At the age of 20, few people are as definite about their career choice as Emily Chan Ying-yang was.

Her parents hoped for her to follow the family tradition and become a respected doctor, but she also had a strong desire to do humanitarian aid work.

Since she made her decision, Chan, now 50, has had numerous front-line experiences bringing care and hope to people around the world.

In war-torn Kosovo, she had a gun pointed at her forehead while escorting a pregnant patient to another region. In Cambodia, she freed young girls from the "fiery pit" of the sex-trafficking trade.

In the slums of Thailand, she sought out people with AIDS and helped them to discover their self-respect and start a new life.

Decades later, and Chan is now chief executive officer of the GX Foundation, a Chinese medical humanitarian aid and charitable organization based in Hong Kong. As part of her role, she shows young people how to conduct humanitarian work in Belt and Road participating regions and countries, such as Cambodia.

Life choices

In her fourth year of secondary school, Chan was sent to the United States to study. Attaining first place in chemistry in California, she gained admission to Johns Hopkins University and qualified to do medical studies after completing a Bachelor of Science degree.

She soon learned that laboratory research was not for her. After the recommendation of her mentor, she joined a United Nations humanitarian project in drought-stricken Zimbabwe in southern Africa as a junior research assistant. The work involved assessing levels of nutrition and vaccinations.

The fragility of human life that Chan felt deeply during her time in Zimbabwe instilled in her the importance of doing humanitarian work. "I want to help those in need at a time of adversity," Chan said.

It was the first time she had witnessed a world torn by war, disaster and disease, and it made her realize that she wanted a life different from that of her parents.

Chan, of course, was met with strong objections from her parents when she broke the news to them that she wanted to stray from the path they had set for her. At one point, she even thought about dropping out of the prestigious medical school she was studying at and remaining in Africa.

Chan's success also reflects Hong Kong's deep connections to humanitarian activities.

She said as a city with high-level healthcare ability, the humanitarian support work carried out by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is equivalent to any other, and the SAR's international standing helps link contributions from different areas.

"Hong Kong has been blessed with a good culture of 'contribution' and 'resources giving' for the public good during the past century. Most of the charities and local NGOs are well developed, with proper financial monitoring and management systems," Chan said.

Leung Chun-ying, founder and chairman of the GX Foundation and a former HKSAR chief executive, noted that the procedures for setting up a nongovernmental organization in Hong Kong are simple. He added that the HKSAR government has good management of local NGOs.

Under the advantages of "one country, two systems", Hong Kong enjoys convenient access to many countries and regions. As a global maritime center and a regional transshipment hub, the SAR can transport mobile operating theaters and medical supplies to countries in West Africa, Leung said. It also has advantages in the entire process of procurement, payment, delivery, and management.

In addition, the city's bilingual education system has cultivated a generation of young people eager to travel and work outside the Chinese context, Chan added.

Forging bonds

Tiffany Shum Sze-tung was among the first batch of GX Foundation volunteers. In 2019, the then medical student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, traveled to Cambodia with doctors and medical workers from the Chinese mainland.

During her time volunteering, Shum was deeply impressed by the "people-to-people bond" between the Chinese volunteers and the Cambodians.

Doctors from the Chinese mainland had also left behind their families and put their work on pause for several months to participate in one regional aid program.

Engaging in humanitarian aid overseas gave the young doctors opportunities to see Belt and Road Initiative projects under construction, as well as the people and efforts involved, Shum said. Chinese engineers working on BRI infrastructure projects in Cambodia stayed in their posts for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic and did not go home, she said.

"I could see their determination, and feel their joy when they saw that we are all Chinese," said Shum, who is now a medical doctor. "There is a lot of hard work behind the tall buildings we see in these countries."

Volunteering in underdeveloped areas has also made Shum appreciate the joy of living in Hong Kong. The city has sufficient resources and a well-developed medical system, which are both important to spur young people to go out in the world and help promote exchanges with less-fortunate people.

