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 Diapers and Baby Milk for babies & toddlers |
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Giving children hope! |
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Children are our priority at Christian Action's Refugee Centre. When a family first arrives in Hong Kong they are very vulnerable. We assist families and other vulnerable individuals with emergency housing and basic necessities like food, clothes and blankets. We also work towards the long term wellbeing of families through access to school, counselling, long term shelter and recreational activities. All children deserve a safe and fun filled childhood. We organize a family outing every month so that asylum seeker and refugee children and their parents can relax and enjoy themselves, building up resilience for the challenges they face everyday. In December we took a large group of families to the Peak. Everyone had a fun day playing games and then taking lots of pictures and enjoying the beautiful harbour view. The trip was full of laugher and joy. The outing ended with local students teaching the families the song "Kowloon Hong Kong". On the way back on the coach, the children asked "Where will we go next time?" Other fun family trips in 2007 have included a trip to Shek O Beach when Hong Kong International School students played games and shared lunch with children and families. We also organized a visit to the Wetland Park in Tin Shui Wai, Ngong Ping Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery and Tso Kung Tam Outdoor Recreation Centre where children and parents played mini-golf, basketball, tennis, pool and went rock climbing and swimming. Ocean Park and Disney also donated tickets for 2 fun filled days out. At Christmas we gathered donations of presents for 90 children and held a fun Christmas party with games and singing. Parents brought traditional food from their countries and we shared a Christmas lunch together. These family outings are sponsored by Operation Santa Claus! Education Going to school is an essential opportunity for all children. For refugee and asylum seeker children who have fled their homes in danger of their lives, going back to school represents a return to some kind of normality and offers them opportunities to make friends, heal from the trauma they have experienced and build skills for the future. It is their parents' greatest wish that their children should go to school, so we raised funds from Kowloon North Rotary Club, Operation Santa Claus, students from German Swiss International School and other generous individuals to send all 49 children in need to school this year. We continue to enable asylum seeker children to go to school by providing start up costs such as text books, travel costs, school uniforms and sports kits. Sponsor a child to go to school Our social workers enable parents to overcome administrative barriers to education through advice and advocacy. We assist families to apply to the Education Department for permission to study and to the Student Financial Assistance Agency for long term schooling costs. As well as basic schooling needs, we also help children join clubs and activities after school. These sporting and recreational activities allow these kids to have fun and build their confidence as the following story shows . . . A Basketball Star! When Salim arrived in Hong Kong he was 10 years old. He and his mother had fled from their war torn African country and were glad to be safe in Hong Kong. When the family came to Christian Action, Salim was feeling sad that he was not able to go to school and missed having friends. Our social work staff organised with the Education Department to admit Salim into school and provided Salim with his school uniform, sports kit and text books. At school Salim learnt how to play basketball and was so good he was put on the school team! To enable Salim to realise his dream of playing basketball, we were happy to buy him a basketball and trainers. Later in the year, Salim won 2 silver awards – one for running and the other for basketball. Salim says that when he first joined school he found it hard to make friends; all the students in his class used to try to pick fights with him as he was only African in class. However his good humour, intelligence and sporting success soon won him many friends and academically Salim has also flourished. At the end of the school year, he earned 91% grade for his oral Cantonese exam — an amazing achievement given that he had never heard the language until 2 years ago. He also earned one of the highest grades in the class for maths — 95%. Salim still remembers his country and misses his home and friends. He is upset that his country is always at war. He values his education and wants to become a lawyer so that he can go back home and contribute to finding a solution to the ongoing political crisis in his country. Homework Support Group Salim's success at school was in part due to his success in learning English quickly. Many more children from Sri Lanka, Congo, Pakistan and other countries struggle to adjust to the English medium school system as their first language is Tamil, Lingala, Urdu etc. We organise homework support groups to help these children. Make a difference in 2008 by tutoring a child!
