On June 16, the 59th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council commenced in Geneva.
As part of the session's activities, the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and the United Nations Office at Geneva co-hosted the opening of a thematic exhibition titled "Accessibility for All Exhibition: Building an Inclusive Future".
The opening ceremony featured speeches from Ambassador Chen Xu, Permanent Representative of China to the UN Office at Geneva, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Martin Chungong, Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and Vivian Kong, Olympic champion from Hong Kong.
In her speech, Kong emphasized HK's commitment to caring for disadvantaged elderly populations. She shared details of the "Food Angel Jockey Club Food Production Centre" project, which has provided 3.3 million "care food" to approximately 15,000 elderly individuals.
The event attracted more than 300 participants, including permanent representatives and senior diplomats from various countries, officials from international organizations, and members of the media.
The following is the full text of Vivian Kong's speech:
Excellencies, Distinguished delegates, thank you for being here with us today.
My name is Vivian Kong and it has been an honour to represent Hong Kong, China in three Olympics. I'm incredibly grateful to have turned my passion into a career and I've treated my athletic career as not just living my dream, but a privilege.
As professional athletes, we often have access to top-tier medical care, specialised world-class training facilities, and resources that are not readily available to everyone. I've had the best coaches, trainers, and equipment and most importantly, the unconditional support and a sense of security to fail, to lose over and over again hoping I'll win some day.
This privilege has forced me to reflect on how can we build a future where sports truly belong to everyone and more importantly, where pursuing our dreams feels accessible to all.
We're so proud of our athletes in representing inclusion, resilience and hope and their success, especially in the Paralympics, is a reflection of China's efforts to improve the well-being of people with disabilities.
In 2023, Laws on Construction of Barrier-free Environments was officially implemented in China to strengthen the construction of a barrier-free environment, ensure the equal, full and convenient participation and integration of the disabled and the elderly in social life.
In Hong Kong, a project that I'm proud to share that is related to the elderly and cultural accessibility is the Food Angel Jockey Club Food Production Centre, Hong Kong's largest food rescue and production centre for charitable food assistance.
In Chinese, we say, 「民以食為天」, which literally translates to food is heaven to the people. Our love language is food - we literally replace「你好嗎」(how are you) with「吃了嗎」（have you eaten).
In Hong Kong, we love dim sum, which literally means "order love'. Going to dim sum is the favourite activity for elderly but their aging oral muscles has weakened their ability to enjoy food.
What is so special about our food aid programme is that we also offer 3.3 million "Care Food" meals for around 15,000 disadvantaged senior citizens with different levels of swallowing difficulties.
Our Soft Meal with Love Programme recruits volunteers to prepare semi-solid dim sum meals and we even re-create the full "yum cha" dining experience with dim sum trolleys and performances to promote intergenerational connections.
At our volunteering events, both children and the elderly have shared with me their dreams of becoming an athlete. While children can still work towards their dreams, our elderly now dream of having a family meal together. Building an inclusive future means that every person feels seen, loved, valued, and cared for so that we can all find dreams more accessible. Thank you.
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