Back-Youth-Up Participants – Tang Hoi Man
A young boy sat in a corner of the Aroma slum in Manila. I handed him a hamburger-shaped candy I brought from Hong Kong and said, “This is for you!” He looked unsure and hesitated to take it. After carefully opening the wrapper, he did something unexpected — he tore the candy in half and gave a piece to his little sister, who was completely naked. As he chewed the candy, his eyes lit up with a joy that was hard to hide. That moment became one of my most unforgettable memories from the Project Just-Comp volunteer trip in Manila.
It was just an ordinary piece of candy, but to children in the slums, it was a precious gift. Project Just-Comp brings young people to different places through local and overseas volunteer trips. This year, we went to Manila in the Philippines and Nairobi in Kenya. I’ve always dreamed of exploring the world, and this journey full of unknowns became my chance.
In the Philippines, we visited a prison where people were still waiting for trial. As the large blue iron gate opened, a strong, unpleasant smell hit us. Inside was a big cage with about 50 people squeezed together. We stood in a line in front of the cage and introduced ourselves. Seeing this, I thought: if they haven’t been found guilty yet, they shouldn’t be treated so inhumanely. Prisoners are still human beings and deserve basic living rights. You can tell a lot about a country’s level of civilisation by how it treats its prisoners.
Both the Philippines and Kenya gained independence after being colonised. Kenya, for example, was under British rule for 70 years. Even though it’s now independent, people still don’t have full freedom of speech. In the Kibera slum in Kenya, I met a girl who told me, “If I speak my mind, I live in fear every day.”
I asked friends in both places, “Why should we still care about justice?” A girl from Kenya said, “Because I’ve seen how unfairly women are treated, and I want to change that.” A girl from the Philippines said, “Because I want to change the place where I grew up.” Maybe it’s our conscience and dreams that keep us fighting for justice.
In both the Philippines and Kenya, I met kind and interesting people. On the way into the slums, children gave us high-fives and even held our hands to keep us from falling. They invited us to sing and dance, to run and play on the grass under the sunset. When we left, they waved goodbye through the car window and shared their dreams with us. Their kindness and hope made us forget the bad smells of the slums and the unfairness of reality.
The boy who took the candy disappeared into the crowd. Behind him, it felt like there were many bamboo dragonflies flying from Hong Kong — may we, like the children there, stay kind and fly high like those dragonflies, chasing the dreams hidden deep in our hearts.