Voices For the Forgotten

“Our mission at MedArt is to serve the forgotten through medicine and music,” Dr John Ngan, its Founder, said.

Officially founded in 2003, the charity organisation MedArt has two outreach programmes. “Our China Orphan Outreach programme uses medicine to try to restore the functions of orphaned babies in Mainland China suffering from life-threatening medical conditions, thus give them new opportunities in life. Providing evaluations, consultations and surgical treatment by experienced specialists without charge makes adoption a reality. When others have given up, together we persevere.”

MedArt also believes in the power of music to re-connect broken relationships. In its second programme, Music Outreach, volunteers regularly perform musical pieces in prisons, psychiatric hospitals, hospices and similar institutions, bringing the joy and serenity of music to those confined there. “Through each note and the rhythm of melodies, we express our brotherly love to individuals who have little contact with the outside world. We believe the subtlety of ‘giving and receiving’ will resonate on and off the stage in the dynamics of each and every performance.” In recent years, MedArt volunteers have been allowed to teach music to small groups of prison inmates, who then perform together during prisons’ graduation ceremonies for inmates.

Kenny, who is originally from India, is a real-life example. He had not received any formal education before he came to Hong Kong and was convicted of murder some two decades ago . Now, he is a changed man with a postgraduate degree in marketing, earned via distance learning through the Open University of Hong Kong, and all because of a MedArt performance in 2013, despite not previously having an interest in classical music.

“At that moment, my world just exploded. Music, or rather MedArt, helped me to connect and discover another layer of music. I couldn’t sleep,” he recalled. Now, not only is Kenny an avid painter, but also a guitarist and composer.

Since its establishment, the MedArt community has grown beyond just doctors and musicians. It also now includes nurses, students, financiers, and people from all walks of life - many of whom are HKU alumni. Among them are Raymond and Wing-yin, who have been part of the community as volunteers since 2016.

Every two years, the group organises a fellowship music concert with volunteers and supporters playing a part.  Raymond and Wing-yin has been helping a lot including publicity arrangement. “It is a celebration of the lives we have helped, and the work we have done. The hope is that the concert can help raise funds for the China Orphan programme, at the same time connect a fellowship of caring people who are willing to devote their time and resources to serving the forgotten in the community.” They shared.

This year’s Charity Concert is titled: “Voices For The Forgotten” and according to Dr Ngan the programme will be unlike other concert. “It will be a blend of classical music performance, sand painting and sharing of successful stories of orphans who were saved and adopted by families, and prison inmates who have been given hope and a second chance. For the very first time, the MedArt Orchestra will perform a song composed by a prison inmate. It will be a meaningful occasion, bringing together musicians, artists, volunteers and audience who share the same ideology: to become voices for the forgotten.”

MedArt: http://www.medart.org.hk/

Concert: https://medartconcert.com/