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Enabling the Disabled
A) What Is It About?
This is a dream in 2 parts :
1) Connecting the visually impaired with mainstream society through wine tasting workshop after UK study.
Holding a wine tasting related certificate in Hong Kong, I plan to further study in the UK to broaden my knowledge bank in this field. I would then come back to Hong Kong and conduct wine tasting teaching workshops for the general public and those with different disabilities.
2) To offer workshops that inspire the disabled to move into a greater expression of their lives
I’m Elvin, a visually impaired bachelor fresh graduate in HK who has a strong passion for wine tasting. Given the more conservative culture in Asian countries, you may ask why am I involved in wine tasting? More importantly, how can I actually “taste wine” without accurately seeing its colors, thickness, and so on? Let me share my story with you.
I have a remaining vision of less than 10%, yet I studied in mainstream schools when I was 12. The first time I tasted alcohol was in my secondary school year. After graduation from high school, I met friends from different countries – the UK, Germany, France, etc. We hung out and naturally drank, from beer to wine. I found that wine is such an important element in the social world for literally everybody on the 5 continents. We connect with one another in various kinds of settings through wine. It is no exaggeration to say that wine is a product of nature and it has connected people for thousands of years.
As weird as it may seem, I started to wonder and observe the difficulties for the visually impaired to broaden their connections. Things that we often take for granted, they seem to require much effort from the VIs. Things get harder at the workplace, especially in HK, without an inclusive working environment. I want to gain experience in the UK, to learn and bring back their much more mature diverse-ability culture to HK. I have just gotten my bachelor’s degree, and decided that this is the best time to explore the world and launch this project. As life is short, we should by no means waste our time hesitating and dreaming without really putting our thoughts into practice. I hope that my experience in organising this crowdfunding project would be inspiring for others to show that we, despite disability, can still achieve our dreams if we are brave and fight for it.
I have pursued a bachelor’s degree in International Hospitality and Service Management in HK, as well as a certificate of WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) Level 2. With the determination to connect the visually impaired and society, I conduct workshops teaching them how to professionally taste wine without relying on the eyes by feeling the smells, textures, feeling, etc.
I also cooperate with CareER, a self-help NGO gathering students with special education needs (SEN) in tertiary education. They invite me to conduct guest talks and pilot workshops for their members and this gives me a valuable experience.
To enhance my skills in wine tasting, I have decided to pursue further studies in the UK and therefore, need funding for both academic fees and costs of conducting workshops. I will work as an intern in a winery there so as to afford my own living costs and examination fees. If circumstances allow, I will start my journey to the UK in June 2020.
If you would like to find out how I taste wine without a good vision, we have created different perks, including a wine tasting workshop held by me, demonstrating and teaching you how exactly I do it. Please explore more and support us. Let’s fight for an inclusive society.
An article about myself:
不認命洗一世碗,視障青年眾籌15萬,冀出國深造圓品酒導師夢
B) What Do We Need?
Item |
Amount (HKD) |
Wine studies in the UK
- Certificate in Wine and Beverage Studies
- WineSkills Principles of Vine-growing (Plumpton College)
|
55,000 |
Workshop operation cost |
25,000 |
Disability employment and training for the workshop |
30,000 |
Transportation and visa costs |
20,000 |
Website management fee, media production
and Indegogo platform charges
|
20,000 |
Total |
150,000 |
C) What Can You Get?
D) The Impact
The most important impact is to promote the importance of SEN employment. We want to prove that SENs have the same working ability as normal people. Visually impaired people may not be sensitive to social etiquette due to the limitation of vision and social contact. The blind wine tasting workshop can let blind people learn some basic knowledge of wine tasting and social etiquette. Through workshops, we hope that it could help them to build up confidence. Also, the general public is welcomed to join the workshop. They can experience what the blind like through wearing eye mask during wine tasting activity. We believe that it could bring an invaluable impact to blind people, visually impaired people and the public.
E) Risks & Challenges
Choosing a suitable advanced learning course for enhancing my professional knowledge
Offering fair and practical job opportunity to the disabled for demonstrating their talents and showing them dignity.
Preparing high-quality equipment for workshop.for best illustrating the art of wine tastingÂ
Finding an optimal venue for the workshop for providing the highest comfort to the participants during the workshop.
Our Weapons
- Innovative mindset
- Persistent personality
- Firm team
Our Actions
- Gaining your generous support: If you share a similar idea with mine, please exchange with me your idea to see how much sparks we can make.
- Researching: my team works so hard in selecting the most suitable course for best utilizing the time and resources in advanced learning.
- Taking active actions: we will frequently contact the wineries in the UK by sending email and phone-calling in order to search for the best winery for an internship.
- Connecting with other organizations: this makes sure I can best gain experience and cooperation opportunities for developing the workshop.
F) Other Ways You May Help
- Spread out this campaign to your social circle
- Participate in our workshop
- Resources referral, such as reporter, *(shoot marketing our brand on different media)Â free accommodation (save cost), co-working space, the network of wine experts and potential employers
- Give LIKE to facebook page
G) My Team
Kenny Wong - Co-founder
Elvin Lam - Co-founder
Eli Tang - Co-founder
Allen Wong - Co-founder
Frederic Lau - Co-founder