Rainbow Chow
Rainbow, a registered social worker. She graduated with Masters of Social Management from the University of Hong Kong in 2005 and 2008. She has worked with the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals for 7 years, and has worked at their headquarters as a project planning officer. Her main duties were to handle the administration and resource allocations of such groups, and she was in charge of reviewing funding applications of social enterprises. One of her duties was coordinating services provided and strategic planning of more than 20 social enterprises that working the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals are also needed.
Rainbow understands the importance of social enterprise to the people in need. Her wealth of experience with managing her own social enterprises began when she set up a chain of dessert shops (Rainbow Dessert) serving the Tai Po, Fanling, and Sheung Shui community. In the following years, she separately set up child development centers and funds, and distributed parental magazines that collectively sought to cater to educational needs and foster relationships between parents and their children. Her in-depth understanding of successful corporate management was recognized by being awarded the Outstanding Partnership Project Award from the Caring Company Scheme under the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and by being awarded the Hong Kong Social Enterprise Outstanding Employee Award from the Hong Kong General Chamber of Social Enterprise.
Rainbow has a deep interest in arts, and a belief that art can be a part of daily life. Having previously held a fundraising gallery for Cambodian children featuring artwork by Cambodian children, she has witnessed how people find it satisfying that the can rely on their own artistic talents as a means of living, and as such has driven her to pursue artistic creation as the focus of MicroForests.
CORPORATE TRAINING
MicroForests workshops can help both marginalized mothers and corporates at the same time. Training programs for corporate employees are mainly aimed at teamwork and body, mind and spirit enhancement, which cater to the needs of its corporate clients and aims to raise the ability of every participant. Rainbow has worked with corporations such as HSBC and Burberry, as well as various governmental departments, and she has fully understood the needs of different corporate clients.
Rainbow also has experiences in conducting different elements of corporate training. Rainbow has been a guest lecturer at the University of Hong Kong and the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, lecturing in the importance of social work and social enterprise management, and is currently a deputy director of Project Flame held by the City University of Hong Kong Department of Public Policy. Apart from providing training services to local organisations, Rainbow has also become a qualified trainer of NPI, the largest NGO training organisation in China, since 2014 and has been appointed the Honorary Trainer of a joint venture between NPI and Ford Motors within a year of becoming a qualified trainer.
Apart from corporate training, Rainbow is also equipped with various qualifications that better enable her to provide training services. In 2000, she became a Neuro-Linguistic Programming practitioner, and has studied the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People under famous master of management Steven R. Covey. Additionally, she holds certificates awarded by both local and Mainland Chinese authorities, including a Certificate of CEO study awarded by Fudan University of Shanghai and has finished the leadership program at Common Purpose.
RAINBOW & MICROFORESTS
Rainbow has participated in Sichuan earthquake as a frontier volunteer and to promote the reconstruction of orphanages in Cambodia。Rainbow believes in the idea of giving more than receiving, and she tries her best to capture society’s attention on elderly, disabled, the one lived in poverty and also woman (Single parents, new arrival or low income) issues. She is determined to bring the nature to our concrete jungle and to promote positive thinking, and has set up MicroForests for this very belief.
MicroForests is a social enterprise that was born in 2014, and aims to help low-income marginalized housewives. Rainbow hopes that MicroForest can ultimately assist marginalized women through the sales of artistic greenery and holding workshops. To achieve our goal, Rainbow provides these marginalized women with basic skills training and dignified work opportunities.
The career training she provides increases the competitiveness of marginalized women. MicroForests provides professional training through the “Life Transformation Program”, which equips them with different skills. Recipients can have an opportunity to get involved in the daily operation of MicroForests, which including product designed, workshop MC, coordination and logistics, as to fully enhance their knowledge and confidence, with the ultimate aim of becoming ready for work within a wider society.
People always need a chance. Marginalized woman may have lost the opportunity to show their talent because their family commitments. Therefore, MicroForests will provide a flexible working hour for their trainees by coordinating workshops that fit into their schedules, and encouraging mothers to create seasonal products to sells through MicroForests, with the aim of providing alternative and sustainable income sources for these marginalized women.
