Animals in Our Community

Animals in Our Community

Are you aware that the once colourful coral reef is losing its vivid colours under the sea, the stray cats and dogs are foraging for food, and the wild birds are flying into the windows of skyscrapers? Animals are all around us in our community, and they are, like us, striving for a better habitat. Unfortunately, there are always conflicts arising from the encounters between humans and animals. How should we handle the human-animal relationship?

• Why should we care about animals?
• How to care about animals?
• What could we do for animals?

We welcome you to be our SIMMERs to open your mind and heart to delve into animals’ world and design innovative solutions to promote a biodiversity-friendly community.

你曾否看見水平線下別有洞天的珊瑚世界開始褪色、到處搜刮食物的貓狗、自由飛翔卻撞窗的野鳥？我們與動物共同躋身在都市中，同樣地為著理想生活尋找屬於自己的

一片天，但往往在互動中產生不同的矛盾與衝突，我們應該如何對待與動物的關係呢？

• 為何要愛護動物？
• 怎樣才是愛護動物？
• 我可以做什麼？

歡迎成為SIMMERs，與伙伴一同設計創新點子，推動生物多樣性友善都市！

Recap

16 Oct 2022 Marine Ecology Discovery Tour

The Social Innovation Makers: Animal in our Community launched the first programme on 16 Oct 2022. Trainers from the Excellent Conservation Association led 16 SIMMERs to learn about coral ecology and conservation in Hong Kong. Both of them had an in-depth discussion about harmful acts caused by human activities that cause coral bleaching. To get closer to marine life, SIMMERs got the chance to snorkel to see the coral reef underwater and conserve the surrounding by cleaning up the rubbish on the coast.

29 Oct 2022 Dog Volunteer Day

SIMMERs visited a Non-governmental Organisation called “Home for Homeless Dog” on 29 Oct 2022. April, the founder of the organisation, explained the difficulties faced by stray dogs to SIMMERs including public hatred and misunderstanding towards them, irresponsible pet abandonment and the unfair animal euthanasia system.

Therefore, she established “Home for Homeless Dog” to rescue these poor animals, take good care of them and help them to look for adoptive families.

During the visit, SIMMERs interacted with the stray dogs and found them very friendly to humans. SIMMERs also reflected a lot and wished to develop an innovative project to cope with this social issue to rescue more dogs from the unfair system.

29 Oct 2022 Pitching Day

On 21 December 2022, the SIMMER teams presented their solutions to promote animal conservation in front of the judges. The following two teams won the Social Innovation Kick-start Fund to implement their solutions in the next semester.

Special thanks to all the mentors and judges to share their valuable experiences on animal protection and project management with our students.

Top - Champion: Discover the relationship between humans and wild boars

Bottom - Execution Award: Design an escape room for participants to understand dogs-humans interaction

Mentors