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Celine Sun

Group gives asylum seekers badly needed assistance
Rose felt her heart breaking when her two-year-old son asked for a meal at McDonald's, which she could not afford.
As  asylum seekers in Hong Kong, Rose and her husband have no income because they are not allowed to work. They get a HK$2,000 monthly subsidy to pay the rent and food bags three times a month from the Social Welfare Department.
Toys or snacks  are  an unaffordable luxury for the mother of two.
'You cannot imagine how sad I was when my young son begged me for a meal at McDonald's that he's never had before,' said Rose, 30, who fled with her husband and daughter from their home country in South Asia to Hong Kong in 2004.
'Hong Kong gives us a safe home, and we have met  many nice people who are trying  to help us,' she said, referring to staff at Christian Action,   an  asylum seekers' support group  that Operation Santa Claus is helping for the second year.
The group gives about 1,800 asylum seekers, mainly from South Asian and African nations, desperately needed humanitarian aid, including food, clothes, medical consultation and shelter.
It also assists families struggling with mental health and domestic violence, organises recreational activities for children and  helps them go to school.
Besides asylum seekers, it is also extending a helping hand to  disadvantaged and low-income ethnic minority women and children who are lagging behind in integrating  due to language and cultural barriers.
The jobless rate among  ethnic minorities   hovers between 25 per cent and 40 per cent, far  worse than the overall unemployment rate.  Most  people from ethnic  minorities  take on low-income jobs as security guards or construction workers.
'Many of these families are hardly able to give any academic assistance to their children,' Cheung Ang Siew-mei,  executive director of Christian Action, said. 'It can be an inter-generational circle of poverty if their children perform badly in  school and have to take on low-income jobs.'
Targeting this problem, the group is set to offer homework guidance in language and mathematics. It will also  teach parents  computer  skills.
Rose's family is one of the beneficiaries. In addition to food and clothes, the group helped her daughter, six, enrol in a primary school.
'I am so happy when I see my daughter carrying her bag to school like every other child every morning,' she said.
Christian Action is appealing for volunteers with legal and medical experience to help people apply for refugee status and provide basic medical services at  its Chungking Mansions Service Centres in Tsim Sha Tsui. Language tutors, computer instructors and activity co-ordinators are also needed to give after-school tuition  at the Sau Mau Ping  centre. Volunteers need  a high school education  and good English  skills. Call 2723 6626 or e-mail ckmsc@christian-action.org.hk  for details.
Wish list
Wish: To provide basic support to migrant families in Hong Kong, including shelter, education, homework and language support, as well as psychological assistance to the every family member.
Funds required: HK$551,936



Mother gets helping hand in a place far from home