ImpactHK to get homeless people off the streets and into the workforce with help from UBS, Operation Santa Claus
- The charity hopes to replicate the success story of one formerly homeless woman who secured her dream job as a carer for the elderly
- The new programme will be funded by UBS through Operation Santa Claus, a fundraiser jointly organised by the Post and RTHK since 1988
“My mind and body were in agony,” 41-year-old Ting Ting* recently recalled, describing the time she spent living on the streets four years ago.
Ting Ting was first introduced to methamphetamine while playing mahjong with friends in 2010, and later became addicted. She soon lost her job in the catering industry and her flat in 2017, beginning a stretch of homelessness that would drag on until ImpactHK, a charity that helps those in similar situations, came into her life in 2018.
“There was some warmth,” she said with a smile. “Their words gradually touched my heart. I slowly felt that I was alive again and my feelings began to come back.”
Ting Ting described the months leading up to that encounter, sleeping rough in parks, as “waiting for death”. The memory still terrifies her to this day.
“When I was living in the park, it felt like I did not have a life,” she said. “I had no idea what I was doing except lying down the whole day.”
Ting Ting came to the city from Henan in central China in 2006. Separated in 2010 from her husband, who was later granted custody of their two sons, she was all by herself.
Although other charities offered help, it was not until ImpactHK reached out that her life began to turn around.
The sense of security the charity gave her made her determined to get clean. But her journey took a dark turn when she was arrested and jailed for four months after being caught with someone else’s ID in December 2020.