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An asylum seeker's story from detention |
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Children, teenage and adult asylum seekers are detained by the Immigration Department in Hong Kong. Adults regularly endure months and some even years in detention. Asylum seekers are not granted permission to remain in HK legally whilst the UNHCR explores their refugee claim. Instead they are forced to overstay their visa and are subsequently arrested by the police and detained indefinitely in Immigration Detention Centres. Others are arrested in the airport when they arrive. Detention is an extremely traumatic experience, especially for asylum seekers who have been wrongfully imprisoned in their home countries, where they may have been badly treated, sexually abused and tortured. Some detainees exhibit post-traumatic stress symptoms on release, such as flashbacks, nightmares, depression and withdrawn. Asylum seekers who are distressed and traumatised in detention are not provided with suitable psychological support as their special needs are not well understood by correctional staff. We visit our clients regularly and provide support when they are released, however we remain very concerned about their length of detention and the lack of transparency about the reasons they are being held. Recently a 17 year old teenager was arrested leaving his church and held for 4 days. He describes the experience as frightening and humiliating. Last year another 17 year old was held for 10 days and when he was being relocated to a juvenile detention centre near the airport, he became terrified tha the was being sent back to his country where he feared he would be killed, as his family had been. He begged immigration officials not to send him back, but they did not explain where they were taking him. Another family recounts their fear of being sent home when they were questioned in a room marked ‘deportation centre'. One of our long term clients was recently released from detention. He tells his story: "I was walking along the street when some Immigration Officials stopped me and asked for my ID or passport. I showed them my UNHCR paper, passport and expired Hong Kong visa. They tied my hands with plastic straps and took me and some others to the police station. I felt so humiliated to be arrested as a criminal. In the police station I had to sleep on the cement floor. I wasn't allowed any calls. The toilet was dirty and I had to stand in my bare feet. After several days I was transferred to a detention centre where I began to get sick. I am a diabetic. My sugar was high and at first they didn't give me my medicine. They sent me to the doctor. He stood far away from me but did not touch me. He said, "I need to increase your medicine." I told him that I didn't need more medicine, I only need more time to exercise. In detention you only have one hour to exercise each day. I told the doctor that if I could just get another hour to run in the morning, my sugar would go down. He said, "No, no, no. Do exercise in your room." In my room there were 16 people. It was too small and too crowded for exercise. The food they gave me made me sick. It was too sugary and oily and bad quality. For 25 days, I took only bread and tea. One day, I was called to see an officer and he asked me, "What do you want? You want bail out?" I said yes. He asked who would support me. I told him "Christian Action". So he told me to write Christian Action and sign my name. That is the only time I saw him. I told him I wanted to apply for the Convention Against Torture, but I was never given an application. In detention, I was very weak. I was just sitting, doing nothing. Mentally, I was thinking. Always thinking too much. I couldn't go outside. I was treated like a criminal. I have nothing in my life in Hong Kong. I cannot see my wife and my son. Now I was in prison again. For one or two days, I thought it was better to die, to commit suicide. Being in detention was more than prison."
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How we help asylum seekers and refugees |
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Our aims and objectives are to provide humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers and refugees by:
Drop-in Centre Our centre remains a place of warmth and friendship where refugees and asylum seekers can drop in and spend time relaxing, chatting with each other, using the internet, watching movies, attending classes and seeking advice and assistance from staff. For many asylum seekers this is the only place they feel safe and welcomed in Hong Kong. Our staff are dedicated to building up the support networks of clients so they have friends and activities to enjoy during their difficult time in HK. Food Programme From Monday to Friday we provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to destitute asylum seekers and lunch on Saturdays. Everyday we provide more than 100 meals on a very small budget. For some clients this is the only food they can rely on each day. Donations of food and financial support for this programme are urgently needed! Educational Trainings for Adults Thanks to the energy and expertise of our volunteers our Education Centre on the 16th floor provides daily classes for adults. These include English, Cantonese, literacy and I.T. skills. We also run regular educational trainings on human rights and health topics. We are always in need of volunteers! Please get involved and contact us on 2723 6626 or ckmsc@christian-action.org.hk Women's Day We continue to empower women through our weekly Women's Day. Women learn skills, collect basic necessities for their families and meet together to make friends. Classes teach English, computer skills, handicrafts, empowerment, health and yoga! Counselling Support Chandra, her elderly mother and young daughter fled persecution in their South Asian country. They were stressed and upset by their escape and found living in Hong Kong very challenging. Chandra struggled to meet the basic needs of her family and found being the head of the family very difficult. Her daughter, Fatima, was traumatised by their flight to Hong Kong and kept having nightmares and bedwetting. She also began to act out, refusing to listen to her mother and fighting with other children in our family shelter. Through counselling, Chandra and Fatima gained insight into each other's struggles. Fatima was encouraged to express herself through drawing and to share these drawings with her mother. Her mother realized the importance of time spent hugging her daughter and reminding her of how much she loves her. After these interventions and with ongoing support, Fatima's behaviour has improved and her relationship with her mother is growing stronger each day. Asylum seekers like