More than 10,000 children in Beijing will learn coping skills to deal with difficult life situations when the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), supported by a HK$2.92million donation from the Hongkong Bank Foundation, launches Zippy’s Friends project, an emotional education programme for that helps 5 to 6 years olds to develop coping and social skills.

Zippy’s Friends was developed by Partnership for Children (PfC), an international charity based in UK. It is currently running in kindergartens and primary schools in 13 countries, and has reached over 120,000 children.

Zippy's Friends promotes the mental health of young children and emotional wellbeing of young children through developing social skills such as making and keeping friends, communicating with others, resolving conflicts, coping loneliness, bullying, change and loss and adapting to new situations.

Beijing is the third city in China to run Zippy’s Friends, following successful launches in Hong Kong in 2004 and Shanghai in 2006.

HKIEd will collaborate with the China National Institute for Educational Research (CNIER) to introduce the programme in Beijing in the coming three years.

Speaking at a sharing session of Zippy’s Friends today (8 May), Professor Cheng Yin Cheong, HKIEd’s Acting President, said, “Zippy's Friends in Hong Kong and Shanghai shows very promising progress in helping children to develop coping and social skills. We are deeply grateful for the continuous support and donation from HSBC, which allows us to continue to promote emotional and social well-being to more young children in more cities.”

Classes for children in Beijing will begin in September. In the first year, the programme will run in 30 kindergartens, involving 900 children and 60 teachers.

Besides training programmes for trainers and teachers, HKIEd, jointly with CNIER, will support teachers and schools in programme monitoring and evaluation during the 3-year project.

By August 2011, it is expected that more than 12,300 young children in over 140 kindergartens will benefit from the project, and training will have been provided to more than 280 teachers.

Presenting the cheque for the donation at the dissemination session, Mr Vincent Cheng, Chairman of HSBC Asia Pacific, said: "I am very pleased to be able to report to you today that we are once again adding to our initial investment in Zippy's Friends by donating HK$2.92 million to extend this programme to Beijing. This our total donations to Zippy's Friends to just shy of HK$9 million over four years. This may seem like a lot of money and it is. But we are confident it is money well spent - money which produces immeasurable returns."

In the past four years, more than 20,000 young children in about 400 schools in Hong Kong have benefited from the Zippy’s Friends programme.

An evaluation study in Hong Kong has shown that the programme has led to clear improvements in children’s coping and social skills. The participating children are more frequent in using constructive coping strategies, such as saying sorry or telling the truth, talking to someone, trying to relax and stay calm. Their teachers also reported the programme helps the children to share their views and feelings.

Zippy’s Friends was first introduced in Hong Kong in 2004 by HKIEd with the support of HK$3.56 million from HSBC, making Hong Kong the first city in China to benefit from the programme.

Following the tremendous success in Hong Kong, HKIEd together with the East China Normal University, launched the programme in Shanghai in 2006 with another HK$2.42 million donation from HSBC.

The generous donation towards Zippy’s Friends Beijing continues the Hongkong Bank Foundation’s commitment to early childhood education development in China and takes the Foundation’s total support to Zippy’s Friends in China to HK$8.9million.

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(Please click the photo to get a higher resolution image)

	Mr Vincent Cheng, Chairman of HSBC Asia Pacific, presents a HK$2.92 million cheque to HKIEd to support the extending the Zippy’s Friend project to Beijing.
	Mr Vincent Cheng and children from the HKIEd HSBC Early Childhood Learning Centre demonstrate a Zippy’s Friends project activity - “Flower of Reconciliation”.
	Mr and Mrs Vincent Cheng view the display boards of the participating schools.
	Professor Cheng Yin Cheong, HKIEd’s Acting President, thanks HSBC for the continuous support and donation, which enables HKIEd to run the Zippy's Friends in Hong Kong and Shanghai with promising progress in helping children to develop coping and social skills.

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