TWENTY years ago, with Hong Kong enjoying the fruits of economic success, a group of young professionals became worried about growing materialism and how young people could be helped to protect themselves from its negative influences.
They acted on those fears, forming Breakthrough, a multi-media organisation now serving a wide spectrum of the population and which is constantly adapting to cope with the changing problems facing the youth of Hong Kong.
''Youngsters face stiffer competition today; they may get frustrated at schools. The 1997 issue was not felt by youngsters in the 70s,'' says Dr Philemon Choi, general secretary of Breakthrough.
''But it [1997] has an immediate effect on the ones today. They witness the leaving of their close friends or even one of their parents who choose to emigrate. Some they do feel very lonely.'' The group of concerned people started with the now widely-known monthly Breakthrough magazine. It was a rarity when it was launched in January 1974, being more educational, though not academic, than anything else available in Hong Kong.
''We felt that there was entertainment for youngsters, but very few publications for them. We thought words were a very good channel of communication, through which we could discuss issues with them. We also invited them to write to us,'' recalls Dr Choi.
In the beginning, the main magazine work was done in rented space in Kowloon's St Andrew's Centre. The two core founders, Dr Choi, a medical doctor, and writer Josephine So (who died of cancer in 1982), wrote and edited in their spare time, helped by about a dozen volunteers who shared the same goal of producing something meaningful for students to read.