Chandra and her daughter experience significant trauma in their home countries and during their journey to Hong Kong. The pressures of their lives in Hong Kong, far from loved ones and family, can make it difficult for asylum seekers to recover from these experiences. Individual and group counselling can be extremely beneficial in the recovery process. Since the last newsletter, our counselling team has provided 99 counselling sessions. We continue to recruit experienced volunteer counsellors and therapists. To assist children in their recovery we are particularly looking for volunteers with expertise in play therapy. If you are interested in being a volunteer counsellor, please contact us at 2723 6626 or email ckmsc@christian-action.org.hk. Basic necessities We provide basic necessities to vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees. These items, such as clothes, blankets, soap and kitchen equipment are much needed and we are reliant on donations. Crossroads International continues to support our centre each month. For example, an asylum seeker family was living in a small room in poor condition. They had no bed, no cabinet, no cooker and no kettle. Their room was almost empty. Crossroads International generously donated furniture, bedding, clothes and kitchen equipment to meet the family's needs. We work hard with Crossroads, schools, churches and individual donors to make sure vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees can have these basic necessities. To donate please contact us on 2723 6626 or ckmsc@christian-action.org.hk Family Shelter Our shelter provides stable housing for vulnerable asylum seeker families. We maintain 6 flats each with 3 bedrooms and a shared living area, bathroom and kitchen. Our shelter currently assists 3 dual parent families, 2 single women, 4 single parent families and 2 unaccompanied minors. Families receive $1,000 per adult each month for rent and utilities, making it very difficult to find adequate shelter. We provide holistic support to our shelter families to build up their resilience and meet their children's needs. When a family from Pakistan arrived with 3 children we provided emergency housing and basic necessities such as food, clothes and toiletries. We helped them to apply for assistance from the Social Welfare Department and pending that assistance, provided a weekly allowance for the family to buy food. We assisted them to apply for school and supported the 3 children with textbooks, uniforms and transport allowance. To strengthen the family, we invited them to join family summer outings to Wetland Park and Lautau Island where they had lots of fun! The children also learnt swimming and made friends. The father was impressed by the change in his family. He shared that after they arrived in HK his eldest daughter was always sad and quiet, but now she smiles a lot and has made friends.
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Volunteer and make a difference in 2008! |
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We're going to make a CD of songs and music for World Refugee Day (June 20th). Asylum seekers and refugees will record music from their countries. Imagine drumming from Congo and Togo, songs from Somalia, Nepal, Sri Lanka . . . We need musicians and technicians to get involved! Basic computer skills We need volunteers to teach basic IT skills to asylum seekers and refugees. Learning useful skills during their long waiting time in HK is essential for our clients wellbeing and future. Women's Handicraft Project Do you have skills in dressmaking, jewellery making or other handicrafts? Come and teach our women's group and help raise funds for our Women's Emergency Fund to provide basic necessities to asylum seeker and refugee women. This project is a spin off from our Women's Day on Mondays which offers English, IT, health and empowerment trainings for women. Childcare support and advice On Mondays over 30 women gather at our centre to learn new skills and form a community support group. We need volunteers to provide child care for their young babies and toddlers so the mothers can concentrate on their studies. We currently have 90 children dependent on our centre and the number keeps rising! We need experienced parents to offer advice and support to help new mothers. We are looking for mentors to help inexperienced mothers or facilitate child care workshops. English Teaching Learning to speak English is an essential skill for newly arrived asylum speakers. We need beginners, intermediate and business English teachers. Tutoring kids: Homework Support Groups Asylum seeker and refugee children from African and South Asia struggle to study in English medium schools in HK. They may also have missed years of education before their arrived here. Our homework support groups help them to improve their English language skills, master school subjects and build their confidence and communication skills. Football and Basketball team coach Get involved in leading our football and basketball teams. Organising trainings, booking courts and games for our fantastic players! Interpreters We continue to need Tamil, Singhalese, Bengali, Urdu, French interpreters to assist our staff. You can be an important link for asylum seekers! Volunteer and BE A PART OF THE HEALING!
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Sponsor a child! |
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Asylum seeker children are fleeing to Hong Kong to escape persecution, violence or torture against their families. We often see pictures of children suffering in war torn or poverty stricken areas of Africa. As residents in Asia, we know about the tragic violence and political strife unfolding in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri-Lanka which regularly scars or ends children's lives. Please help these children have a better quality of life Help an asylum seeker child to live healthily and with dignity in Hong Kong. We provide baby milk, diapers, fresh fruit and vegetables, shelter, start up school expenses and other basic necessities to these vulnerable children. One-off donations will contribute to an emergency fund Or Sponsor a child: $500 each month.
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Donate now! |
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We need basic necessities such as bags of rice, clothes, toiletries and kitchen equipment to assist our clients. Please contact us on 2723 6626 or email ckmsc@christian-action.org.hk To donate financially please use the donation form, or click "donation" on our website www.christian-action.org.hk. You're also welcome to visit our centre to find out how you can help. Please contact us for more information Chungking Mansions Service Centre
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