Award-winning entrepreneurs fight Hong Kong's battle against waste Ecosage, one of the first batch of start-up businesses to be supported by the Federation's Youth Business Hong Kong, is establishing a recycling culture, spreading the message about sustainable, green living throughout the community. It encourages young and old alike to bring waste for recycling. Alex Tam and Felix Chung, the young entrepreneurs who established Ecosage, have determination, vision and a strong sense of responsibility They won the Youth Business International Environmental Entrepreneur of the Year award earlier this year. Now, when Hong Kong's waste problem has been declared the worst in the world, their aims are in perfect harmony with community efforts, and their business stems from the moment when Felix found an advertisement for the Federation's YBHK project in an old newspaper! Since 2005, HKFYG's Youth Business Hong Kong (YBHK) has supported 93 young entrepreneurs with over HK$5.2 million in seed funding. For more details, contact Miranda Ho, tel 3113 7999 or visit http://ybhk.hkfyg.org.hk Events Chief Secretary Henry Tang to kick-off Walkathon for HKFYG Walk the walk with us on Sunday 28 November on the HKFYG 50th Anniversary Walkathon. We'll meet at 9am and the start is at 10am in Shatin's Hong Kong Science Park Amphitheatre, where there will be a kick-off with Chief Secretary Henry Tang. From there we head along the Tolo Harbour Cycle Track to Taipo Waterfront Park. The entire route of approximately 5,5km should take the average walker no more than 1.5 hours Visit http://walkathon.hkfyg.org.hk or click here for an entry form. Enrolment deadline 12 November 2010 (Friday). If you would like to be a sponsor click here Proceeds will be in aid of Youth Support Fund to help young people with special needs. More details from Brenda, tel 3755 7102. Vice-Chancellors from four Hong Kong universities invited to speak at Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks in November The Vice-Chancellors from the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong are to speak to students during the InnoCarnival 2010 in Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks. The talks are being arranged by HKFYG on 8 November and 10 November. Contact Alice, tel 3755 7124 for more details or click here Just Published New issue of Youth SPOT magazine The new edition of the HKFYG magazine for youth is now available at all HKFYG outlets, and some loft cafes and salons. In this issue, we discover that travelling can be a lot more than just a happy holiday. It can also be a bitter-sweet journey of self-discovery and growing up. Contact Andrey, tel 3755 7041, to get a copy of your own. Many thanks to partners Youth Volunteer Network helps the the elderly with support from The Sir Robert Ho Tung Charitable Fund With support from The Sir Robert Ho Tung Charitable Fund, a project to help the elderly will be launched in the community by HKFYG's Youth Volunteer Network. The young volunteers will have two sessions of basic training, then pay at least three visits to the homes of the elderly poor. Volunteers will also help to purchase daily necessities, clean flats or repaint door grilles before Chinese New Year, and call regularly to keep in touch from November 2010 till February 2011. About 330 youth volunteers will be recruited for the project from 20 HKFYG Youth SPOTs and the HKFYG Youth Support Scheme. 13 districts are included and 330 elderly people. For further information, please contact Yennie tel 2169 0032. Free Scratch workshops organized at HKFYG Jockey Club LEAD Centre with support from Education Bureau and the Hung Hing Ying & Leung Hau Ling Charitable Foundation There has been an overwhelming response to the latest campaign to recruit schools for these workshops which are run with support from the Hung Hing Ying & Leung Hau Ling Charitable Foundation and the Education Bureau. Twice the number of schools will take part than originally anticipated. Scratch is free educational software developed by the Media Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It enables students to create interactive animated stories and games which enhance their ability to think logically and learn independently. The LEAD Centre at Cyberport will provide 3 hours of free training to students (P4 to S3) and their teachers from October 2010 to April 2011. Call Hui Kim-ping tel 3106 0600 for more details. Saturdays with Eva: Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd, Career Planning Workshops Ms Eva Chan, Executive Director of the Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd Private Wealth Management division, has years of experience in the financial field. Aiming to foster young people's self confidence and help them to explore career possibilities, she and her team from Morgan Stanley conducted 2 interactive workshops on 9 and 16 October. Ms Chan not only shared practical job hunting skills such as CV writing and interview skills, she also inspired participants to think carefully about career paths and, most importantly, to be prepared when opportunity arrives. "Saturdays with Eva" also provides a great platform for participants to exchange ideas on job hunting. Participants from 9 universities came to the workshops and 40 of them will go on to the mock interview session, again courtesy of the Morgan Stanley team, on 30 October. For more information, please contact Iris at 2169 0255. Youth SPOT to run mass environmental protection programme with support from Tsuen Wan District Council A three month programme of green living activities has just been launched at the HKFYG Tsuen King Youth SPOT with funding of HK$400,000 from the Tsuen Wan District Council. It includes ecotrips, carnivals and workshops. Contact Mr Hoi Po-kin, tel 2498 3333, for further details. Youth Poll Series No. 200 Digital Mobile Living: the world of Hong Kong youth A survey on the use of digital communications was conducted by the HKFYG Youth Research Centre from 23 September to 8 October 2010. 512 young people aged 12-34 responded. 78.5% had notebook computers and mobile phones or other gadgets so they could go online anytime, more or less anywhere. On average, they spent nearly 3.5 hours a day using such online technology. iPhones and mobile phones were the two most popular gadgets for young people. Almost 30% wanted an iPhone and 23.5% wanted a mobile. The most common uses of online connectivity were for entertainment, for keeping up to date and for various forms of non-formal education and information-seeking. The vast majority (97%) sought entertainment such as music, movies, games and TV online. Nearly 87% read the news or accessed YouTube videos online. A third also said they used online platforms to discuss issues of topical interest. Over 72% went online to learn skills or languages or to find information on such topics as healthy living but the majority (61.3%) said they were not yet reading electronic books. Another interesting finding was that the number of friends young people have online has increased threefold in two years. On average, respondents aged 12 -29 had 262 friends registered in their social networking communities, up from 85 in the 2008 survey. Call Sharon, tel 3755 7039 for more details or visit http://yrc.hkfyg.org.hk/chi/p200.html.