Social Enterprises Off and Running：Learning about Life from Death

People always think that death is distant and they have nothing to do with it. In fact, it is close to us and it happens every day around us. Death may visit us any time in different stages of life, even when we were still children. It is the end of life, and the last lesson in life. Pasu NG, who has worked as an embalmer and is now working in funeral services, is the founder of the social enterprise (SE) “Keep It Simple”. He says he hopes that the SE can provide simple and unadorned funeral services to the bereaved, and help the underprivileged in the society, for example, to take care of the after-death arrangements for people who do not have relatives and friends.

Life and death education is one of the focuses of this SE. In this episode, our guests Alice FUNG and Zeno KOO participate in the activities related to life and death organised by the SE, including a workshop mourning abortuses of less than 24 weeks’ gestation, the living funeral of the chairperson of a psoriasis patients association, and a guided tour to cemetery with young people. Auntie Alice and Zeno even join the ceremony for scattering of cremated ashes of a deceased who did not have relatives, and it is the first time for them to bid farewell to a stranger. Through our guests’ experience, the programme helps our audience understand the corporate philosophy of the SE, and reflect together on the important topic of life and death. How can we live with the sorrow when we are heartbroken by deaths and separations? Pasu turns the sorrow to positive energy to help the others, and to live fully.