Ms Lam Dung-ling made her dream come true by joining the Force

When other teenage girls were enjoying their school lives, she was already a labourer. She quit her Form One studies to help support her family after her father began receiving cancer treatment.

She recalled: "At that time, I was only 14 years old and my four sisters and brothers were even younger. Only my mother and I could go out to work and make a living. So I went to work in a garment factory."

Ms Lam didn't want to be a garment worker for the rest of her life. Instead she wanted to become a policewoman.

"I knew I would love to be a policewoman because in that job I could help many people," she said. "I read the recruitment advertisements. The minimum entry requirement for a Police Constable was Form Five. I was not eligible because I only had Form One standard."

Ms Lam didn't give up, but worked hard to continue her Form One studies at an evening secondary school. "Every night, I gobbled up some bread and rushed to the school after work. Shortly after 9 pm, I went back home to continue with my homework."

Hoping to get a better chance of joining the Police Force, she even started to learn karate during the weekends.

Academic Qualification Attained

After studying for five years at the evening school, she attained the Form Five standard at the age of 19 and got two credits in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination - having taken only one more year than a full-time student.

A year later, Ms Lam made her dream come true by joining the Force. Thereafter, she seized every opportunity to perfect herself and was among the first batch of recipients of a scholarship from the Police Welfare Fund.

When Ms Lam was working in the Recruitment Group, she once again took up an evening course at the City University of Hong Kong. With the support of her husband and her young daughter, she graduated with a Higher Diploma in Public & Social Administration in 1999.

Commitment to Lifelong Learning

Ever since then, she has continued to update her knowledge through learning online by surfing on the website of the Civil Service Training & Development Institute.

"As a policewoman, I feel that members of the public have become more and more demanding on the Administration. They seek help from the Police from time to time. I always ask myself: what kind of knowledge should I have to help these people? I know that I must grow with the times. What I learn may not be immediately applicable to my work, but it could be useful in the future. As I learn more and more, I can see things from different perspectives."

Ms Lam not only tried different ways to improve herself, but also offered her suggestions to the Force. She was a "Gold" recipient of the Police Staff Suggestion Scheme in 1998 and 1999, offering good ideas to the Force on Police quarters and on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Looking back on her 16 years of service in the Force, she recalls having spent most of her time working in Uniformed Branch. She had also worked in different formations, including Kowloon East Regional Missing Persons Unit (RMPU), Police Training School and the Complaints Against Police Office, as well as taking part in the Police Station Improvement Scheme.

Enjoyable Run of Postings

Ms Lam loved every one of these postings. Because she liked to meet and talk with people, she really enjoyed her time at the RMPU. "My work in RMPU gave me a great sense of job satisfaction," she said.

"Maybe, as a mother of a 13-year-old daughter, I can better understand the thinking of different parties involved in a family dispute.

"In one case, a mother had been having a poor relationship with her young runaway daughter. After talking to the mother for some time, I advised her to apply for a care and protection order so that the teenage girl could receive proper counselling from social workers. Later, when I met the girl's mother in the street, she actually thanked me. I was so happy to know that she had patched up relations with her daughter and that the girl was back on the right track."

In addition to her routine duties, Ms Lam was also a member of the Police Tactical Unit (PTU) Tango Company for a total of eight years. This all-female unit assisted regular PTU colleagues conducting different operations such as crowd management and special escort duties. She had been deployed to manage the crowd at such events as the Handover Ceremony, a World Bank conference and fireworks displays.

At last - New Year at Home

She said: "I've watched numerous fireworks displays. I can't even tell you the exact number. This year, after so many years of being on duty at the time, I was finally able to celebrate the New Year's Eve and watch the fireworks display at home with my family."

Now, Ms Lam works as the Duty Officer at the Tseung Kwan O Police Station and has to deal with everything that happens at the station, no matter how big or trivial it may be.

"We've just handled a case in which a 13-year-old runaway girl refused to meet her mother. We could have simply closed our file by asking the girl's elder sister to take the girl home. But we did more. We contacted the girl's teacher to see if her school social worker could give her some counselling. That would have been a great help to the troubled youngster.

"That may not seem to be a very important case. But if you really put your heart into your job, you can achieve so much more than simply closing a case," she concluded.

WSSGT Ms Lam Dung-ling: a triumph over adversity