Thanks
to Partners
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Yao
Ming: "Lecture Series for Youth Leaders"
Thanks are due to Yao Ming who gave a Dragon Foundation lecture to about 3,000
young people on his career as a basketballer on 22 September. Thanks also
to partners: the China AIDS Initiative, the Leisure & Cultural
Services Department, the Hong Kong Aids Foundation,
the Queen Elizabeth Stadium and the Hong Kong Basketball
Association.
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Recruitment
of Youth Volunteers for the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Conference
The Federation's
Youth Volunteer Network (VNET) has been invited to recruit
and train over 200 youth volunteers for the Hong Kong WTO
Ministerial Conference, scheduled from 13 to 18 December
2005. This will give them a valuable opportunity to provide
quality services to visitors from all over the world. We
are sure they will make the most of this chance to receive
guests, provide operational support and help the organizers
with logistical arrangements to ensure the event runs smoothly.
All volunteers must be nominated by schools, corporate
or social services/youth work organizations and be aged
16–35 with a Form 6 or higher education level. Contact
Jacqueline at VNET tel 2169 0032 if you have any queries
or visit VNET's website: www.u21.org.hk/yvn for
more information.
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Airport
Ambassador Programme in its 7th series
The
seventh batch of Airport Ambassadors has just joined
this well-received programme run in partnership with
the Labour Department and the Airport
Authority. Since the outset in 2002, the number
in each batch has increased and this time it approaches
60. The concept involves bringing young people into the
work force and providing them with 2 months' training
in customer services before they work in the passenger
terminals for 6 months under the supervision of Airport
Authority management staff. This helps them improve interpersonal
skills and build team spirit while providing them with
vocational experience in the tourist industry. Visit
the Youth Employment Network (YEN) website for more information: www.yen.org.hk
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2nd
book on youth counselling in preparation
The
Federation's Youthline has obtained a grant from the Social
Work Training Fund to publish A Listening
Ear - the Youth Counselling Hotline Service, our
second publication on professional youth counselling.
The first book was the successful Adolescent Depression:
Understanding and Intervention. The aim of the second
will be to share the hands-on experience we have gained
in the provision of hotline counselling services with
counterparts in the social welfare sector and the general
public. The book is expected early next year.
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Opening
of Innovation Expo 2005
Hong
Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Thursday 29 September till Sunday 2 October 10am-6pm
Free of charge
Innovation Expo 05 is the finale of a three-month campaign, the Innovation
Festival 05, which was organized by the Innovation and
Technology Commission (ITC). It is the largest event
of its kind in Hong Kong and the theme is "Take Wings - City of Innovation." We
were very pleased to be invited to join in this event as a supporting organization
and the winning teams of this year's Hong Kong Student Science Project
Competition will display the results of their outstanding inventions and
innovative scientific research. The last day of the Expo is Youth
Day during which the Federation's LEAD Project will
feature, with demonstrations of the development of projects. There will also
be workshops targeting youth on that day. The event showcases Hong Kong's latest
technological achievements and a visit will be a rewarding experience for those
interested in locally generated innovative projects and the development of
science education in schools. Please call the Secretariat of the Innovation
Festival 05 on 2234 6424 for more information or visit the event website: www.innotech.gov.hk
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STOP
PRESS
The Federation
will co-host a talk by Michael Furdyk, the young co-founder
of TakingITGlobal.org*, a global non-profit online community.
Furdyk started his first Internet company, MyDeskTop.com, when
he was
15. His second venture, BuyBuddy.com, helps users understand
and purchase technology products. He advises Microsoft on how
young people use technology and has been a consultant for large
corporations including HP, Xerox and IBM. Co-hosts of the talk,
on Monday 3 October, 5:30pm, Auditorium, 1/F HK Council of Social
Service, are Microsoft and HKU. Readers are warmly invited to
attend.
