Deep Dive: Is Hong Kong doing enough to help poor children? Advocacy groups, experts say more must be done

An advocacy group, the Children’s Rights Association, gave the Hong Kong government a performance rating of zero for four of their efforts in 2023 to improve the lives of poor children.

These were the four out of 10 policy areas that scored zero: the growing wealth gap; challenges for mainland mothers to reunite with their kids in the city; the lack of anti-discrimination laws for new immigrants from across the border; and the lack of an independent statutory children’s rights committee.

“The Hong Kong government focused on economic recovery in 2023, but has neglected policy support, legislation and services for poverty alleviation among children,” said 15-year-old Kelly Lee Wai-yi, who is an ambassador from the Children’s Rights Association.

According to the Census Department, 222,600 children below the age of 18 could be classified as living in poverty in 2023. This is 23.8 per cent of the age group.

Members of the group also said the government’s education subsidies were not enough to help underprivileged children join school activities.

Advocate Bianca Zhang Bao-zhi, 16, said she could not afford to join most sports teams at her school.

“You have to pay HK$2,000 per term to join sports teams like the badminton team or the basketball team,” Bianca said. “But the government doesn’t have subsidies covering these; it’s very difficult for poor families to fork out a sum like this for us to join school teams.”

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They also criticised the Strive and Rise Programme, a mentorship scheme for underprivileged students from Forms One to Four, because it could only help a limited number of children.

But for the government’s work on housing supply, the group rated it the highest – with five points out of 10 for the introduction of the light public housing scheme and a task force on subdivided flats. But they said there were still concerns because many young people lived in poor conditions in subdivided flats.

Sze Lai-shan is the deputy director of the Society for Community Organisation, which is affiliated with the Children’s Rights Association. She urged the government to pay more attention to the children most in need. “Some things cannot wait, such as children’s growth and the wealth gap – these need to be addressed,” Sze said.
Staff writer

Question prompts

1. According to the Children’s Rights Association poll, in which areas does the Hong Kong government need to improve?
(1) allowing mothers in the mainland to be with their children who are in Hong Kong
(2) reducing the difference between how much money the rich and poor have
(3) establishing legislation that bans discrimination against new immigrants
(4) setting up an independent statutory children’s rights committee

A. (1), (2) and (3) only
B. (1), (2), and (4) only
C. (2), (3), and (4) only
D. all of the above

2. Based on News, how could poor children benefit from more education subsidies?

3. How far do you agree with Sze Lai-shan’s statement in News? Explain.

Question prompts

1. What details do you notice about the stairway and the child’s bag? What is attached to the child’s ankle?

2. What does the illustration suggest about how Hong Kong is supporting poor children?

• Experts say that the existing government programmes, such as the new Strive and Rise scheme, are short-term and do not reach enough young children

• They suggest setting up development accounts for each child and investing more to equip young people with academic and social skills

Last year, the Alliance for Children Development Rights, a community organisation of social workers and parents, surveyed 333 low-income families in Hong Kong. It found that more than three in four of these households did not use the government’s Child Development Fund or the Strive and Rise Programme – both are programmes meant to assist underprivileged children.

Most of them were unaware of these schemes, but some complained that it was hard to benefit from them because of the limited spaces available.

Of the 80 children who were enrolled in the programmes, more than one in four had not met their mentors in the three months before the survey.

Ho Yu-ying, a member of the Alliance for Children Development Rights, said the schemes were too similar and the quotas kept many children out. She added that most of the mentors were important businessmen and executives who had little time for the students.

“The government wants to alleviate poverty, but the support needs to be long-term,” she said, urging authorities to increase the quota for the schemes, make the programmes last longer, and recruit mentors with diverse backgrounds to meet students’ needs.

Experts and social workers called for more support for Hong Kong’s poor children and also urged the government to review its measures.

Ho suggested learning from places such as Taiwan and Singapore to set up a development account for each child. The government, businesses and parents could all contribute to the account until a child reached 18 years old, with the funds used for education, vocational training, finding jobs or starting businesses, she said.

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Priscilla Lui Tsang Sun-kai is a former non-official member of the Commission on Children. Lui said the government should invest more to equip young people with academic and social skills, while businesses could do more through donations and welcoming youngsters to their companies to learn.

Social welfare lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen said the government needed a comprehensive policy on beating intergenerational poverty.

He urged the authorities to conduct extensive research to find out the needs of poor children and design targeted programmes with clear objectives.

