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Community
Chest supports women in Tin Shui Wai
The Community Chest has
recently approved funding for the Federation's pilot
project, “Awakening Soul: Emotional and Mental Health
Support Network for Women in Tin Shui Wai” (躍動心靈---天水圍區婦女情緒與精神健康支援網絡計劃).
This 2-year project is now underway and includes body
language/biofeedback workshops, stress management workshops,
‘meet your real self' activities and ‘clearing blocks'
therapeutic activities. Its aims are to encourage women
in Tin Shui Wai who are vulnerable to emotional and mental
health problems to take a new look at themselves. It
helps them build strength and use strategies to cope
with problems effectively.
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「邊聽邊講」Digital Solidarity Fund
Project
The Federation's Tsuen Wan
and Kwai Chung Outreaching Social Work Team has obtained
sponsorship from the Digital Solidarity Fund for this
project which runs from July 2006 to December 2007. It
provides multi-media and computer courses for youth-at-risk
and delinquents aged 13-20 in Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung
Districts. They will create and manage their own website.
Online radio will also be a forum where participants
can discuss youth and community issues with parents,
teachers and the public. We hope this project will provide
an effective channel for self-expression, helping youth-at-risk
engage in positive interaction with the public. BBS
LIVE! will provide technical assistance for setting up and
operating the online radio broadcasts. Contact us at
2487 6151 for more information.
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2-year family programme begins
in Kowloon City District
The Federation's Jockey
Club Hunghom Youth S.P.O.T., the Family Life Education
(Kowloon City District) Unit and the Federation
of Parent-Teacher Associations, Kowloon City District are co-organizing
this 2-year family programme called ‘九龍城家庭進修學院'. It aims
to encourage parents to pursue life-long learning through
a series of courses, seminars and workshops specially
designed for parents with children at kindergarten, primary
and secondary school in Kowloon City District. We hope
these activities provide useful, up-to-date information
on parent-child communication skills and the harmonious
family. Participating parents will also engage in community
service to help them build a sense of belonging. Please
contact the Jockey Club Hunghom Youth S.P.O.T. at 2774
3083 for more information.
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Primary school programme with
Community Investment & Inclusion Fund
This one-year Federation
programme, entitled 伴我成長˙社區顯關愛」課託計劃, starts in September
and is being sponsored by the Community Investment & Inclusion
Fund. It is being organized by Cheung Wah Youth S.P.O.T.
and targets Primary 1 to 4 children studying at the
HHCKLA Buddhist Chan Shi Wan Primary School in New
Territories North. Children who do not have enough
family care at home will be provided with babysitters,
tutors for homework, visits and life skills training
workshops. We are seeking parents, students from The
Hong Kong Institute of Education and F.5 students at
school in the community to be trained as tutors for
the programme. We hope it will help to relieve the
problems faced by the children concerned, giving them
social exposure and building up their sense of belonging
to the community.
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Musical Blessings 樂樂會 in Times
Square
Courtesy of Times
Square and bma Records Ltd,
40 young saxophone players and local pop singer,
Jade Kwan will play music by Mozart,
Lloyd Webber and Clementi on Sunday 3 September from
4-5 pm in the Times Square Open Piazza II. This is
the first in a series of such events which will take
place around Hong Kong each year, giving talented youngsters
the chance to perform in public and let everybody share
the blessings and joy that music can bring. Many thanks
to all partners, the saxophone players and Jade Kwan.
More details in this issue's Upcoming Events.
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Spotlight
on
School Social Work |
The
Federation's social workers offer professional counselling
in 38 Hong Kong secondary schools. They deal with many
kinds of problems. They help those who fail to adjust
to life
at secondary school or have difficulty making friends.
They reason with those who break school rules and mediate
in cases of parent-child conflict. The service has just
been extended to include two new secondary schools, the
HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity at Inverness
Road in Kowloon City and the Creative Secondary School
in Tseung Kwan O. For more information, contact Alice
Lui, School Social Work Unit, tel 2395 0161.
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Online
fantasy land:
a nightmare world for vulnerable youth |
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Virtual communications
and virtual games are a reality in today's world but addiction
to that virtual world is also real. This reality is an issue
of deep concern because many of the addicts are young people.
They are dependent on that alternative world but it harms
their health, family life, contacts with friends and normal
development through school and into the workforce. Parents
and teachers are often at a loss for a solution and the statistics
show a disturbing upward trend. Our answer is to help by
sending a preventive message through educational programmes
and the promotion of sensible use of internet resources.
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About 10%
of young internet users in Hong Kong are online for an average
of 42 hours a week according to a Federation survey. * It
is worse on the Mainland, where 13% are classified as addicts.
A residential clinic dealing with the problem opened in Beijing
last year and its bed spaces have gone up from 30-400 since
it opened. The Mainland government's interim answer was to
institute an effective 3-hour limit for any online gaming
session and to work with game producers to discourage compulsive
playing. Wisernet is a forthcoming Federation project which
advocates controlled use of the web and raised awareness
for parents of the needs of problematic internet users.
Please contact us if you can help in any way.
See this week's Feature Story for more on internet addiction
and Facts and Figures for more statistics.
