Steve Reynolds has been teaching at Li Po Chun UWC for 11 years, first as IB Theatre and TOK teacher, then as CAS Coordinator and, finally, as Director of Education Outside the Classroom.

He oversees CAS, all college trips, Cultural Evenings, Orientation Week, the outdoor activities programme, the Student Leadership programme and First Aid training for staff – basically, anything that isn't in the classroom or of a pastoral nature. He also runs a weekly psychodrama student group with students who are dealing with a range of emotional and mental challenges.

Steve has been working to support refugees in Hong Kong, both inside and outside of his UWC life.

For several years, he has taken his LPC student Playback Theatre team to the Hong Kong Christian Action Refugee Centre (Hong Kong’s only refugee day centre), as part of the IB CAS programme, to engage in interactive, therapeutic performances. Two years ago, this led to a week-long 'Project Week' Verbatim Theatre collaboration with the refugees, in which the students performed the actual words of the refugees recorded in interviews. How did this happen? It was a conversation with one of the refugees during one of the group’s regular performances that Steve realised he wanted to do more. He remembers: “During one performance, a refugee asked how helpful the performances were when we would not see them [the refugees] again for so long to follow up. I was greatly struck by this comment and decided to focus a ‘Project Week’ trip on the refugee centre as soon as possible”.

Twelve LPC students participated in the event, bonding with a group of asylum seekers and refugees from the Christian Action Refugee Service Centre and, with sensitivity,encouraging them to share their stories – all of which were traumatic and emotional. The students proved to be outstanding and the project not only raised money for the refugee centre arts programme, but also provided a ‘voice’ and therapeutic support for the refugees.

On the one hand, there were the harrowing tales of their escape from life threatening situations in their home countries. On the other hand, the stories expressed their realisation upon arrival in Hong Kong that life is “a beautiful prison”. As Steve explains: “ Since Hong Kong is not signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, refugees and asylum seekers are not permitted to work and earn a living. Their housing allowance is inadequate and their food allowance is given as bags of food, often inappropriate, insufficient or of poor quality. Some wait for up to ten years to achieve refugee status and move on with their lives”.

The final performance was a success: it was staged at a public theatre in Hong Kong, where all of the refugees attended along with families, friends, refugee centre staff and the general public. “The students had learned a great deal”, says Steve, “not least about looking beyond the stereotype image of refugees in Hong Kong and as we sat together enjoying pizza after the show, it was as friends and fellow humans, a little wiser and a little emotionally healed, looking forward to future collaborations together”.

Outside of UWC life, for the past two months, Steve has also been running a female only refugee psychotherapy group. Most of the group members are political refugees who fled their home countries in fear of their lives and it does not take much to imagine the type of suffering they have endured as women. “The women commonly come from countries such as Burundi, Congo, Rwanda and Sri Lanka. We meet every Saturday morning and it is envisaged that the group will be a long term commitment to deal with the traumas the women have suffered and support them in their lives as refugees in Hong Kong”.