Earlier this year, r é n began a new partnership with the French food services and facilities management company Sodexo, and thanks to its General Manager Adrian Copeland and his team, our youth beneficiary Sze Long has now joined the canteen team at the Christian Alliance International School of Hong Kong!

As a person with Down Syndrome, Sze Long has unfortunately struggled to find suitable – and meaningful – employment for many years. “For a long time, my son was working at places like a car wash or at offices, but it didn’t give him the fulfillment he needed,” she tells us. “He was part of another vocational training programme previously that was catered to people with Down Syndrome, and it involved washing cars and cleaning offices. He spent a year and a half in that programme, but he wasn’t very happy with it.”

That all changed when Sze Long and his mum discovered our R21 Programme and our efforts to help persons with Down Syndrome. The two were introduced to the initiative through another parent whose child was in one of our previous cohorts, and as soon as she learned of what it entailed, she was immediately interested and reached out to our team.

“My son joined some of r é n’s vocational training sessions,” Sze Long’s mother recalls, “and it didn’t take long until they found him employment at Sodexo and CAIS – the whole process only took around three to four months. Even during his earlier training sessions like r é n’s pop-ups at Food Parc, you could already tell he was much happier.”

Sze Long now works two days a week at the canteen – Wednesdays and Fridays – where he has been helping with tasks like serving food and cleaning the dining area since the end of August. His mum tells us it’s a great job for him because he loves eating and the canteen always feeds him when he’s there. “They even give him extra food to bring home in takeaway boxes,” she says with a laugh.

“Sze Long is obviously very happy, but as parents, opportunities like these also make us very happy,” she adds. “Because you can really see and feel the respect coming from r é n and Sodexo. Even if my son has Down Syndrome, they don’t treat him any differently or refuse to accept him, which are things that often happen in our society. They give a lot of respect to both the disadvantaged youths and their caretakers, and that means a lot to us.

“To other parents, I’d say: have faith. As a parent of someone with Down Syndrome, I never imagined Sze Long would be able to do what he’s doing now. There were times when I thought he would spend his whole life just in vocational training schools or doing small, unfulfilling jobs here and there like he used to, and I was ready to accept that. But that’s not true at all. They are capable, and they have the potential. You just need to find the right jobs, the right opportunities, and there is so much they can achieve. Never be afraid to give it a try.”