Volunteers ready

A volunteer pool of young medical students and retired medical professionals from both the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, keep the GX Foundation's numerous aid programs running.

Hong Kong has gradually increased the platforms and opportunities for young people to participate in the growing humanitarian relief work.

In its 2022-2023 report, the Hong Kong Red Cross, for example, said it carried out emergency relief, post-disaster recovery and reconstruction work in 17 countries and regions, benefiting over 430,000 people. OXFAM Hong Kong said it implemented 272 projects globally in the same period and reached a total of over 1.5 million people in its global poverty reduction efforts.

The GX Foundation has also carried out training in Laos and Cambodia for local medical clinics, with the aim of preparing them to perform their own surgeries.

Providing medical care is the first step in humanitarian assistance and training local medical personnel is the next, Chan said.

Shum said: "There are only a few ophthalmologists in Cambodia.

Senegal has very few ophthalmologists in the whole country, with maybe one for thousands or tens of thousands of people."

In November last year, a GX Foundation team visited villages in Kanh Chriech, Cambodia, along with a medical team from China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, to conduct eye examinations. They also trained 12 local medical personnel on how to screen for cataracts.

When the team returned to the villages in June, the trained medical personnel were proficient in conducting vision tests, measuring eye pressure, and screening patients for cataracts.

Channa, one of the local health workers, used to obtain medical knowledge from watching online videos and struggled to win the trust of her patients.