Nicole Tung Wing-hei, a then fourth-year medical student studying at the University of Hong Kong, was shocked by the scarcity of medical resources when she went to Cambodia in January to participate in a project to treat cataract blindness. She said she realized the importance of going in person to areas in need of help, to provide support.

"There was only one doctor in that province who can do eye surgery, and that doctor is now a university dean and no longer does clinical work," Tung said.

Although the place she interned in had the largest hospital in the impoverished province, the equipment was in poor condition and the wards were crowded. Instead of seeing local doctors, wealthy locals went to Thailand or the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh for better medical treatment.

Tung was responsible for triaging the patients at the hospital, conducting health education, and visiting patients in rural villages. She got to know and work with students from Macao, the Chinese mainland, and Taiwan.

Tung told China Daily that medical students in Hong Kong have few opportunities to do practical medical work during their first three years of study. Therefore, opportunities to go overseas for humanitarian support are highly valued.

The Cambodia project that Tung participated in was the GX Foundation's first overseas intern program involving students from the mainland and other regions of China, Chan explained.

"After COVID-19, we had a lot of interest from young graduates from the mainland and Macao who wished to join the GX Foundation. They see the GX Foundation as one of the Chinese medical humanitarian work platforms that allows them to work and contribute overseas," Chan said.

"Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were students who wished to take part in humanitarian support work."

By October, the foundation had conducted over 16,000 cataract surgeries in five countries — Laos, Cambodia, Djibouti, Mauritania and Senegal. In January this year, it launched the first project of its kind for health protection against dengue fever in Timor-Leste. It also distributed 50,000 rapid dengue diagnostic kits, 500 mosquito nets, 2,600 mosquito lamps and 30,000 insect glue traps.

Volunteers ready

A volunteer pool of young medical students and retired medical professionals from both the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, keep the GX Foundation's numerous aid programs running.

Hong Kong has gradually increased the platforms and opportunities for young people to participate in the growing humanitarian relief work.

In its 2022-2023 report, the Hong Kong Red Cross, for example, said it carried out emergency relief, post-disaster recovery and reconstruction work in 17 countries and regions, benefiting over 430,000 people. OXFAM Hong Kong said it implemented 272 projects globally in the same period and reached a total of over 1.5 million people in its global poverty reduction efforts.

The GX Foundation has also carried out training in Laos and Cambodia for local medical clinics, with the aim of preparing them to perform their own surgeries.

Providing medical care is the first step in humanitarian assistance and training local medical personnel is the next, Chan said.

Shum said: "There are only a few ophthalmologists in Cambodia.

Senegal has very few ophthalmologists in the whole country, with maybe one for thousands or tens of thousands of people."

In November last year, a GX Foundation team visited villages in Kanh Chriech, Cambodia, along with a medical team from China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, to conduct eye examinations. They also trained 12 local medical personnel on how to screen for cataracts.

When the team returned to the villages in June, the trained medical personnel were proficient in conducting vision tests, measuring eye pressure, and screening patients for cataracts.

Channa, one of the local health workers, used to obtain medical knowledge from watching online videos and struggled to win the trust of her patients.

After receiving training from the team, she can identify the characteristics of cataracts and can use the correct examination methods. More patients are now willing to come to her hospital for eye examinations.

In September, the foundation rolled out a program in Timor-Leste, which utilizes nanotechnology-based equipment to provide clean water that can be drunk directly.

Leung, GX's chairman, said the foundation's next step will be to openly raise funds on the mainland and in Hong Kong. It also plans to solicit donations from communities on the mainland and the SAR in the future, he added.

Leung said as a national civic organization, which is also a distinct Hong Kong organization, the GX Foundation does not use the money of the SAR government or the country, but raises funds from private enterprises and families.

"Instead of hegemony and war, we bring humility and peace to the world. Instead of guns and death, we bring medicine and health to the world," he said.

In June, Shum led a team of 11 Hong Kong medical students to Senegal for mosquito prevention education, in the hope of passing on knowledge and experience from one generation to the next, just as her mentor Chan had done.

Being able to lend a helping hand overseas has made the young doctor understand in tangible ways the significance of the Belt and Road initiatives as well as people-to-people bonds.