Coronavirus: Hongkongers do their bit to put smiles on faces of the needy amid pandemic
- Some hand out masks and rice among the city’s most vulnerable, while others help churches in community service
- Social media bringing people together to share tips on quarantine and help small businesses that have been hammered by public health crisis
Twice a week, Li Shuk-ying goes into the streets of Jordan to hand out masks and rice to Hong Kong’s most vulnerable, as the city battles the coronavirus pandemic.
“I ask them, ‘how are you doing?’ and ‘what’s going on in your life?’. In Chinese culture, we do not really want to tell people the real situation. But everyone knows what we are going through.”
The 59-year-old is part of a growing number of Hongkongers, who are reaching out to those most in need in their community amid the unprecedented public health crisis. Schools are closed across the city, while many businesses are struggling to stay afloat. The unemployment rate is rising, and thousands are spending their days in quarantine centres.
Hong Kong is facing a fresh wave of Covid-19 cases with the tally of people infected rising to 582 at midnight on Saturday, with four fatalities. The virus has infected more than 655,000 worldwide and killed over 30,000.
Li, a part-time worker at the Hong Kong Church Network for the Poor, also volunteers in her spare time with her local church group, St Stephen’s Society. She takes part in activities such as packing donations collected from the public and distributing rice and masks among the needy, including street sleepers, the homeless and people living in subdivided flats.
Hong Kong has around 210,000 people living in subdivided units, which are extremely small living spaces created by partitioning flats.