How does this NGO help Hong Kong fire victims, needy people get a dignified farewell?
Soul Comfort Shelter, founded in 2024, not only steps in after death, but also helps people plan for their funeral in advance
On a drizzly, windy morning in June, a family gathered before a tombstone at Wo Hop Shek Cemetery in northern Hong Kong to bid farewell to a loved one who died in the Wang Fuk Court fire.
Beneath the muddy grave and scattered stones lies a man surnamed Hung, in his forties, among the 168 victims of the city’s deadliest fire in decades. Last November’s inferno also displaced nearly 5,000 residents.
Unlike many victims who were cremated, Hung’s family insisted on a burial.
“He passed in the blaze, and I don’t want his body to go through fire again,” said his 60-year-old mother, surnamed Yeung.
Yet only one charity was willing to help arrange the burial.
“That is the best we can do for him,” she said.