST) and the Chinese Cuisine Training Institute, 100 EDIST SPC members took part in an "Experiencing and Learning" event on November 26 by visiting the institute. 

 

The elders also got a good idea of the functions and training programmes of the institute. Joining them in the visit were Assistant District Commander (Administration) Sin Chi-ming, Chairman of the Eastern District Fight Crime Committee (EDFCC), Mr Yeung Wai-sing, Eastern District Councilors and EDFCC members.

 

During the visit, officers took the opportunity to distribute flyers on telephone and street scams as well as souvenirs on crime fighting to the elders. The officers also briefed them on the trend of the scams victimising the elderly and the related modus operandi. The event succeeded in enhancing the elders' sense of belonging to society and partnership with police in fighting and preventing crimes.