Devotion to overseas relief work

Mr Walter Leung Wai-yin is a senior nurse. In 2008, he joined the Hong Kong Red Cross to become a medical volunteer. In November 2010, he participated in overseas relief work for the first time when he set off to Pakistan over a six-month period, following massive flooding there. Since then, he has travelled abroad for various humanitarian missions, including helping to set up a temporary hospital in the Philippines to offer emergency medical services to people affected by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013; joining the community quarantine and health education work in Liberia to control transmission of the fatal Ebola virus for four weeks in 2014; and providing medical services to disaster affected people at a temporary hospital in a Nepalese remote rural area in the aftermath of a magnitude 7.9 earthquake, over four weeks in 2015.

Through typhoon relief work in the Philippines, he saw how family members of the deceased were subjected to further agony when the dead bodies could not be disposed of immediately. So, he set up a quiet corner in the temporary hospital for mourning family members to keep a vigil over the dead until their burials.

Taking on a companion role

Walter has also participated in many longstanding poverty-relief initiatives. From 2011 to 2013, he helped “Health In Action” carry out a health promotion and disease prevention project within the slum areas of Manila, the Philippines, which required him to remain there for three days every month. From the project’s completion until now, Walter has contributed books and financial donations made in his own name to support the growth and educational needs of the local children. Since 2013, Walter has visited Mother Teresa’s of Calcutta Centre in India every year. Besides providing medical services at the clinic he was attached to, he also looked after the sick and the destitute at the Home for the Dying and played a companion role, keeping them accompanied as they lived out their final days.

In recent years, Walter has teamed up with medical students of the local group “Medical Outreachers” to roll out community emergency first aid and healthcare services and training for villagers of Nepal’s mountainous and remote regions and shared his knowledge and experiences with the students and inspired them to pursue the legacy of humanitarian services.