Death of Father Harold Naylor sparks recollection of Wah Yan Children’s Club legacy, which ran on ‘fun without funds’
- The club was a forerunner in the provision of youth services at the time, and started by taking in boys on the streets, later expanding to accept girls
- Members credit it for providing them with a safe haven from a life of vice and violence
Jessie Fung Ling believes she would have ended up as a runaway mingling with teenage gangs like some other girls in her school if she had not joined the Wah Yan Children’s Club in 1992 when she was 10.
Fung was one of about 3,000 children given a safe haven from gambling, gang fights and juvenile delinquency in neighbouring areas Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok.
The club – which was set up in 1954 and ran until 1998 – offered tutorial classes, games and activities for children who lived in rundown buildings or subdivided flats in nearby districts.
Fung, from a low-income family, came under the healthy influence of the club and went on to Diocesan Girls’ School, a prestigious secondary school in Jordan. She became a leader of the club in 1994 to guide new members and now works in financial services after graduating from Queensland University of Technology in Australia.
The history of the club, which operated in a room under the school canteen of Wah Yan College (Kowloon) in Yau Ma Tei, came to light again after the death of Irish Jesuit Father Harold Naylor, who ran the establishment for more than a quarter of a century.