'Why not be active while I still can?' said Mak Kai-shun (Kai), trainee of The  Salvation Army Heng On Integrated Vocational Rehabilitation Service. With mild intellectual disability, cerebral palsy and spastic diplegia, Kai has limb coordination issues, and occasional spasms make him need a walker whenever he goes out. Despite his conditions, Kai stays positive and cheerful and he always wears a smile.

Multiple Talents
Having joined the Salvation Army Heng On workshop for over 20 years, Kai has been trained in many different fields, including packaging, handicraft, eco-craft, and sales. At present he mainly has job training in the ecocraft team and the Talent Shop. He has various tasks to deal with at the Talent Shop – from handling customer enquiries and getting to know what the customers need, to offering suggestions and recommendations – and he does these tasks all very well.

In the eco-craft team, each trainee is responsible for a different procedure, and together they upcycle worthless wastes into eco-friendly craft goods. Kai is  responsible for product pattern design. His designs are mainly line drawing patterns with delicate details in between the varying lines and curves. Considering the  incompetence of his hands, drawing is supposedly a difficult task for Kai but he said, 'The creative process is the most difficult part, because it involves a lot such as coming up with a motif from scratch and considering the symmetry of the design. But when I finish drawing the design out, it gives me a great sense of satisfaction.' Up till now, Kai has already completed hundreds of works on various themes, among which a line drawing titled Fish Flying over the Water is his favourite because the patterns and detailed design on the fish body deliver layers and delicacy.

'Heartwarming Oppa' Of The Workshop
People in the workshop find that Kai is a responsible 'heartwarming Oppa'(older brother). Eco-craft Instructor Leung Sin-yu says,'Whenever Kai sees a fellow trainee in bad mood, he will go comfort and help take care of him. Once a rather frustrated trainee lost temper with him, but Kai didn't blame his fellow for that. Rather he showed the trainee his care and spent even more time with him to keep him company and soothe his emotions.'

Sin-yu admitted that Kai has helped her a lot. 'Once we organised a primary school student workshop, and Kai and other trainees were there to introduce the topic of eco-friendliness, answer students' questions and make craft works with them. After the activities, we received many positive feedbacks from the students. One of them wrote, "I found out that these elder brothers and sisters can do very delicate handicrafts and they have answers for so many questions. They are awesome!"'

Discovering Self Values

Today, rehab persons are still being labelled. Kai also had some unpleasant experience. Once a stranger shouted at Kai on the street, saying he was walking too slowly and blocking the way. 'I told him straight away that I walked slow because I have spasm and limb incoordination.' Kai faces all difficulties with a positive attitude and strength. 'I have thought about giving up when I faced difficulties, but with the encouragement from friends around me, every time I chose to overcome the problems with my strength.'

All these years, as a rehab trainee at Heng On, Kai has learnt to make goods, gained training opportunities and made many good friends, but most of all, he has obtained recognition.

'We are always labelled as useless people and
treated like the waste materials we collect.
Actually, with proper process, waste can
turn into something useful, so it feels like my
own rebirth too when our team upcycles the
materials into goods,' said Kai smilingly.

Craft creation

The Salvation Army Heng On Integrated Vocational Rehabilitation Service provides different forms of vocational training, including craft creation trainings on 'Saori', 'handicraft' and 'eco-craft'. These trainings allow rehab trainees to develop and express their artistic talents, enrich their daily lives and help build their self-confidence. Their works will be showcased to the public in different forms of activities, or be sold as goods which can increase their sense of satisfaction and bring the trainees some monetary rewards.

Talent Shop

Established in 1996, Talent Shop is a virtual retail shop that mainly sells the craft goods produced by The Salvation Army Rehabilitation Ser vice and other welfare services units . Talent Shop is managed by unit staff and rehab trainees, with all proceeds used to subsidise the Shop's regular expenses and to cover training allowance for shop assistants. Moreover, at present there are trainees working as shopkeepers in The Salvation Army Recycling Programme Family Stores, where they can put the skills they learnt into use.