Hong Kong’s children list livelihood concerns after giving government failing grade for welfare
Civil Children’s Ombudsman group gives score of zero for housing, medical welfare and new immigrant family protections
The government’s efforts to improve the well-being of Hong Kong’s underprivileged children has made some progress in the past year, but still failed to achieve a passing grade on one advocacy group’s annual report card.
The Civil Children’s Ombudsman group, made up of 2,000 youth ambassadors aged 17 and under, gave the government an overall score of 15 out of 100 for dealing with their top 10 livelihood concerns in 2016. It was a slight improvement on the 8 out of 100 score recorded in 2015.
The group gave the government zero points for its policies on housing, medical welfare and new immigrant family protections, and for its lack of commission on children’s rights. The most points were given to after-school care services for poor families, which received a score of five, and free education, which received a score of four.
“The children are incredibly disappointed. Although they launched free kindergarten education and the low-income working family allowance last year, the government’s pace is still too slow,” Sze Lai-shan from the Society for Community Organisation said during yesterday’s launch of the annual report.
Outlining their top 10 priorities for 2017, the children ambassadors named housing as their biggest concern, followed by education and medical services.