#vicky lam

Photography by Vicky Lam (vickylam.com).

Love Letters from the Battlefield

How words kept my grandparents connected during the second world war

Harry wrote to Jacquie: “When I think that even now I could be calling upon you, taking you to a dance, going to a show and doing those things normal people could be doing I feel personally one of the greatest horrors of war—the separation of men from those they love. However, I suppose that if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m in the service it might have taken ­longer for me to realize just how lucky I am. I hope for the best, darling, no matter which way things turn out.”

He signed the bottom of the page, folded the sheet, and slipped it into an envelope and carefully wrote a Vancouver address. Now he waited, not knowing what would come first: death or a reply.

Photography by Vicky Lam (vickylam.com).

Love Letters from the Battlefield

How words kept my grandparents connected during the second world war

On October 10, 1941, Harry Macdonald enlisted ­into the Canadian Active Service Force, one of more than 1.1 million Canadians and Newfoundlanders who would take part in the war. He filled in the attestation paper with the particulars of his young life to date: full name, address, religion, trade or calling, and next of kin. He said goodbye to his mother, his father, and his three younger sisters as he prepared to leave for training in Ontario. The evening before his departure, under the stars and drooping branches of a willow tree at the end of Jacquie’s family’s driveway, the young couple said good­bye. On a sign under the tree was an address—4545 Langara Avenue—that would come to represent not just home but hope.

Photography by Vicky Lam (vickylam.com).

Love Letters from the Battlefield

How words kept my grandparents connected during the second world war

On March 9, 1944, Harry wrote to Jacquie: “Everything depends upon two big ‘if’s’. If you agree, and, if I come out of this show alive. No matter what happens, darling, I think you are a grand person and I’m very much in love with you. Whichever way you and fate dictate as the course I shall follow will be accepted as my just due. I have memories of you and of our willow tree that I cherish beyond all else. I love you, Jacquie, more than I can say. Will you marry me?”

Photography by Vicky Lam (vickylam.com).

Love Letters from the Battlefield

How words kept my grandparents connected during the second world war

Harry Mac­donald, a Canadian soldier, had sent Jacquelyn Robinson dozens of letters, spanning several years—letters written in spidery cursive by candlelight as rain ­pounded down on corrugated rooftops or amid the blasts of nearby shelling. His letters were often rushed or cut short, with some started and finished with hours or even days in between. He ­frequently apologized for his messy handwriting, hoping his words would be legible. One letter, sent five days before, written in haste, contained a question for which he anxiously awaited a reply. The letter had begun with a familiar two words, “Dear Jacquie,” and ended with a ­question: “Will you marry me?”

(林熙 @Lacee Lacey 前香港樂團)

林泳淘 Wingt (@wingt) • Instagram

Vicky Lam Wing To 1990年1月11日 香港藝員 T170cm

This post was originally on Westside Studio's blog (written by Alex Beetham) featuring Vicky Lam's process for creating a really cute ad for Vimovo. When I saw that Westside included the original concept drawing I knew it must be from someone on Jorgen's List. My guess was Trevor Gustafson or Terry Brown, but it turns out the artwork was done by the talented Stuart Godfrey.

Green Innovation

Even though the two social enterprises that Ventures in Development has incubated so far are yak-related and seem to solve the social problems in rural China only, ViD is interested in both rural and urban challenges, and is open-minded to conducting all types of program as long as it has the potential to grow into a sustainable social enterprise that can promote economic development. The monthly social innovation salon thus serves the purpose of collecting new, creative and feasible ideas for the incubation of future social enterprises.

On my last day interning with ViD, I helped organizing another social innovation salon in Hong Kong. This time, we discussed an urban challenge that is closely related to our daily lives and is common to most of the modernized cities—municipal waste recycling. In a world where consumerism takes the lead, tonnes of wastes are generated every day. Therefore, it is important to think of a sustainable way to treat the waste products instead of incinerating or dumping them into the limited landfills. While I was researching on this topic, I came across many creative and feasible solutions from abroad. However, to my surprise, only 1% of the recovered wastes in Hong Kong are recycled into something useful locally—the rest of them are exported to foreign companies as raw materials for making other goods. Another problem I noticed from my research is that the high value-added wastes such as paper, aluminum cans and plastics contributed to 93% of the recycled wastes. Due to a longer treatment process and a lower return rate, a limited scope of other wastes such as glass bottles and putrescibles (food wastes) are recycled. Obviously, we need a more long-term and innovative way to change the situation. In fact, this recycling business can be a good social enterprise idea too!

