Social resources go begging for minorities

Angel picked up much of her English skills from courses held by the Chungking Mansions Service Centre for ethnic minorities and asylum seekers in Hong Kong.

The centre is one of a very few in Hong Kong providing services for ethnic minority women, including regular workshops about life and culture in Hong Kong, health services and computer training.

Sharmila Gurung, who runs health talks at the centre among other services, said ethnic minority women were lagging behind in their knowledge of health issues.

She noted that many ethnic minority women were unaware of the government's cervical cancer screening programme.

'South Asian women are generally at high risk for cervical cancer. Screening is cheap but most of these women have low education and speak little English or Chinese.'

Even many of the more educated women have difficulty finding jobs because of cultural constraints.

'Many Pakistani women find that companies do not like them to wear their [traditional clothing] but the women cannot be flexible about that because of their cultural sensibilities,' she said.

'Others have lost the skills they had before because they have not worked outside home in a long time. We try to help women maintain or upgrade their skills.'

Dr Gurung said domestic violence was certainly a problem but the women seldom talked about it.

Dr Gurung was recently appointed to the Women's Commission and hopes to use her three-year term to raise awareness of the needs of ethnic minority women in Hong Kong.

'These women have been quiet for a long time - we need to show them how to utilise the services in Hong Kong and empower themselves so they can participate in society instead of just staying home,' she said.

Dr Gurung plans to give a talk to the commission on the issues in the coming weeks.