The annual Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, COSCO International volunteer team has participated in a visiting activity on 10th September 2016 organised by a non-profit social organisation namely Neighbourhood Advice-Action Council (“NAAC”). The volunteers carried festive gifts and visited a total of 13 elderly living alone and together in a public housing estate in Shek Kip Mei in Kowloon, to celebrate the festive day and show their respect and care to the elderly, demonstrating their passion to serve the community.

The activity started at 9:30a.m. A total of 15 volunteers of COSCO International, briefed by the social worker of NAAC, carried some festive moon cakes, fruits and daily supplies to visit the elderly living in Tai Hang Sai Estate according to the designated addresses. The elderly welcomed the volunteers and shared their recent condition and needs. Tai Hang Sai Estate, the earliest public housing estate built in the 1960s, does not provide elevators. The volunteers noticed that most of the elderly are healthier due to the daily training of walking up stairs. They also admired the elderly’s optimistic attitude towards life and benefited from the chat with the elderly to learn a lot about philosophy of life.

The organiser of this visit activity before Mid-Autumn Festival, Sham Shui Po District Elderly Community Centre (“the Centre”) of NAAC, is a communal service centre offering diversified services to the elderly. In the past six years, COSCO International collaborated with the Centre and sent its volunteer team during the festive seasons and the winter to visit the elderly. Until now, a total of 984 volunteer hours were serviced and a number of 253 elderly who live alone and who live together benefited. In future, COSCO International will continue to encourage its employees to participate in various forms of volunteer service, so as to disseminate the message of caring for the community among its employees and their family members.

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