Kite Oxford

Research & Evaluation Officer
Kristopher Cheng

I am Kristopher, a full-year Visiting Student studying Experimental Psychology as well as Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. With a fervent desire to improve physical and psychological well-being of inhabitants in less developed states, my volunteering experience in Nakorosule Village, Fiji has fueled my determination to become a Clinical Psychologist specialised in international development. Resulting from the absence of mandatory decentralized check-up schemes since birth, 15% and 2% of Fijian children suffer from preventable otitis media and rheumatic heart disease respectively. Witnessing such heart-wrenching prevalence, I have engaged in drafting a regular medical outreach programme for Fiji YMCA with partnering organizations such as ACATA Trust Fiji, Fiji Village Project and Australian AID. The programme aims at providing yearly, comprehensive and documented developmental check-up for Fijian children supported by global medical students’ network connected by Fiji Village Project and University YMCA in Hong Kong to allow early diagnosis and referral. My involvement reinforced my core belief on ‘development’ as illustrated by Amartya Sen: Development should be focused on safeguarding and optimizing citizens’ capabilities instead of only enhancing performances of economic indicators. Recognizing the importance of prioritizing locally-defined needs and grassroot-based empowerment which echoes with the philosophy of Kite Oxford-Nairobi, I am determined to contribute as a Research and Evaluation Officer.

Having acquired research experience on how Chinese development finance programmes in Namibia and South Africa are coincided with corruption and money laundering networks as a research assistant of Dr. Jiangnan Zhu at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, HKU, I am greatly passionate about applying my research capacity to more specific cases in the field of development economics particularly for target groups of Kite Oxford-Nairobi. Moreover, with the unmet needs of the local community often in mind, I have engaged in a public health research internship with InspiringHK Sports Foundation to prepare and draft proposals to the HKSAR government eliciting more financial support on educating students with Special Education Needs (SEN) through different forms of sports engagements as therapeutic intervention. Overseas case studies of effectively applying sports therapy on SEN students and relevant infographics are presented both to the Foundation and the government for possible inclusion of such intervention in the government’s youth health advocacy blueprint. These experiences have further strengthened my passion for working with Kite Oxford-Nairobi to alleviate well-being and quality of life of the less privileged in the Global South.