‘Unite for Children. Unite for Hong Kong.’ UNICEF joins hands with 3 local NGOs to help marginalised Hong Kong children
2011-06-09
| Hong Kong (9 June 2011) – During its 25th anniversary cocktail reception, Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF announced the ‘Child Rights Advocacy Project’ results today. Each of the 3 non-government organisations: Against Child Abuse, End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation and Youth Outreach have received HK$500,000 (a totally sum of HK$ 1.5 million is allocated) from HKCU to work on three1-year-projects that aim at improving the life of local children who have long been neglected and marginalised.
Ms Leonie Ki, Chairman of Advocacy and Public Relations Committee of Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF said, ‘This year, HKCU is celeating its 25th Anniversary. The Child Rights Advocacy Project invites local NGOs who share the same vision as us to work together to protect the rights of Hong Kong children. Particularly, we would like to care for ethnic minority children, those who are under the threat of physical, mental and sexual abuse. It is our hope that we can work with the 3 NGOs to protect the rights of children who are the most difficult to reach.’ |
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| One of the NGOs, Against Child Abuse, strives to protect the rights of children who are from newly immigrant families. The ‘Well-adjusted, Better Inclusion Project’ aims at benefiting 50 families with volunteer home visits, social worker follow up and referral. The project was originally targeted at children who are at infant age, with HKCU’s support, now they are able to extend their scope of work to reach school-age children. Another selected NGO, End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation, is the only organisation in Hong Kong which provides sexual education to students with special education needs. With the support of HKCU, their new project ‘Sexual-Abuse-Preventive Program for Mentally-handicapped Children’ will provide sex education to 1,200 mild to moderate mentally-handicapped students by using multi-media and interactive teaching approachs. HKCU will also support Youth Outreach, an organisation that has long been dedicated to helping youngsters who are used to hang out on the street at night. Their night-time outreach project ‘Hang Out Express – Street Rover’ will be launched this summer – A truck will travel across 18 districts in Hong Kong and provide crisis interventions to young people in need. This project focuses on reaching youngsters from ethnic minority groups, who are extremely marginalised in the society. These 3 projects will last for 1 year. HKCU will work with them to realise the 4 basic rights of children: survival, protection, development and participation. The Child Rights Advocacy Project is honoured to have three independent judges: Mr Kenneth Chen, Under Secretary for Education, Prof Joseph Sung, Vice-Chancellor and President of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Ms Christine Fang, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. The 3 judges are professional, passionate and fair during the decision making process. Mr Kenneth Chen said, “I am happy that under the leadership and support of HKCU, the 3 projects can be implemented and more marginalised children who are the most difficult to reach can now gain more attention and assistance from the society.” Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF has received 22 applications this year. Representatives from the three selected NGOs, together with Mr Kenneth Chen, Ms Judy Chen, Chairman of HKCU, and Ms. Leonie Ki, Chairman of Advocacy and Public Relations Committee of HKCU, conducted a simple ceremony at the press conference today to fill the last piece of the puzzle on the board to give a smile to the young girl featured, symbolising the joint efforts of HKCU and partners to ing true happiness to every child in Hong Kong. HKCU will strive for a better future for local children and also children all over the world. ‘Unite for Children. Unite for Hong Kong.’ is a Child Rights Advocacy Project designed to realise and promote child rights in Hong Kong.Celeating its 25th anniversary this year, Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF hopes to raise overall awareness of child rights through this project. We hope to work with the community to directly benefit local children and make Hong Kong more child-friendly. |
