Poverty, child prostitution and child labour are just some of the tough social issues that a delegation of Hong Kong 'child ambassadors' will explore when they visit Bangkok next month.
Organised by Against Child Abuse, the Hong Kong Committee on Children's Rights and the Hong Kong Committee for Unicef, the trip aims to enlighten the ambassadors on the plight of under-privileged children in Thailand, and on initiatives to improve their conditions.
Billy Wong Wai-yuk of the Hong Kong Committee on Children's Rights told Young Post it was the ambassadors' idea to visit Bangkok, a city notorious for its exploitation of children.
'[The Hong Kong delegation] will find out more about the problems children there face, like drugs, child prostitution, underage labour and poverty,' she said.
'Then they will meet up with their counterparts and learn how these problems are being tackled. They will also exchange information on how youth problems are being dealt with in Hong Kong.'
The four-day trip is part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Child Ambassadors' Scheme, launched two years ago to raise awareness of child exploitation and to promote children's rights in Hong Kong. Twenty child ambassadors aged 12 to 16 from schools throughout the SAR were selected and last year they visited the UNCRC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
