ENG-1977 — Page 27

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OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES: A fuller life for all

Despite the immense task of planning some 8,000 events over a three-month period, the Summer Youth Programme offers not only popular activities like swimming, excursions, variety shows and youth dances, but many unusual ones. As a result, youngsters are given the chance to learn archery and canoeing, and to exercise their ingenuity by entering design competitions using only waste materials and photographic portrait contests.

As in past years, camping topped the popularity poll during the 1977 programme, reflecting the enormous attraction of the outdoors for young city-dwellers. Typical of the interest-packed programmes were the Education Department's two four-day secondary schools' outdoor co-educational camps held at Silvermine Bay, on Lantau Island. There, for a fee of only $5 each, 240 pupils from 12 schools were taught map and campass reading, first aid and rope work; taken on hikes and overnight bivouacs; offered a big range of land and water activities, including table tennis, roller-skating, diving and sailing; and provided with all equipment and food.

Apart from providing these diversions, an important by-product of the Summer Youth Programme is its promotion of community education at many levels. There are specific courses in youth leadership; instruction in personal safety and care of the countryside are integral features of outdoor activities, and many programmes are designed to foster better understanding between the physically normal and the handicapped.

At the end of the programme, three Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club scholarships were awarded to enable the best three youth leaders to attend standard courses at the Outward Bound School. Another three leaders were chosen and sponsored by the Central Co-ordinating Committee for Youth Recreation to take part in the 1978 youth leadership camps to be jointly run by the Armed Services and the Social Welfare Department. The awards were made in recognition of the efforts of the participants and to act as a stimulus to youth programmes.

Hong Kong Youth Hostels Association

One private organisation active in the outdoor recreation field is the Hong Kong Youth Hostels Association, which was established in 1973 with the primary aim of providing leisure opportunities for the one million youngsters in the 15 to 25 age group.

Secondary aims are, as part of the International Youth Hostels movement, to cater for overseas hostellers passing through the territory and to enable young travellers from Hong Kong to enjoy the thousands of hostels located across the world.

Membership, which is open to all Hong Kong residents aged 14 and over, has grown rapidly. The association now operates five hostels - Wayfoong Hall at Plover Cove; Sze Lok Yuen on Tai Mo Shan; Pak Sha O Hostel; Cambrai Lodge at Nim Wan; and Bradbury Hall at Chek Keng.

Further sites on Lantau Island and Hong Kong Island are to be developed soon, and the association eventually expects to have a chain of hostels providing more than 1,000 beds.

The hostels provide inexpensive yet comfortable overnight accommodation under supervision, enabling all members - especially those of limited means to enjoy healthy recreation. The association particularly tries to foster appreciation and care