Contact
Leadership 21 for further details, email leadership21@hkfyg.org.hk,
tel 2169 0255
* TakingITGlobal.org
is a global non-profit online community and Michael Furdyk has
been nominated one of the "20 teens that will change the world" by
Teen People
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There
have been recent media reports about the
problem of female gangs in Hong Kong but little investigation has taken
place. Since we are very concerned about the risks they
are running we conducted our own research. Federation
outreach social workers surveyed 70 girl gang members
aged 13 to 20 and then our researchers conducted in-depth
interviews with 18 of them. Findings of the survey, together
with a detailed analysis of the interviews, have just
been published.*
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Form
2 girls are at highest risk of being tempted to join
gangs and this age group should be the target for preventive
work. There are now girl-only gangs which did not apparently
exist before and as gang members, they can become involved
in fighting, shoplifting, drug trafficking and sexual
promiscuity. However, they often do not stay long in
the same gang and we can help some of them make a turn-around.
The ratio of female to male gang members has doubled
in the last 4 years. Correctional Services statistics
show that the number of female prisoners under 21 has
also doubled since 1994. The likely connection between
these two phenomena deserves our serious attention and
justifies further in depth work into such a neglected
area.
"Both
schools and parents need to be alert for signs that
girls in Form 2 have joined gangs. They are in a physical
and emotional transition period and cannot always differentiate
between good and bad influences." Prof
Daniel Shek Tan-lei, Dept of Social Work, Chinese University
of Hong Kong *HKFYG
Youth Study Series no 34 September 2005
For summary in Chinese, visit: http://www.hkfyg.org.hk/yrc/chinese/yr-ys-34-c.html
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Federation
News
Mr. Peter Wong
Tung-shun, Group Manager and Executive Director, Hong Kong and
Mainland China, Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation, will
talk to 230 student leaders about the yuan and monetary policy
in China at the Duke of Windsor Social Service Building on 29
September 2005.
The Federation
has been delighted by the response to its Grand Raffle Campaign.
The lucky draw will take place on 30 September 2005 and results
will be published on 6 October 2005 in Sing Tao Daily, The Standard
and on the u21youthnet. website:www.u21.org.hk.
The Federation's
newly launched "Youth Business Hong Kong" attracted
over 90 applications and from next month the first batch of seven
successful business start-ups will benefit from expert mentorship
and will receive between them seed funds totalling about HK$500,000.
For further details, contact Louisa Lau tel 3113 7999, email ybhk@hkfyg.org.hk or
visit www.u21.org.hk/ybhk.
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Feature
Story
Girls in gangs
The latest survey of 484 gang members* in Hong Kong was done by the Federation
in May and June this year. 84 (15%) of them were female. That is nearly double
the male-female proportion that was found by the last survey in 2001. Carmen,
one of the Federation's outreach social workers has been counselling some
of them.
One of them was called Elki. She is now 17 and has been in and
out of gangs since she was in primary school, taking drugs, thieving
and fighting, but I think she reached a critical turning point
with me recently when she realized how serious the side effects
of the drugs she had taken were.
Why do you think she joined a gang in the first place?
She found being a gang member exciting and fun, much better
than life at home. In fact the gang ended up replacing
her family. The other gang members were supportive and
they formed a cohesive group with her as one of the gang
leaders. But it was also a form of attention seeking. Her
parents had always been more involved with her sickly sister
so she rejected them and looked for alternatives.
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Did
she not find her school environment supportive?
Elki went to a special school when she developed behavioural
problems and she really liked it there. Teachers, friends and
social workers alike gave her the attention she needed. She wanted
to stay. The outside world was too complicated and she did not
want to face its realities. But in the end her behavioural problems
manifested themselves there too and the school threw her out
for causing trouble with schoolmates and teachers.
What
made her look to you for help?
I think she got frightened. She saw some other gang members
who were drug-addicts losing control of their lives, both,
physically and psychologically. Perhaps she could have gone
either way but we were able to offer support at a vital moment,
before it was too late.
