Embedded Files
The Free Clinic began with two clinics: Dr Lauren Bramley & Partners and Stanley Wellness Center, twelve Chinese International School students, and Ms Mala Uttam as a teacher supervisor and liaison between the clinics and students. A common goal united these parties, one that dreamt of aiding impoverished people in Hong Kong receive the dire, sustained medical attention they needed that the public health system could not provide. Months of gruelling hours of work and planning later, the first clinic session on the 12th of November 2016 successfully saw over 130 patients in a span of 6 hours from a wide range of Hong Kong-based NGOs, including Mother’s Choice, Justice Center HK, Christian Action, and many others.
If you are to join Free Clinic, we meet once a week at lunch times to discuss upcoming clinics and assign tasks for the week such as scheduling patients and communicating with doctors. You will be required to attend a clinic (2-6 pm) one Saturday approximately every two months.
Our goal
We aim to organize 2-3 clinics every school year to provide professional health care to our local community. Specifically, we work closely with NGOs such as Branches of Hope, The Hong Kong Medical Association, Mission for Migrant Workers, Impact HK, Faith in love, SOCO etc. We will continue to focus on expanding our service outreach to more beneficiaries. In order to express gratitude to our CIS Ahmas for their hard work and contribution to our community, we also try to include them in our services as well. As our services have been interrupted due to COVID-19, we are aiming to organize more mask distributions and donation events (e.g. the baked goods initiative for our healthcare workers).
The Free Clinic has worked with many other organisations, providing services such as squash lessons, English and Chinese playgroup, mask drives and most importantly hosting clinics. Over the summer of 2021, we collaborated with IBEL to teach 24 students how to play squash, allowing them to improve their physical fitness and wellbeing. Click here to see how the two different sessions went! (Session 1, Session 2)
Expectations
Normally: We will have weekly meetings on Friday lunch period (12:50-1:40). During the meetings, we will discuss the roles of each person for the upcoming clinic, the problems encountered, or deal with other miscellaneous things like merchandise. There will be a clinic once around every two months from 2-6pm, and on the day of the clinic, members of the group will go to the location and help the doctors or receptionists to translate or organising the patients.
Planning Time: Friday Lunch (12:50 - 1:40pm)
Service Day: Every two months on Saturday (2 - 6pm)
COVID: There will still be meetings held to discuss other things Free Clinic can do. For example, we can discuss ways to raise awareness or to host a drive for masks, etc.
Skills Required
We are looking for organized, responsible, and personable students with an interest in public health in Hong Kong. If you speak Cantonese, that is a great plus, but it is not a requirement. Thank you!
Student Leaders
Rhea Talwar
Myriam Lynch
Herbert Chan
Report abuse