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The need Since 2004 Chungking Mansions Service Centre fills a large gap in social welfare services by providing essential humanitarian assistance to refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong. In addition, we are the only source for educational, psychosocial, recreational and spiritual support. We particularly focus on children, teenagers, women and refugees/asylum seekers who are vulnerable, sick, traumatised and otherwise distressed. In addition we also play a strong role in advocating for better policies and laws, through which we are targeting the root causes of the disadvantaged status of refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong. Most of these refugees, asylum seekers and torture claimants come from war-torn countries in South Asia and Africa such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, Uganda, DR Congo, Eritrea etc. These countries are often experiencing acute warfare or oppressive governmental regimes creating floods of refugees across their borders. When asylum seekers arrive in Hong Kong they are often traumatised by their experiences which forced them to leave their homeland. Hong Kong has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and as such the situation for asylum seekers and refugees in Hong Kong is dire. They suffer distress at finding themselves homeless and are not allowed to take up legal employment. The UNHCR application process to be officially recognised as a refugee currently can take up to a few years. During this time they need help to find shelter, clothing, and nutrition and gain access to psycho-social and basic medical services as well as financial support for their children to attend school. Particularly vulnerable sectors of this group are women, their children and unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, many of whom may be in very isolated and vulnerable situations while waiting in Hong Kong. Our
service To date, we have registered just over 3,000 clients in our system and around 20-30 new clients continue to approach our centre each month. We embrace a holistic approach taking care of the physical, social, financial, spiritual and mental needs of the refugees and asylum seekers. Our drop-in centre is open six days a week and it provides a place where these people experience a sense of belonging and care. One part of our work focuses on providing essential basic needs such as housing, food, clothes, milk formulas, diapers, toiletries, shoes etc. In the long run our programme is aiming at empowering refugees and asylum seekers through community development. We support children so that they can go to school and also offer a variety of different language classes, interest classes, skills training and various talks/workshops at our centre. Our staff also facilitates our Women’s Programme and a Youth Development Programme which are both well attended. These components do not only provide our clients with a useful way to spend their time while waiting to be recognized as a refugee. It also provides them with skills they can use when they get resettled to a third country and has a normalizing effect for our traumatized clients. Throughout the year, we also organise all kinds of recreational, creative and sporting activities for children, families and singles. Part of our role is also is also to raise awareness of the plight of refugees and asylum seekers and Hong Kong. Therefore we are working together with schools, universities, other NGOs and community centres and through this we hope to raise more awareness and foster a better sense of integration. |
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Cases (Click to open): There are many more cases we would share with you but because of sensitivity and for the benefits of our friends, these are the only cases we can safely share with you. Do feel free to call us if you would like to learn more and help. |
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