Love 21 Foundation

Love 21 is a registered charity in Hong Kong that empowers the Down syndrome, autistic and neuro diverse community to reach their full potential through sport, nutrition and holistic support programmes. We currently support over 160 registered families. Our goal by the end of 2021 is to offer our services to over 200 families, as well as to increase the depth and breadth of the services we offer. We typically provide over 250 classes a month, mainly in person at our special Love 21 Space, but also using zoom where necessary and by utilising some external sports venues. These activities and classes cover different styles of dance, yoga, meditation, sports, fitness and music/art therapy and are core to our operating model.

Love 21 also provides a nutrition programme that provides 57 members with monthly 1:1 consultation with our qualified dietician, monthly cooking classes and fresh ingredients to follow the recipe.

Love 21 has also recently launched a counselling service for the parents/guardians of our members and so far, we have over 20 families who are benefiting from these sessions. During these sessions, our qualified counsellor has identified a number of common themes across the families. These have been exasperated by COVID. Down syndrome members are far more vulnerable than other communities. This has reduced the amount of time many families spend outside of their homes. Stress, anxiety and a feeling of lack of purpose are but just a few of the themes identified. Our counsellor is now creating parental workshops that cover areas such as Positive Parenting. These sessions will cover the common concerns identified.

All programmes are free of charge to our members and their families. This, we believe, is unique and allows us to support all members of this amazing community.