| Stage of Innovation Development | Requested Funding Amounts from SIE Fund (HK$) | Matching Fund Ratio Requirement (SIE Fund: Applicant) | Project implementation duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype Further refining a tested idea | $200,000-$300,000 | Not required | 1 year |
| Start-up Launching a new business from incubated ideas (with relevant business experience) | No limits | 2:1 matching is required when applying for $300,001-$900,000 1:1 matching is required when applying for more than $900,000 | 1-3 years * |
| Scale-up Further expansion of an existing business to create a stronger influence and make a more significant impact on society | No limits | 2:1 matching is required when applying for $300,001-$900,000 1:1 matching is required when applying for more than $900,000 | 1-3 years * |
| Individual Applicants | Company or Organisation Applicants |
|---|---|
|
|
(i) Fill in the online application form and explain your idea
(ii) Submit the online application form
(iii) Our staff will contact you to confirm your application and screening result
Shortlisted applicants will receive:
(i) Fill in the online application form and explain your idea
(ii) Submit the online application form
(iii) Our staff will contact you to confirm your application and screening result
Shortlisted applicants will receive:
| Prototype | Start-up | Scale-up | |
|---|---|---|---|
Social impact
| 20% | 25% | 25% |
Innovativeness
| 30% | 20% | 15% |
Design and implementation
| 20% | 25% | 25% |
Team’s capability
| 15% | 15% | 15% |
Sustainability
| 15% | 15% | 20% |
Before 07 April 2024
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Problems
Hong Kong ranks eighth on the list of the world’s richest cities, with most people living a life of wealth and material abundance. However, about 3,000 tonnes of food waste – around the weight of 250 double-decker buses – is disposed of every day in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, one in three elderly people in Hong Kong lives in poverty. Many seniors cannot afford fresh fruits and vegetables, and are undernourished as a result. Society may seem to have an abundance of resources, but they are unevenly distributed, and there is a massive amount of waste. It is not just food that is wasted, but also the natural resources that are used to grow and produce them. Moreover, food waste in landfills creates greenhouse gas; this exacerbates climate change, which hurts the world’s poorest first and worst.
Solutions
Vegetable Rescue Mission
Oxfam Hong Kong’s partner, People Service Centre, addresses the problem by redistributing resources from the community. They are working with stall owners from wet markets to collect unsold fresh produce and food, reorganise and repackage the ingredients, and distribute them to low-income communities and elderly people in the district. People Service Centre has even developed the service into a ‘Vegetable Rescue Mission Experience’, which is a tour that gathers people, including students, families, and youths, to take action together, to participate in the redistribution process and support the elderly from low-income households with their meals. They have also worked with university students showing them how to lead the tours, nurture more talent, and continue their passion as they address the issue.
Changes
Since its inception, the programme has been supported by over 100 stall owners from the markets, and over 1,000 participants join the Vegetable Rescue Mission Experience each year. The food collected has benefited many residents who experience poverty and elderly people who live alone. Resources are now better distributed, unnecessary waste is reduced and those in need are able to obtain fresh, nutritious food, and improve the quality of their diet.
Problems
Ethnic minority people make up 8 per cent of Hong Kong’s population, yet they are often a marginalised group in society. Because of their weaker Chinese language skills, they face further difficulties in their daily lives, schooling, work, and access to social services. The poverty rate among South Asians is 23 per cent – much higher than that of the rest of the population (14.7 per cent). In Hong Kong, the general public has little contact with ethnic minority people, and many do not understand their culture. This has led to misunderstandings and even discrimination, which has had a negative impact on ethnic minority communities, particularly youth and children.
Solutions
Multicultural Education that Develops a Global Perspective
To enhance social cohesion and inclusion, as well as understanding of various cultures in Hong Kong, Oxfam Hong Kong’s partner WEDO GLOBAL trains ethnic minority youth cultural ambassadors as mentors, to design interesting cultural experiences, such as theme-based cultural tours where ambassadors take participants on a visit to the South Asian community in Sham Shui Po. Through community tours and exchanges with South Asian shopkeepers, participants get a glimpse into the life of ethnic minority communities and the challenges that they face. In the ‘Games to Learn About South Asian Culture’ workshop, ethnic minority people also share their stories through a series of traditional games from their hometowns.
Changes
WEDO GLOBAL’s ethnic minority cultural ambassador training provides more opportunities for ethnic minority youths to develop their skills and speak up in the community. The cultural experiences and activities led by the ambassadors provide a platform for them to showcase their talents; it gives the ambassadors and participants the opportunity to get to know each other better and discover their common ground. The programme has also successfully enhanced participants’ exposure and understanding of South Asian ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, and encourages them to think of how to work with these communities to improve the living conditions of ethnic minority people who live in poverty.
