Operation Santa Claus: KELY Support Group offers troubled teens an alternative to drugs
It is all too easy for young people from ethnic minorities to take a wrong turn in dealing with life's pressures - Kely Group offers another way
Eighteen-year-old Xyra Sace doesn't think much of the government's efforts to keep teenagers off drugs.
This is unfortunate because she belongs to the very risk group officials should be trying to engage. Nor does she believe Hong Kong has a handle on quite how widespread substance misuse is among her peers.
"The government says substance misuse is going down, but I really doubt that. I just think teens are getting better at hiding it," says the young woman from a Filipino family in Kwun Tong.
She thinks illegal drugs are becoming more accessible than ever, citing the way networks of friends have expanded with the rise of social media as one reason.
Sace said she would not struggle to find friends to get high with in a city where young people from ethnic minorities are increasingly turning to drugs to help cope with their pressures.
"We lack support and opportunities," she says. Language barriers are a major problem for her peers, with many falling behind in school as a result.
Sace is one of many young people who have benefited from KELY Support Group's youth charity programmes, which offer students from deprived backgrounds opportunities and life skills that help reduce the likelihood of their turning to drugs.