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| Feature
Story |
| Webaholics: a new
kind of young addict Hong
Kong has many teens who spend up to five hours a day
online. According to a 2005 survey*, 10% of a group of
1900 pupils were on the net for even longer. Much of
that time is spent chatting, listening to music or playing
online games. Some become addicted to the virtual world
they escape into every day. The average compulsive online
gamer spends 5-10 hours playing every day. Homework,
dating, sport and family time disappear from the lives
of young people like this. We talked to Cecilia, a frontline
social worker who helps these youngsters, to a worried
parent called Beris and to Lucy, a fourteen-year old
who can't stop playing.
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Cecilia: About 10% of 10-30
year old internet users in Hong Kong have a real problem.
The Federation ran a survey among a group of approximately
500 of them last December and found that 10% stayed online
for 42 hours a week. Over half of these stay on the computer
till the small hours of the morning. |
Why are online games so popular? German
researchers have found that addicts have increased levels
of dopamine in their brains which act in the same way as
amphetamines. A simpler explanation is that the games are
exciting, interactive and yet non-threatening compared
to real-life contact sport.
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| Beris: My son has never liked rugby or football
but he will play Warcraft till four o'clock in the morning.
He's 15 years old and he gets really hyped up on his computer
then can't go to sleep. He doesn't spend much time with us
any more and the online gaming has had a serious effect on
his maths results at school. |
| Beris has been worried about her son for about a year.
He sometimes plays for up to eight hours at a stretch, but
he talks to real friends as well as cyber friends as he plays
and has not lost touch with his schoolmates. Both of his
parents are deeply involved and concerned. They try their
best to impose controls but unless they are awake in the
middle of the night it isn't always possible to enforce the
rules they have imposed. |
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| Beris: I really feel we have lost touch and
are cut off from his world. Somehow I feel less needed than
before but at the same time I can see he still actually needs
me as much as ever. I'm never sure how far to let him go
and it's a great help to talk all this over, especially with
other mothers I meet through the PTA. But the main thing
is that we are still a happy family. |
| Lucy, who has been looked after by a Federation case worker
is in a much worse way. |
| Lucy: I was unhappy at school and didn't get
on with my classmates. First I started skipping classes and
then I left. I'm fourteen years old now and I used to be
quite good at school. Now my only friends are the ones I
meet online. I just want to stay on the computer all the
time. |
| Lucy's parents have problems of their own and
they failed to intervene and help Lucy control herself. Her
mother is an attempted suicide and rows are common in their
home. Lucy has needs which she cannot meet in real life and
her solution is to escape reality by going online into another
world. |
| Cecilia: Lucy's parents could have done something
but they were so wrapped up in their own problems they couldn't
see what was happening. In fact they thought they were indulging
her by letting her have her own way. For Lucy's future nothing
could be further than the truth. She is literally lost to
the world most of the time. |
| These are just two examples of how the internet
can affect young lives adversely. There are many more cases.
Contact the School Social Work Unit for more information
about our work with young internet addicts, tel 2395 0161. |
| Facts & Figures |
Internet
addiction statistics
In Britain, a survey of 540 online gamers
found that 15% played for over 50 hours a week and a few
of them were online for more than 80 hours. This compares
with 10% of a sample group of 501 10-29 year-olds polled
by the Federation who stay online for over 42 hours a week
in Hong Kong.* In South Korea as much as 30% of the population
are registered online game players and a global total of
approximately 114 million was calculated for early 2007. |
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However, according to the
Chinese authorities, there are well over 100 million internet
users on the Mainland already and 16.8 million of them
are aged between 13 and 35.** 25 million are regular game
players, at least 2 million are playing at this moment
and 2.4 million (13%) are addicted according to a national
survey done in August 2005.
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Federation
Opinion Poll on young people's views on politicians
The Federation interviewed 506 young people
aged 15-34 between 30 July and 3 August on what they thought
of politicians. Asked for opinions on the Government's
recent Consultation Document on Further
Development of the Political Appointment System, 68.4%
said they knew nothing about it. However, almost 30% of
the entire group said they had more confidence now in government's
ability to cultivate local young politicians and attract
good staff. |
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Approximately 60% thought Hong Kong did not
have enough able politicians. When asked what qualities an
able politician should possess, 36.5% said leadership ability,
20.9% said they needed good judgment and 18.1% said they
needed good political sense. When asked whether they would
consider entering politics, 75.3% said they would not, 37.3%
said they lacked any interest in politics while nearly 30%
said they thought they lacked the ability. Of the 13.9% who
said they would consider it, 48.5% hoped they could contribute
to society. Over half of them thought that grooming and training
young people as politicians should begin at tertiary level
and 70% thought government should bear the cost of such training.
Click here for the Chinese version of the poll:
http://www.hkfyg.org.hk/yrc/chinese/yr-p153c.html |
| Upcoming
Events |
Musical
Blessings 樂樂會
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Date: Sunday 3
September
Time: 4-5 pm
Place: Times Square Open Piazza II
40 young saxophone players and local pop singer, Jade
Kwan will perform with Patrick Chiu, HKFYG Music Director
as conductor and Kathy Lam from RTHK Radio 4 as presenter.
Programme: Clementi's Sonatina,
Op. 36, no.1, music from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom
of the Opera and Mozart's Eine Kleine
Nachtmusik.
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| HKFYG
Lee Shau Kee College Opening |
Date: Friday
1 September
Place: Area 104, Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long,
NT
First term for Secondary One students begins.
Information: tel 2146 1128 fax 2146 1662
e-mail education@hkfyg.org.hk |
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