Problems
With Hong Kong’s ageing population, the number of people with long-term care and general care needs continues to grow. This group includes the elderly and people who are ageing and live with a disability. However, Hong Kong lacks a comprehensive long-term care system and often the task of caring for the elderly falls on family members. This is particularly challenging for primary family caregivers who lack support and who are underprivileged. Caregivers work tirelessly to take care of their family members’ meals and daily needs, and accompany them to medical appointments. Many would sacrifice rest, privacy, and even the opportunity to work, and often have little time to breathe.
Solutions
Caregiver Service Matching Scheme: Community Caregiver Support Project
The Concerning Home Care Service Alliance is an organisation supported by Oxfam Hong Kong. It has launched a ‘service matching’ scheme that recruits volunteers from the community to become ‘volunteer carers’ who are paired with an elderly person or an elderly person who lives with a disability in the same district. Volunteer carers provide support by accompanying the elderly people to medical appointments, cleaning their homes, cooking and buying groceries, accompanying them to visit friends and relatives, going to the park for a walk, or visiting their local community centre. Finding volunteers and elderly people who live close to one another helps form a greater sense of community. The service also provides primary family caregivers with the chance to take a break. The Concerning Home Care Service Alliance also works with local businesses to provide carers with coffee vouchers or special discounts, to promote a supportive atmosphere in the community.
Changes
The programme encourages community members to look out for each other and reach out to families that need help. The help and companionship of the volunteer carers can improve the emotional well-being of those with long-term care needs. The volunteer carers can also improve users’ home hygiene, lower their risk of falling, and it can also reduce the stress of the primary caregiver, by sharing their tasks and responsibilities.
Problems
The lack of public housing in Hong Kong has left many low-income families with no choice but to live in subdivided units. Living in poor conditions can add to the stress adults experience, and has a particularly profound impact on children and toddlers in their formative years. Many children are confined to their beds when playing, or have to do their homework there or on small folding tables, which is not conducive to their growth. Due to the lack of storage space, families’ belongings often protrude in their living space, and can lead to accidents as family members move around. In the event of a fire, it could even lead to unimaginable consequences.
Solutions
Improving the Wellbeing of Children from Low-Income Families, Beginning With Storage Space
Asbury Methodist Social Service is an organisation supported by Oxfam Hong Kong. Thanks to the free storage services provided by a storage company, the group was able to arrange for families living in subdivided flats to store their infrequently used items in storage facilities, thereby freeing up more space at home. Asbury also connects participating families and forms smaller groups to share home storage tips and exchange parenting information. In addition, the programme provides small home repairs to further improve the beneficiaries’ living and learning environment. The organisation also provides academic support, special interest classes, and parent-child outdoor experiences to support the diverse development of children who experience poverty.
Changes
The programme provides children from low-income households with a full range of support. Additional storage space and small home repair services can improve the living conditions and quality of life for children living in subdivided units. It reduces the risk of accidents while children play at home, and improves their learning environment at home. Academic support services provide individualised care for children who are unable to keep up at school, and relieve parents of the stress of taking care of their children’s studies.
Problems
In Taipei, many homeless individuals are willing to work for a living, but they often have difficulty finding jobs due to their educational background, age, health, or simply the lack of a permanent address. Most street people carry limited cash with them and can only support their living expenses for about two weeks at most. Getting a full-time job that pays a monthly salary is challenging, and hence, so they have few options. Casual work with flexible hours and payment in cash is the preferred among many homeless people. Carrying promotional signs and handing out flyers on the street are some examples of such casual work, but such jobs can be quite rare and are mostly available on Saturdays and Sundays. Therefore, even though many homeless people are fully capable of carrying out these jobs, they can only wait most of the time.
Solutions
Job Matching Service for Homeless People
Oxfam Hong Kong’s partner in Taiwan, Do You A Flavor, approaches the above problem with creativity. It sources or requests casual work opportunities from the public, and looks for potential clients who are interested in providing casual work opportunities. Employers are then matched with homeless people who are willing to work in packaging, cleaning, painting, and moving services. The scheme increases their employment opportunities and income. The group operates as small working teams to build a friendly working environment, and to develop trust and understanding among its members.
Changes
The programme’s participants have seen an increase in income, as well as improvements in their eating and sleeping conditions. In case of bad weather, they can use their income to find a place to stay. As for the clients who provide job opportunities, many were not only satisfied but also surprised and impressed by the services they received. By interacting with these teams, people will gain a better understanding of the issues that homeless people face, and will help to reduce stigma and misconceptions about this population.
Problems
Many people from Southeast Asian countries work abroad to support their families due to poverty in their hometowns. For example, there are over 700,000 Southeast Asian migrant workers in Taiwan alone. The majority are Indonesian migrant workers who work as domestic helpers or caregivers in elderly care centres.
Many Indonesian migrant workers hope to save up enough money, so they can run a small business when they return to their hometowns. Many hope to become self-reliant, so they will not have to leave their hometowns to make a living again. However, their jobs do not enable them to learn and accumulate business skills. And there is a lack of opportunities for them to learn on their own while they are living in a foreign land. As a result, many migrant workers are still unable to realise their dreams upon returning home, even though they have worked abroad for many years. In some cases, they may even lose their life savings due to business failures. It is a vicious cycle as it is not easy to switch jobs, so they often have no choice but to work abroad as migrant workers again.