How
about May? How old is she?
May is a year younger than Elki but this last year has been
a really terrible time for her. She has been involved
in gangs connected to triads for about 2 years. As well
as getting involved in crime there have been many, many
boyfriends in the gang, one of whom was the 30 year old
gang leader. She felt safe with him, but in the end,
although she needed his love and friendship she felt
too controlled and despite the excitement of being a
gang member she sought out female company instead. Could she not find love and security at home?
She came from a single parent family but her mother was a drug
addict and moved out. Then her elder sister took on the role
of father figure but was very strict and would lock her in.
May dropped out of school a year ago and found a lesbian
girlfriend ten years her senior. She moved in with her.
How did it work out?
To begin with it was better. She did some special training
for school dropouts, encouraged by me and her sister, but her
relationship ended sadly. She eventually broke up with her
girlfriend and they made a suicide pact. It wasn't carried
out but it must have been terribly traumatic. May didn't
tell me - her friend did.
And now?
At last things seem to be improving. I think that, like Elki, May
got scared and started to really think about what I told her.
She was rapidly missing all her chances of a decent education.
She is a bright girl who started out doing well in a good school.
This term she has finally gone back to school. She has decided
to take control of her future rather than wasting her time with
a gang.
As we see from
these two girls' stories, gangs can perform an emotionally supportive
role for girls without support at school or at home. They offer
excitement and thrills, even sometimes a sense of freedom and
independence. But it is illusory. Given the potential for drug
abuse, criminal proceedings and sexual promiscuity among female
gang members some pioneering new initiatives are needed to help
them. At present, most services for youth-at-risk in Hong Kong
focus on males. Very few of them target girls. A cooperative
effort is needed to tackle these gang-generated problems. All
sectors need to be involved, both at the preventive and intervention
level-youth workers, government, police, educators and parents
alike.
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Facts & Figures
Scientist
David Ho and basketballer-actitvist Yao Ming put spotlight
on AIDS
China's HIV infection rates jumped 50% last year but official
figures are still low and are disputed by academics and activists.
Hong Kong also has a low rate, with HIV among those over 18 less
than 0.1% in 2004. There is concern that local figures also may
be underestimated and health workers are tackling the disease by
co-ordinating efforts on both sides of the border.
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Official figures on the Mainland for
HIV positive children show only about 1000 cases, 600 from Henan
province, but paediatricians say these are only the reported cases
and the real figures should be much higher. The problem is compounded
because although there are 8 effective antiretroviral drug combinations
for children available in China none of them has been released
on the market. AIDS orphans are also a serious concern on the Mainland
where they are subject to persistent discrimination.
A rise in mother-to-baby infections has been predicted since 5%
of pregnant women in some areas of China tested positive for HIV.**
Last week's good news was that hundreds of pregnant women who could
pass HIV on to their children will benefit from a drug programme
organized by the China Aids Initiative, directed by AIDS scientist
David Ho Dai-I***. It will reduce the risk from 30% to just 2%.
Dr Ho was in Hong Kong to attend a fund-raising function with Yao
Ming, the basketball star AIDS activist.
* www.chinaview.cn [ 29/11/04]
** http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-11/29/content_2273763.htm
** South China Morning Post 2 December 2004
*** South China Morning Post 22 September 2005
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Eating family
dinners improves grades at school
According to a new Columbia University survey, 40% of teenagers
who eat with their families at least five times a week have a better
chance of getting grades A or B than those who don't. It was also
found that frequent family dinners were associated with fewer substance
abuse problems. 42% of teens in this category were less likely
to drink alcohol, 59% were less likely to smoke cigarettes, and
66% were less likely to try marijuana.* It is not easy for many
working parents to find time for a meal together with their children
nowadays but it can clearly make a big difference.
*Apple Daily 15 September 2005.
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