KICK ACTION

Kick Action connects students’ passions in martial arts, digital arts, filmmaking, engineering, and technology to democratise self-learned spiritual and social empowerment for marginalised communities.

Notably, Kick Action initiated the first student-led self-defence program, as well as the first domestic worker martial arts performance in Hong Kong.

by invading Japanese forces. Such spiritual empowerment is much needed by marginalized community members, who endure a dominant sense of inequality in the resources they can access and the level of discrimination they face. Every Sunday, coaches of Kick Action execute mixed martial arts, a combination of Taekwondo, Boxing, Grappling, and Jujitsu, demonstrations and lead tutorials for participating domestic workers.

Beyond weekly coaching, Kick Action HK raises awareness for the problems domestic workers face through campaigning for community inclusion. This comes in the form of producing film documentaries, speaking at events led by non-governmental organisations (including the Unite 2030 HK, World Economic Forum, and HELP for Domestic Workers), and conducting interviews with domestic workers to highlight their stories and amplify their voices. Kick Action HK makes the martial arts more accessible for domestic workers through not only community inclusion campaigns and social media promotions, but also through Martial Arts performances, which are ~5-minute showcases of Domestic Workers’ wood-breaking abilities.

Notably, Kick Action HK’s first Martial Arts performance was showcased at the 2021 KIDsforSDGs x United Nations International Youth Day event, which is an exemplification of direct community inclusion and representation for domestic workers.

The Kick Action community is incredibly tight-knit, often celebrating coaches and domestic workers’ birthdays, alike, together. This has brought Kick Action volunteers to view service not only as an opportunity to share their joy or passions but also to appreciate and develop egalitarian attitudes towards service - the idea that they, too, can learn from domestic workers’ lived experiences and wisdom.

For example, Taekwondo was established and invented by Koreans during Japan’s annexation. Karate was born in the Okinawa Islands as a form of self-defence, at a time when weapons were banned