Bill used to be the chief financial officer (CFO) of a listed company. For years, he had lived a busy life, travelling for work extensively. In 2017, he began to plan his retirement. Still in his 50s, he was worried there would be nothing to keep him occupied. This prompted him to start looking for long-term volunteering opportunities in Hong Kong. He was not content with one-off volunteering – he wanted to make a more meaningful contribution with his professional experience.

The Hong Kong Auxiliary Professional Scheme turned out to be just what Bill needed. After a thorough interview, Bill was assigned to an urban farm under the Christian Family Service Centre (CSFC). "At first, I didn't know what an auxiliary professional or ‘aP’ was and how it’s different from a typical volunteer,” Bill said. “Now I understand that it is much like a part-time employee in an organisation and is just as involved and committed. I've been volunteering at the farm for over four years now. Time flies."

Moving from the business world into social service, Bill is delighted to apply his professional expertise to his volunteering work. When he started at the urban farm, he noticed that the daily sales were recorded using nothing more than pen and paper. When business was brisk, his colleagues would have to spend hours just to balance the till. Bill understood that social welfare organizations would not buy expensive finance management systems that are designed for companies. So he created a simple sales system for his colleagues using a spreadsheet software and programmed it to ease the month-end close process and for checking the sales status of different items.

Originally an initiative within CSFC, The Hong Kong Auxiliary Professional Scheme expanded into a programme under the Jockey Club Golden Age Journey Project in 2020. With funding from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, it has built partnerships with other social welfare organisations and hired more staff. Now auxiliary professionals are assigned to different organisations such as The Richmond Fellowship of Hong Kong and The Ebenezer School & Home for the Visually Impaired. Bill is eager to try volunteering for other communities.