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Distributing protective materials and food, and providing online learning and financial support to help grassroots families during pandemic

The economy of Hong Kong has been severely affected since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year. The income of many grassroots families has been drastically reduced and some have even lost their jobs. Their economic situation has been greatly affected, and their lives made harder, due to the shortage and thus soaring prices of protective equipment and daily food supplies.

To help the grassroots families overcome the difficulties, we have taken the initiative to learn more about their needs during the pandemic through our services units. Subsequently, we have launched various relief projects that provide timely support in different areas such as daily needs, family finances, and assistance for children that are now learning online. 

Optimising the use of the Relief Fund to help families with financial difficulties 

Many low-income families are severely affected by the epidemic. Their economic environment has deteriorated to such an extent that even their daily livelihoods are difficult to maintain. Therefore, during this crisis, we are using the Relief Fund to provide emergency living assistance to those service users who are facing financial difficulties from being unemployed or underemployed due to the pandemic.

The Relief Fund is targeted at low-income service users from all our service units that are in need and recommended by our social workers. We will help families who successfully apply by subsidising tuition fees for their children, monthly childcare fees, monthly fees for after-school care and tutoring, or emergency financial assistance.

Sending warmth to grassroots families by distributing protective materials and food to them 

After another wave of the epidemic broke out in July, the situation became even more severe than before. Many low-income families again had to face shortages of protective materials and food. To ease their burdens, HKSPC allocated funds, and received resources from external organisations, to purchase various types of anti-epidemic items and food, such as masks, bleach, alcohol hand sanitiser, disinfectant wipes, noodles and biscuits. The distribution began in February to low-income families from our two Children and Family Services Centres, families in need from our 17 nursery schools, our Centre for Child Enlightenment, and 6 external kindergartens through our Stationing Social Work Service for Young Children, with more than 1,300 families and around 9,000 children benefiting from our help.

HKSPC distributed protective materials and food to low-income families.
The protective materials included face masks, bleach, hand sanitiser and disinfecting wet wipes.
The food included noodles, biscuits, cereal and canned foods.

Families forced to buy expensive protective materials are given supplies to meet their immediate needs

Wing-yan, an 8-year-old girl, is living with her aunt, uncle, and two cousins in an old building at To Kwa Wa. Her uncle and cousin, who work in telecommunications and customer service sectors respectively, were forced to take no-pay leave during the pandemic. Another cousin, who is a tattoo artist, had no income at all as no customers came into their studio. The finances of Wing-yan’s family were hit hard by the pandemic.

Wing-yan’s aunt recalled the challenges they faced at the beginning of the pandemic, “Our family lacked all kinds of protective materials and face masks at the beginning of the pandemic. We had to borrow some face masks from relatives as we could not buy them in the pharmacies and supermarkets. We once even had to buy a box of children’s face masks for $980 since we had none left, I felt so helpless at that time.” 

The Centre provided protective materials to Wing-yan’s family so that they didn’t have to search around.

“Since Wing-yan has joined ‘Learning Together’ After-school Tutorial Class, the Centre was able to assess our needs. They gave us protective materials and daily necessities such as face masks, bleach, toilet paper, and wet wipes to help us survive this difficult time. We now don’t have to spend our days and nights looking for protective materials and worry about purchasing ineffective face masks.”

Seeing that Wing-yan is so understanding, her aunt is very grateful, “Although these days are very challenging, Wing-yan is very thoughtful. She understands the difficult situation our family faces. She will do her homework and study on her own; we don’t have to worry about her.” 

Wing-yan smiled and said, “I hope the pandemic will be over soon so that I can go to Ocean Park and Disneyland with my aunt, uncle, and two cousins to have fun.”

Wing-yan hopes the pandemic will be over soon so that her family can have fun at Hong Kong’s theme parks.

Reducing family’s daily expenses and the risk of infection 

Mrs. Chum’s family of four lives in an old building in Sham Shui Po, and her husband, a taxi driver, is the major source of income for the family. However, her husband’s income has dropped by more than half during the pandemic. They not only have to pay a monthly rent of up to $9,000 but also have to cope with the drastic increase in daily expenses, such as rising water, electricity, and gas bills, as the children had to stay at home for months during the suspension of schools.

Mrs. Chum expressed her gratitude for our support, “Our family’s financial situation worsened during the pandemic, my husband and I could save money by eating less, but our children are still very young and we can’t let them be hungry. Fortunately, the Centre provided food to us which not only reduced our food expenditure but also greatly reduced the risk of infection when taking the children out to buy food and daily necessities. The foods distributed by the Centre, such as noodles, pasta, and biscuits are very good for the children to eat. We really appreciate the help from the Centre.” 

Mrs. Chum thinks the food distributed by the Centre is great for the children to eat.
This social worker cares about the current situation and the needs of Mrs. Chum and her family.

Apart from helping local families, we also care about the needs of ethnic minority families and have been providing suitable food and epidemic prevention materials to them.

