Po Leung Kuk charity appoints 16 ‘national security tutors’ under gov’t scheme

The Po Leung Kuk, one of Hong Kong’s oldest and largest charities, has appointed 16 staff members to serve as “national security tutors” under a government scheme to promote national security awareness among its workforce, service users, and members of the public.

Senior service managers May Cheung and Sherman Cheung said at the Kuk’s “national security education team” launch ceremony that they volunteered to join as tutors, Ming Pao reported.

May Cheung said the team will not “force-feed” concepts of national security, but will instead spread awareness through celebrations like the Mid-Autumn Festival.

She added that many other national security initiatives are already underway at the charity. For example, she and colleagues in child care services will design picture books embedded with national security themes that will be distributed to more than 100 schools and educational institutions run by the Kuk throughout Hong Kong.

The organisation said the tutors will promote national security through a four-tier approach: internal staff training, national security exhibitions, education for service users, and broader community outreach.

Founded in 1878 to combat the trafficking of women and children in Hong Kong and to provide shelter and education for victims, the Po Leung Kuk now operates elderly care homes, rehabilitation clinics, healthcare facilities, holiday camps, and schools at every level.

Spreading the word

Hong Kong leader John Lee announced in his 2024 Policy Address that authorities would train tutors at the district level to promote national security education in the community.

Members of community care teams – introduced in 2022 as part of Lee’s scheme “to improve district governance” and to support authorities’ work across Hong Kong’s 18 districts – would be the first to receive training. The city currently has more than 450 care teams with over 5,000 volunteer members in total.

The District Tutor Training Scheme was then launched by the Security Bureau and Home and Youth Affairs Bureau in November 2024.

In June this year, Ming Pao reported that the Social Welfare Department sent letters to around 200 subsidised non-governmental social service organisations, inviting them to nominate managerial-level staff to undergo training to become national security instructors.

According to the government letter obtained by Ming Pao, each instructor is required to promote national security information to at least 30 people annually.

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Irene Chan is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press and has an interest in covering political and social change. She previously worked at Initium Media as chief editor for Hong Kong news and was a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation serving the underprivileged. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Fudan University and a master’s degree in social work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Irene is the recipient of two Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards and three honourable mentions for her investigative, feature and video reporting. She also received a Human Rights Press Award for multimedia reporting and an honourable mention for feature writing.