ENABLE Symposium advocates Living a Legacy

2 March 2010

Death tends to be a taboo discussion topic in Chinese society, even though it's something we all have to face eventually.  Most people are not willing to think about their own death or prepare and plan for it actively.  In 2006, The Hong Kong Jockey Club took the initiative to tackle this issue by making a donation of some HK$20 million to the Centre on Behavioral Health of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) to launch the ENABLE Project to advance local death education and practices.

Today (2 March) an ENABLE Symposium was held at The University of Hong Kong under the theme of "Living a Legacy", as a means of generating discussion on the development of life and death education in Hong Kong and evaluating the project's effectiveness in promoting positive attitudes in society towards death.  Officiating guests were the Club's Executive Director, Charities, Legal & Corporate Secretariat, Douglas So and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at HKU, Prof Ian Holliday.

ENABLE stands for "Empowerment Network for the Adjustment to Bereavement and Loss at the End-of-Life".  Through public education programmes and professional training, the project is aimed at helping the public better understand and appreciate life, while also being prepared for death.  The project also provides the elderly and people suffering from chronic or terminal illnesses with support to help them prepare for death, along with the families they will leave behind.

Since the project's launch, over 50 service agencies have joined the ENABLE Alliance, which has established a strong community network for promoting life and death education collaboratively.  More than 2,000 professionals, including social workers and medical practitioners, have received training in death and bereavement counselling.  Some 73,000 people have since attended workshops on death-related issues to understand the importance of a healthy attitude and positive outlook towards death, dying and bereavement.

A three-year prospective cohort study has also been conducted with over 1,400 participants to identify possible attitudinal changes on death among three generations of local Chinese.  The findings will help direct the continued development of life and death education programmes.  In addition, a tailor-made interactive online platform called "ENABLE Journey" has been launched, the first of its kind in Hong Kong, to help the public learn about death, dying and bereavement.

125th Anniversary of The Hong Kong Jockey Club

Founded in 1884, The Hong Kong Jockey Club is celebrating its 125th Anniversary in 2009/10 season.  Over the past 125 years, it has become one of Hong Kong's best known and respected organisations, providing the public with world-class sporting entertainment as well as being the city's major non-Government community benefactor, now donating more than HK$1 billion a year to charitable and community projects.  It has been a part of Hong Kong through good times and bad, sharing the city's growth and development with its people, and is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for future generations.