He said the government should mobilise different departments, including social welfare, education and housing authorities, to work together to tackle the issue.

“Intergenerational poverty cannot be eliminated simply through an individual programme,” he said.
Staff writer

Question prompts

1. Which criticisms of the Hong Kong government’s initiatives are mentioned in Issue?
(1) There were not enough opportunities available to children in need.
(2) The mentors involved in the programmes were not able to spend quality time with the underprivileged students.
(3) Poor pupils had to wait a long time before they could be accepted into the schemes.
(4) Kids had to pay a substantial amount of money to join the programmes.

A. (1) and (2) only
B. (2) and (3) only
C. (3) and (4) only
D. (4) and (1) only

2. What are places such as Taiwan and Singapore doing to address child poverty, and in your opinion, how effective is this?

3. What did Tik Chi-yuen most likely mean when he said the government needed a comprehensive policy on beating intergenerational poverty? Identify three clear objectives that should be included in policies to address intergenerational poverty.

Question prompts

1. Which of the accommodation types in the table are likely housing children from low-income families?

2. Based on your answer above, what are some challenges that children living in these housing types might face that could affect their education? Use your own knowledge to answer.

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• Child Development Fund: a two-year programme for children between 10 and 16 from low-income families. Introduced in 2008 to address intergenerational poverty, the fund consists of three key parts: personal development, mentorship, and targeted savings. Participating children are expected to work with their mentors and NGOs to make plans for personal development. They have access to training opportunities and community service. They are also required to save HK$200 every month. Each child who completes the programme receives HK$3,000 in the third year.

• performance rating: refers to an annual ratings exercise conducted by the Children’s Rights Association. The annual ratings exercise asked about 20 children, all members of the association’s executive committee and from underprivileged backgrounds, to discuss and rate the government’s policy performance on issues affecting them. The results were then passed on to about 5,000 fellow members, also children, to look over.

• Strive and Rise Programme: a pilot government scheme introduced in 2022 to provide poor secondary school students with outings, mentors and financial help. A total of 2,800 students in Form One to Three were picked for the first round, which lasts a year. Each received HK$5,000 at the start of the programme and again at the end, and was paired with a volunteer mentor. In the second round of the programme, they have increased the number of mentees to 4,000 and extended it to cover Form Four students as well.

• wealth gap: refers to the difference between the money that wealthy people have and how much poor people have. When the wealth gap is large, the wealthy have much more money than poor people do. A large wealth gap makes it tough for those in poverty to improve their situation because the wealthy can more easily access education and opportunities.

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News
1. Answer: D
2. Having more education subsides at school will allow them to participate in school activities which they would otherwise be unable to afford.
3. I agree with Sze Lai-shan’s statement to a large extent because issues like children’s well-being and the wealth gap cannot be put on hold. Delaying action on these issues can have lasting negative consequences for children’s growth and future opportunities and as such, early intervention and support are crucial. The wealth gap has long-term implications and limits upward mobility for future generations. Addressing it requires immediate action and long-term policy solutions.

Illustration
1. The stairway has a giant gap and the child seems to be held back by a heavy ball. The child’s bag is also quite worn.
2. The ball chained to the child’s ankle is preventing her from reaching her potential. At the same time, the Hong Kong government is not doing enough to address the various obstacles faced by young people living in poverty in the city as reflected in the broken staircase.

Issue
1. Answer: A
2. They have set up a development account for each child where the government, businesses and parents could all contribute to the account until a child reached 18 years old, with the funds used for education, vocational training, finding jobs or starting businesses. I think it’s useful because such accounts can provide children in poverty with access to resources and opportunities that can help them keep up with the advantages their more well-off peers might have.
3. Tik Chi-yuen most likely meant that limited schemes such as the Child Development Fund and the Strive and Rise Programme were not enough to bring children out of poverty. More comprehensive policies could include objectives such as ensuring underprivileged children finish their secondary school education by giving them access to subsidised tutors; ensuring more students from low-income families can access educational support to help them enter university or vocational colleges; and ensuring poor children have access to internship opportunities that can help them secure stable employment.

Table
1. public rental housing, temporary housing and subdivided flats
2. If they are living in temporary housing, the instability could affect their ability to focus in school, and they might struggle to get to school if they end up moving further away. If they live in subdivided flats, they might struggle to do their assignments and focus on studying while in cramped and uncomfortable conditions.