Opinion | Struggling Hongkongers need more than flashy ‘Strive and Rise’ scheme to escape poverty

The high-profile scheme unveiled by the government will do little to inspire hope among the needy and spur the fight against intergenerational poverty

Instead, there must be real political will and leadership that addresses poverty’s underlying causes and the structural odds stacked against the poor

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The Lee family of four live a 150-square-foot subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po. The “Strive and Rise” programme targets students living in subdivided flats, but there are doubts over how much it can do to address the underlying causes of poverty. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 6:45am, 31 Oct 2022Updated: 6:56am, 31 Oct 2022

The government-led Strive and Rise mentorship programme, benefiting 2,800 students living in subdivided flats, began this past weekend. Leading the programme is Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki, who has received support from more than 100 enterprises and organisations, with HK$140 million (US$17.8 million) raised in sponsorship funding.

The 2,800 underprivileged students will each be assigned a mentor and receive a total of HK$10,000 should they complete the programme. It includes some 800 group activity sessions, mandatory courses in communication skills, financial and life planning, and optional interest classes that include social etiquette, language learning and sports conducted by celebrities and star athletes.

The government has brought 20 “strategic partners” on board after they provided key support in sponsorship or nominating mentors. They include Henderson Land, HSBC, Bank of China (Hong Kong), China Resources Group, Sun Hung Kai Properties and New World Development.

If anyone thinks this star-studded bureaucratic monstrosity will inspire hope in the city’s neediest and lead our fight in eradicating intergenerational poverty, they are truly mistaken. It’s an exercise of counting a show of hands to see who will support the government, and how much they will pledge. It’s also a way for those taking part to feel they are doing good, which is nice – for them.

But for students and their families to feel they have a better tomorrow to look forward to, there needs to be real political will and leadership from the government. We must reject the key performance indicator set for Strive and Rise, which is to have “no less than 70 per cent of students who complete the one‐year Strive and Rise Programme to achieve improvement in terms of personal development and positive thinking”.

It is patronising to claim the poor are “negative”. Of course they are, and it is not only them, either. Look at how the Hong Kong stock market has plummeted, back to 1997 levels last week. That creates the kind of pessimism the government needs to address.