Mrs Clara Weatherall

Chairman Yang, Council Members, President Tong and Honoured Guests,

First of all, let me express my heartfelt thanks to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for conferring upon me the honour of this Fellowship. I am both humbled and delighted.

Social work education received little attention in the Chinese mainland until the 1990s, when social work educators from Hong Kong started to get involved, albeit in a cautious manner. One of them suggested that the Keswick Foundation could help. I was excited but nervous, and I realized we needed a partner that we could trust.

In 1994, the Keswick Foundation gave a one-off grant to the Asian and Pacific Association for Social Work Education to organize a conference and an intensive workshop for Chinese social work educators. The conference organiser was Professor Angelina Yuen, the then team leader in PolyU's Department of Applied Social Studies (now Department of Applied Social Sciences). Thus began an incredible partnership and an extraordinary journey.

In 2000, the Keswick Foundation started to fund PolyU's Master of Social Work (China) programme, run jointly with Peking University. The course was heavily over-subscribed, with all applicants being senior academics in social work who had never previously taught the subject in a practical sense. Twelve years on, we are now funding the 6th and 7th cohorts and by 2013 we will have about 200 graduates, many of whom have told me that the programme has changed their lives.

When Sichuan experienced the calamitous earthquake in 2008, our students were the first in and the last out. Post-disaster projects run jointly by PolyU and Sichuan University made a huge impact on those affected and our students' efforts were greatly appreciated. I went to see our projects in Chengdu in 2010 and was truly humbled by the experience.

The Keswick Foundation has also funded the China Association of Social Work Education (CASWE) based at Peking University, and again the PolyU has been instrumental in this.

For the past ten years, CASWE has been the driving force in the Chinese government's policy on social work education. It has published journals, hosted conferences across China and made sure that the benchmark of social work education remains at the very high standard set by PolyU.

I am gratified to hear that most social work educators and social workers in the Chinese mainland have benefitted directly or indirectly from the Keswick Foundation. For this, I would like to thank Angie and my friends in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, as they have done a great deal for social work education in China.

Thank you.

Mr Clifton Ko Chi-sum, MH

Professor Norman W.M. Ko

Mr Kong Qingping

Ir Tsui Tack-kong

Mrs Clara Weatherall

Mr Wong Tit-shing

(in alphabetical order of last name)