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Wong Hung

THE POOR IN Hong Kong would be worse off if it wasn't for Wong Hung-sang.

For the past two decades, he has tirelessly championed the cause of the less fortunate, working to give them shelter and food, and to ease their suffering in a society where people are used to thinking about themselves first.

Mr Wong never set out to be a social worker. It was during his first job as assistant officer at the Correctional Services Department, then known as the Prisons Department, that he realised he needed to upgrade his academic qualifications.

'I knew I had the capability to do the job, but I watched other colleagues who had university degrees get better positions than me even though their performances were worse,' he said.

'That was when I knew I needed to go back to school, even though I didn't have an idea of what to study.'

He was also torn between the stability and security of a government job, and a lower income job that would allow him to study.

As fate would have it, an error made by one of his colleagues turned out to be the definitive factor for his departure.

'One of my colleagues made quite a common mistake on the job, but since this person was not a confirmed assistant officer, the consequences could have resulted in his dismissal, so I decided to take the blame for the incident instead. Since I was already confirmed in the post, the consequences wouldn't be as serious for me, and it also gave me a reason to leave,' he said.

Taking a pay cut, he took a job as house parent at the Society of Boys following a referral from a friend. The job introduced him to the concept of social work, which he then decided to study at City University.

While his duties at the Correctional Services Department were wide ranging, they could not be directly applied to his social work career. However, he found that the principles he had acquired there were valuable.

For example, thinking about how certain actions would benefit society as a whole, and being aware of ways of supporting the community had instilled in him a mindset that will stay with him for life.

'The government job, which I did for three years, gave me lots of important life experiences and lessons which have helped me react to things in my social work job,' he said.

Mr Wong has helped serve the most needy people in society from children and the elderly, to the homeless and the hungry.

As a social worker in a non-government organisation, he said it was important to change jobs so that you could serve different sectors of society and be more enriched as a person.

Not being afraid to try new things has fuelled much of his creativity in identifying new services that can help those who are most in need.

Mr Wong is the brains behind the  People's Food Bank, run by the St James' Settlement charity, where he is now service manager.

Established in 2003, the food bank is a social service, carried out with other co-operative agencies, that provides food for the needy on a short-term basis.

'The philosophy is to feed people who are experiencing some kind of a crisis or have fallen on hard times, and are unable to feed themselves in the interim. They would receive dried food rations from the food bank for a specific time period of up to six weeks based on the time frame recommended by the social worker in charge,' Mr Wong said.

The food bank reached a new high at the end of August when it helped 300 people per day, with the expectation that it would total 400 by the end of the year.

'Our long-term goal would be to open a canteen in Kowloon, but that would depend on available funds as a food bank depends completely on private donations,' Mr Wong said.

'When I was small, I never thought there would be people in Hong Kong who would starve to death,' he said, adding that the most poverty stricken areas in Hong Kong were Shamshuipo and Tin Shui Wai.

Aside from the food bank, his core responsibility is looking after the homeless in Hong Kong

through the St James' Settlement charity.

This work has further exposed him to society and its problems, because street sleepers comprise a wide spectrum of the community from children and the elderly, to drug addicts and the mentally retarded.

While his role at the homeless service is largely a supervisory one, he is involved with outreach work which includes finding homeless people, allocating them shelter, and providing counselling and other related services.

It is thanks to the work of people like Mr Wong that homeless numbers in Hong Kong have fallen over the past few years from thousands to as low as 400 in July.

'People talk about how glamorous Hong Kong is, and how it is perceived as an international city, but I want people to see the city in its true light. My work gives a voice to this group of low-income people who are otherwise neglected,' he said.

Mr Wong's ability to be optimistic when things are bad is one of the hallmarks of his career.

He advised that while every job would always have its problems, to have a fulfilling and happy career, people should adapt to their environment rather than expect the environment to adjust to their needs.

'Even when we have to go out and do four straight hours of homeless outreaching work, I often urge my colleagues to change their perspectives and see things differently so they don't feel that they are having a hard, struggling time,' he said.

All you need to do is change your views.

'If you change your view and reconstruct it to a more positive way of thinking, the way you see things will improve.'

The other important thing is to always have respect for your job, he said. No role is too minor or insignificant because each job has its own purpose and fulfils a role in society.

As for the future, Mr Wong would like to do more for the city's poor, and identify new and better services that can help alleviate some of their suffering.

Switching careers

Always look for new challenges Don't be afraid of new experiences and making mistakes Education is key to getting your foot in the door Don't be afraid of hard work. No job can be both comfortable and rewarding at the same time Maximise  job opportunities and remember to look at the bigger picture Always remember that you can learn from a lot of things - from your errors and from other people

Look for solutions rather than running away from problems



Helping hand for the needy