Pie chart showing the composition of recovered wastes in Hong Kong in 2008.

To stimulate our salon participants’ innovative mind, ViD contacted ECOLS, a stylish store selling creatively-recycled products from worldwide, and hosted our salon there. Sitting on an armchair made of egg cartons and looking at a handbag made with the pull-tabs from aluminum cans, our participants came up with ideas of how to create an SE that is based on recycling and re-creating products made of glass, wood, rattan, putrescibles and rubber tyres.

Phoebe Yuen, co-founder of ECOLS, explained the store’s concept and philosophy to the salon participants

Out of all solutions, my personal favorite is the “Wood Bank” idea. The group that was assigned to thinking about recycling wood and rattan came up with the idea of opening a Wood Bank, which is essentially a repository for scrap wood and leftover wood from construction sites etc. Individuals who need the wood for other purposes (such as making small furniture for their homes) can come and buy the wood at a cheap price. A workshop will be set up in the Wood Bank where craftsmen will design and teach children how to make recycled wooden products. The selling of the recycled products will provide a stable source of income for this Wood Bank to become a financially independent social enterprise.

Our salon participants brainstorming on the “Wood Bank” idea

Although the feasibility and effect of opening a Wood Bank or adopting the other solutions suggested at the salon is yet to be determined, ViD has at least brought up the waste recycling issue to a group of socially-minded young professionals. The salon has also served ViD’s mission of spreading the awareness of social enterprises, letting the participants know that there are alternative approaches to solving a social challenge. Hopefully with the help of the word of mouth, more people will be aware of these social issues, join in discussing them at the salon and eventually share ViD’s vision!

Social Innovation Salons

When I first learnt from Carol (my PennSEM mentor) that one of my responsibilities this summer will be to host Ventures in Development’s salons, I was a bit confused. Firstly, I don’t possess any hair-cutting skills; secondly, I thought ViD only deals with yak fur, not human hair?

The official definition of ‘social innovation salon’ from ViD’s webpage is “a monthly after-work cocktail event that will stimulate a cross-disciplinary audience to generate innovative ideas that address particular social issues”. Even though I was momentarily relieved to learn that there will be no hair-cutting involved in this event, I still couldn’t quite grasp the idea until I coordinated a salon in Hong Kong last month.

  A group of participants brainstorming ideas at the Social Innovation Salon

To make things simple, a social innovation salon is basically a discussion group that runs in a creative format. In my opinion there are 3 points that make our salon stands out from normal discussion groups:

1. Cross-disciplinary audience: The more diverse, the better! Participants who are non-experts in the area of discussion are most welcome so that more unconventional ideas can be brainstormed.

2. Quick brainstorm and pitch format: Instead of a laundry list of solutions or a long-winded elaboration with pros and cons, we ask our participants to throw out quick and focused ideas so as to get the creative juices flowing freely.

3. Incremental follow-up: The salon is just a start. We want to put the ideas generated into action and scale it up to a feasible project step by step. The detail flow is as follows:

Every month, ViD will select a discussion topic that is of social interest, yet, hasn’t received enough attention from the society to make significant progress. Since the salon is held monthly in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei, we will discuss a social problem that is general to these 3 places. Previous discussion topics spans from migrant workers to elderly care. As for our salons in July, we decided to explore ways to help marginalized childrenin the region.

The difficulties encountered by marginalized children often relate to education and integration into the local community. As the old saying goes, “the youngsters today are the leaders of tomorrow”, the importance of cultivating marginalized children cannot be neglected. In the case of Hong Kong, there are 2 groups of children that can be classified as ‘marginalized children’—the ‘new immigrant children’ who came to Hong Kong from the mainland China, and the ‘ethnic-minority children’, generally referring to South Asian children (e.g. Pakistani, Nepalese, Indians) who resided in Hong Kong when their parents come here to work. We decided to focus on the latter group due to a less portion of resources allocated to helping them and more barriers that they have to face. The details of this salon, including creative solutions pitched by the participants can be read from our typepad blog.

  A participant pitching his group’s idea of having a cricket program for both local and EM children to facilitate integration.

Through taking part in this salon, I better understood not just the problems faced by the ethnic-minority children, but also the process of social innovation. Start small, but think big! Even the most seemingly-outrageous idea can be the start of a feasible model if enough follow-up steps are taken. I’m now on my way to prepare this month’s salon and am truly excited at the thought that my little contribution might have stimulated the growth of a social enterprise that solves a particular social problem in my hometown!