Traveling from the north to the south

Our work cannot be carried on without the continuous support from our long term volunteers. The person who came to my mind first was Tony Yang Hongkai when I knew I have to find a volunteer to share the stories.

Tony is a senior physio therapist and he is considered an “elder brother” in this industry. He has been our volunteer mentor for over 10 years. He has retired and now resides in Australia. However, he still spends one or two months with us visiting mainland China to teach and instruct when he comes back to Hong Kong every year. He has been to all over China.

What drives Tony to continue this volunteering work? He said the reason is straight forward, which is to use what one is good at to help people in need. The good mood after work and the recognition gained from work are also what keeps him going. He will continue to be the volunteer if time and physical conditions allow.

Tony is a strong man and his loving and caring characters are hidden behind. He has rich experience and is good at adjusting his teaching based on the actual levels of the students. He uses lots of examples in his teaching which is widely welcome and appreciated by the students.

Tony shared below a story when asked to tell the most impressive experience during volunteering.

“ Once I volunteered in a hospital in Guangzhou and one day I went to meet the children and their parents. I insisted their therapists should be present when consulting children with cerebral palsy and their parents, in order to avoid misunderstandings from the parents and affect future therapy.

I did not know how many people I consulted from 8am to 6pm that day, and when the last meeting was finished, I found there were an elderly lady and a child waiting outside. They came a long time ago, yet I did not meet them as the child’s therapist said his therapy was authentic and he did not want to turn up. In order not to affect the relationship between the child and that therapist, I decided not to consult the child at the end.

 Around one year later I went to Conghua in Guangdong for a similar consultation session for different individual cases. An elderly lady and a child came in. The elderly lady spoke with tears, “Finally you can see my grandson.” She told us how disappointed she was one year ago when I did not consult her grandson in Guangzhou. Now that she heard there was an expert coming to Conghua, she immediately took her grandson there, hoping to get a chance to meet the expert. The effort the elderly lady made for her grandson made me feel I should do more for these people.”

Tony’s perspective is exactly the same as ours. Our focus is the front line rehabilitation workers. We believe trainings with the right rehabilitation values can effectively promote sustainable development of rehabilitation. It is admirable to do the work one likes and at the same time be able to support the family. Such skills can  help people in need after his retirement. Tony’s son who is also a physiotherapist came together with Tony last year. They left their footprints side by side on this land.