Care grows for disabled at Hong Kong vegetable plant
Processing boss offers introduction to world of work in a competitive business that sows seeds of responsibility for both colleagues and clients
In the middle of a space for processing produce, six workers are focused on their tasks at hand – peeling, chopping, mincing vegetables. They’ve been here since before dawn.
One of them is 52-year-old “Ah Ming”, who has a severe intellectual disability.
“When Ming first joined he couldn’t talk at all,” says John Wong Gee-chung, business manager of Tung Wah Group’s Enterprise Vegetable & Fruit Processing and Supply Service.
In fact, Ming was bullied by his peers, who had milder intellectual disabilities. “They called him stupid,” Wong says. “That was an interesting situation to deal with.”
But Wong stood up for Ming, and helped him come out of his shell. “It has taken years, but he can now speak up for himself if anyone was to say anything mean to him.”
Wong’s operation buys vegetables and fruit from farms and wholesalers, and then processes them according to what each client – which includes hospitals, NGOs, commercial caterers – needs. “For example, many old people can’t really chew their food, but cooks find it too time consuming to chop up all these vegetables, so we do it for them.”
And his team comprises mostly those with disabilities.
Tung Wah, which has nominated the social enterprise for a Lion Rock Entrepreneur Award in the Post’s Spirit of Hong Kong Awards, set up the operation in 2002 to offer opportunities for the disabled to help themselves.
He joined almost right from the start, and remembers what an arduous journey it has been. It was a small team back then and he had to help with everything, including taking over deliveries when their one and only driver got sick.
“Lucky I already had a truck driver’s licence, but I only became good after having to drive here,” he jokes.
It has been especially hard work because the competitive edge of the enterprise is to offer reliable deliveries daily throughout the year, whether rain, shine or typhoon.
“It’s tough to compete on price with vegetable processors on the mainland, where labour costs are lower. And we don’t use any additives, so we can’t start processing the produce too early, or it won’t be fresh.”
Everyone pitches in, especially when there are new disabled members and they have to figure out how to help each other.
Once, an autistic member who could not handle loud sounds joined the team.
“So what we did was to build a little fortress around her by stacking up the vegetable baskets. Over days, we took down one basket at time, gradually lowering her fortress walls, until she was finally eased into her surroundings.”
Wong is open to giving anyone a chance, but he is strict about work attitude. “This isn’t playgroup, you come here to work,” he says.
“Many of them, when they’re first hired, don’t have the concept of coming to work on time – especially since we have a brutally early 4am start.”
But slowly, they learn what “work” is all about – taking up responsibilities to yourself, your team members and your clients. And many of them, Wong is proud to report, have since moved on to getting jobs out in the real world.