Solutions
Migrant Business School
One-Forty is an organisation in Taiwan supported by Oxfam Hong Kong, which organises Chinese and computer classes for Indonesian migrant workers every weekend. Their classes are interactive and fun, and combine elements of culture, design thinking, financial management, and career planning to help support migrant workers adapt to life in Taiwan. They also encourage creativity and help participants plan for their future. One-Forty also conducts online classes for migrant workers who are unable to attend face-to-face classes, so they still have the chance to learn and interact with other learners.
Changes
One-Forty’s Migrant Business School allows migrant workers to develop and grow even while working in a foreign land. Many of the programme’s former trainees have taken the first step towards realising their dreams upon returning to their hometowns; some have opened grocery stores, while others have opened stationery shops. One-Forty is also actively working to connect trainees with Taiwanese businesspeople in Indonesia, to match them with potential employment opportunities, so that they have more choices in life after returning home.
Problems
One out of ten people in the world do not have enough food to eat every day, and many of them are small-scale food producers. It may sound ironic that the people who produce food turn out to be the ones who do not have enough to eat. But this is due to structural factors such as climate change and extreme weather, unfair trade practices, the lack of support for farmers, and the lack of basic resources. Modern food production and dietary habits create a lot of greenhouse gases; they also lead to issues such as monoculture, land degradation, and exploitation of smallholder farmers. The situation is closely linked to food producers, retailers, the food and beverages industry, as well as to consumers. However, many people do not necessarily care about these problems and the impact they have.
Solutions
Eat Fair
Green Future is Oxfam Hong Kong’s partner in Macau. They advocate for food and climate justice and have launched Eat Fair. The project invites restaurants and eateries that provide takeaways to flaunt their culinary skills and creativity by creating an ‘Eat Fair Menu’. Restaurants and eateries are to prepare food on this menu with Fair Trade and vegetarian ingredients, and reduce the use of disposable plastic cutlery, to promote a low-carbon and pro-poor diet. Green Future and Oxfam Hong Kong are also collaborating to conduct workshops on cooking with leftover ingredients, DIY handicrafts and such, to share the concept of food and climate justice with schools, families and communities.
Changes
Eat Fair has been well received by over 80 restaurants and their customers in Macau, while their workshops have received rave reviews from many families and schools. The project has raised citizens’ awareness about the difficulties impoverished farmers face and has helped them understand the impact they have on the global food system. It is also inspiring them to change their daily habits and support a fair-trade and low-carbon diet, help farmers in low-income regions to improve their livelihoods, and work together in the fight against climate change.
The financial budget can help the applicant plan and adjust the project development scale, investment amount and other directions. The financial budget should list in detail the estimated income, expenditure, the amount of funding to be applied for from social innovation funds, and the corresponding proportion of matching fund amounts (only applicable to start-ups or scale-ups), so as to formulate short-, medium-, and long-term financial budgets.
Revenue: Estimated turnover of product or service sales;
Expenses: cost of sales, operating expenses (including human resources and salaries, venue rental, publicity and promotion, purchase of equipment (such as computers, software, etc.), insurance and auditing, and general and administrative expenses);
Matching Fund: Cash or other forms of assistance can be provided (including but not limited to salary, venue rental, equipment, etc., at a reasonable market estimated value)
In the early stage of the project, there may be a lack of cash flow, and it needs to rely more on the funding of social innovation funds and matching funds. However, with the development of the project, the income and expenditure should gradually balance, reducing reliance on funding as subsidies, and achieving self-financing in the long run.
You can refer to the “Startup Budget Analysis Form” provided by the Trade and Industry Department for start-ups:
https://www.success.tid. gov.hk/en_chi/bus_sta_up_inf_ser/bud_spr/bud_spr.htm
The “Infinite Realization Room” provides corresponding funding amounts in response to different innovation development stages. The project practice periods are:
Prototype: 1 year
Start-up: 1/ 1.5 / 2 years
Scale up: 1/ 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 years
If the project is approved, the applicant needs to arrange a designated bank account to handle various income and expenses of the project. This bank account, usually the applicant opens a separate account from the company’s bank account. If the applicant is applying in the name of an individual, he can also open a personal bank account, which can be used to independently handle the current account of the application project.
Please note that whether it is a bank personal or company account, it must be independent, and all income and expenses of this account must be the accounts of this project.
Since the funding is approved by the government, and the amount of the funding is allocated from taxpayers’ money, the government is careful in controlling the gates. Therefore, the shortlisted applications usually have detailed, feasible, and reasonable proposals. Applicants can examine the details of the design project in detail, including the social issues addressed by the project, project goals, project intervention methods, expected results, etc., and design proposals.
Applicants may also consider hiring professional institutions or related professionals to assist in writing proposals. In addition, applicants can also contact Eunice Chan (31205221) or Henry Yeung (31205238), the contact person of Oxfam Infinite Realization Office.
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