To alleviate poverty problem is one of the main directive of the Hong Kong government. The Government set up the Commission on Poverty to co-ordinate relevant policies and implements district-based poverty alleviation measures. The theme of the policy is to help people to help themselves, with a focus on increasing employment and reducing inter-generational poverty. Therefore SSP District Council set up the Working Group on Poverty Problem (the Working Group) in 2005 to tackle the issue.
With the commission by the Working Group, a survey ˇVˇ§Current situation of poverty problem and poverty alleviationˇ¨ was conducted in 2005 by The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The findings provided ground work for the Working Group to plan programmes accordingly. According to 2001 Hong Kong Census Statistics, for the 115,270 households living in Sham Shui Po district, there were 12,610 household (10.9%) with a median family income less than 30% poverty line, who were the poorest group. There were 23,398 (20.3%), 34,301 (29.8%) and 43,108 (37.3%) belong to the below 40%, 50% and 60% poverty line group respectively. For the poorest group (below 30% poverty line), majority of them were single or two persons household (around 65%), in which around 30% were families with two elderly, and around 20% were single elderly. Besides, there were around 45% of them were living in self-owned private housing. For the relatively less poor group (below 60% poverty line), most of the families were nuclear families or extend families, about 25% were single adults, about 30% were two elderly and single elderly families.
The following targeted areas were identified:
-Service specially targeting at the elderly was essential for this poorest group.
-Improve the building management and maintenance, conducting renovation projects
to improve the living conditions of the poor people.
-Provide employment service for adult and education related service for children.
With reference to the findings and suggestions given by the academic, the Working Group works closely with community stakeholders to try to tackle / improve the poverty problem, to give recommendations to government for improving poverty of SSP. 27 non-government organizations serving children, youth, elder, new immigrants etc. were networked. The followings were some of the programs / activities done:
-Seminars such ˇ§A Vent for Povertyˇ¨ and sharing the poverty problems with community
stakeholders were held.
-Services such as household cleansing by cleansing ambassadors, women service teams
in the community provided for the poorest elderly. This measure not only provided support to elderly, it also provided job opportunities and incomes for women.
-Some non-government organizations liaised with SSP general practitioners to provide low
price medical consultation to the poorest elderly.
-Programme such as donation of non-used electrical appliance to the needy was organized.
-A project was organized to set up retail markets to create job opportunity for the poverty
group. This measure could tackle the poverty issue and to empower the participants. |
