An almost impromptu arrangement over our luncheon meeting just two weeks earlier, this vocational visit was materialized quickly with a small delegation of 6 Rotarians visiting the Factory for the Blind of the Hong Kong Society for the Blind. The delegatoin consisted of our VP Francis Chan, Secretary Perry Yu, Community Service Director Fergus Fung, PP Simon Yung, PP So Kin Shing, and Charter Rotarian K P Lei which set off right after our luncheon meeting on 24 August 2005.

We were received by Mrs Grace Chan, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Society for the Blind at their headquarters in Sham Shui Po and headed straight to their service unit Factory for the Blind in To Kwa Wan. We were presented a brief history of the society and its work and the products and services of the facotry. The factory plays an important role not only in providing employment opportunities to the visually impaired in Hong Kong, but also in sustaining their dignity and training them for other employment and career oppotunities.

The Hong Kong Society for the Blind is a partner-in-service of Rotary and we discussed potential community service projects in which the society and our club can join hands. For example, we identified missing tactile maps, tactile signages and tactile guide paths in prominent tourist and shopping locations in Hong Kong. The society and its factory can provide expertise in design and production of such tactile facilities, while our club can provide other resources and coordination work with other partners or organizations in carrying out the projects.

Our visit highlights were of course a tour of the factory's Braille and Tactile Products Section where we saw machines in production and heard blind workers proudly explain their work in Braille product design and in "proofreading" the factory's finished Braille products through touch-reading. It was a short tour but a great eye-opening trip for us all.

A close look at the tactile map at at the headquarters of the Hong Kong Society of the Blind, which has been serving the visually impaired for decades since 1956.

At the Factory for the Blind, Factory Manager Phoenix Cheung and Mrs Grace Chan, Chief Executive of the Society, presented the society's work
and the factory's products and services.

We have a lively discussion with Mr Roger Ling, Director of Finance & Administration Division, Marketing Officer of the factory, Phoenix, Grace on the products and services of the Factory and potential community service projects for our club.

Factory staff Joyce gave us a tour of their production facilities and pressing equipment in their Braille/Tactile Products Section making tactile signages .

Computer-aided machining, fabrication and manufacturing of tactile signage plaques and other products.

Workers explain and demonstrate how they use touch-reading to "proofread" tactile signages produced in the Factory.

Rotarians listen to how a tactile name card mould for card production is used and marvel at how one can feel a email address from such a name card.

We also walk through the factory's Paper Box Section which makes cardboard and corrugated paper boxes of all sizes.

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