Caring about the needs of ethnic minority families and providing them with suitable food and protective materials

Farhan is a 13-year-old Pakistan boy, his mother is a housewife while his father is unable to work because of old age and health problems. His family relies on the government’s monthly Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) which is about $10,000, but just the monthly rent takes up a third of it. During the pandemic, the high price for all necessities has added to the financial burden of Farhan’s family.

Farhan appreciates the timely support from the Centre, “We could not afford to buy face masks and protective equipment as they were very expensive at the beginning of the pandemic; we had to use the same face mask for two to three days. Thankfully, the Centre distributed different protective materials to us, such as face masks, hand sanitiser, bleach, and so on, so that we don’t have to search for these materials and bear the high price.” 

“As the food of ethnic minority families is different from local families, we often have to go to farther districts, such as Tsim Sha Tsui to buy food, but I was afraid of getting infected every time I went out. Thankfully, the Centre knows and cares about our needs, and distributed Indian rice and flour to us that is suitable for ethnic minority families. This meant I had to go out less often.” 

Farhan appreciates the Centre could cater to the needs of ethnic minority families.
The food distributed by the Centre including Indian Rice and flour that is suitable for ethnic minority families.

Farhan is looking forward to life after the pandemic, “I hope the pandemic will end very soon, and then my family and I can join the outing activities organised by the Centre, and learn more about Hong Kong by going to the places that we haven’t been to before.”

The lending of tablets and data sim cards to solve pupil’s online learning problems 

Face-to-face classes can not be fully resumed in schools, while some classes must be conducted online during the pandemic. However, some low-income families do not have a computer at home, and the internet connection is very unstable. This has seriously affected children’s ability to learn. Therefore, we lend tablets and data sim cards to families in need in the community to solve these problems. 

Providing timely online learning support to help children with learning disabilities

Mrs. Cheng lives in a 100 sq. ft. sub-divided flat in Sham Shui Po with her husband and son. The family relies on the monthly income from her husband, who works as an office assistant. This is around $12,000.

During the pandemic, Mrs. Cheng was extremely worried as her family lacked protective equipment such as face masks and bleach and did not have an adequate store of food. Due to the school suspension, she had to stay at home all day to take care of her son who has ADHD and Attention Deficit Disorder. This left her physically and mentally exhausted and caused emotional problems like anxiety, nervousness, and irritability. Our social workers not only provided emotional support and counselling service to her, but we also helped her to solve the problem of lacking a computer so that her son could study from home.

“As we don’t have a computer at home, my son could only use my mobile phone for his online classes during the suspension of face-to-face classes. However, the screen of my mobile phone was too small, and the internet connection was very unstable which meant the connection was constantly being interrupted. My son, who has learning disabilities, was unable to concentrate and eventually refused online learning, which greatly affected his learning progress. Fortunately, the Centre lent a tablet to us after becoming aware of our needs. This greatly enhanced my son’s motivation for online learning. Moreover, the social worker from the Centre regularly checked in on the online learning progress of my son and provided appropriate recommendations and support. My son’s learning performance was greatly improved.”

The social worker was keen to find out about the online learning progress of Mrs. Cheng’s son.

Mrs. Cheng deeply felt the care from the community, “The protective materials and food given by the Centre not only helped us to reduce the family’s expenses and avoid unnecessary travel but most importantly, the Centre was there to lend a helping hand during our hardest time. They let us know that we are not alone in the fight against the pandemic.” 

Mrs. Cheng thanks our Centre for the support amid the pandemic. Her family really felt the care of the community.

Apart from taking the initiative to launch various relief projects to help low-income families, we are happy to receive support from the Hong Kong Jockey Club and Rusy and Purviz Shroff Charitable Foundation who have provided protective equipment and food, as well as financial assistance to low-income families in need. 

“We Fight the Virus” Project joined hands with low-income families against COVID-19; distributed around 90,000 children’s face masks

Our two Children and Family Services Centres acquired the support of the COVID-19 Emergency Fund from the Hong Kong Jockey Club to launch the “We Fight The Virus” Project, and distributed 700 Care Packs to families in need between June and July. To find out more details, please read here

Continuing to take care of the needs of grassroots families and sending care and warmth to them

With the funding support from Rusy and Purviz Shroff Charitable Foundation, we will continue to source and purchase protective materials and food. Through our two Children and Family Services Centres and 17 Nursery schools, in November, we will also target and distribute to 1,000 grassroots families, which include CSSA, low-income, single-parent, new arrivals, ethnic minority families, and those families which have a family member(s) with mental health problems. As well as this we will reserve part of the funding as an Emergency Assistance Fund to provide support to families with serious financial difficulties. 

The COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong has remained severe lately, which means the grassroots families still must face many difficulties and challenges caused by the pandemic. In order to promote the spirit of mutual aid among the community, we will continue our efforts to provide appropriate assistance to the families in need and actively seek collaboration opportunities with external organisations, to bring care and warmth to these families.