The Last Shall Not Be Last

“When we were distributing in Sham Shui Po the children immediately opened the fully-loaded nylon carrier bags. They smiled with relief as they piled foodstuffs and test kits into their trolley bags and headed home.”

- Jeffrey Andrews – a social worker at our Centre for Refugees (CFR).

Few people in Hong Kong have suffered as much indignity and pain during this 5th wave of COVID as our asylum seekers and refugees. Already relegated to the margins of society, they were initially left in the terrifying position of being excluded from the Government’s plan to provide free vaccinations for Hong Kong’s residents! They were the last to be served in the vaccination campaign.

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Hong Kong’s Heroes

“Right now more people are dying from Covid in Hong Kong, relative to population, than anywhere else in the world.”

Bloomberg Businessweek. March 23, 2022

The fifth wave of Covid-19 is at a critical point in Hong Kong. Huge numbers of our elderly population have fallen victim to the epidemic, hospitals are overwhelmed and many of our poor are struggling to survive. On the streets there is a palpable sense of fear of the virus, with many worrying if they, or their loved ones could be next.

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Hong Kong’s ‘National Emergency’

‘Our front-line and central administrative staff have been working nonstop to provide Emergency COVID-19 Relief Packs to those in distress. As soon as one distribution is completed, staff have to immediately rush out with the next.’

Hong Kong is facing an unprecedented crisis. We currently have the highest ratio of COVID related deaths in the world and everyone is feeling overwhelmed.

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Hong Kong’s Migrant Domestic Workers being forced onto the streets because of COVID fears

“Since mid-February we have received approximately 100 urgent requests for help from migrant domestic workers (MDW’s). Since the outbreak of this latest strain of COVID-19, some of our services to them have been seriously disrupted. Many are now infected and urgently need places to quarantine. Some have been fired and had to endure staying on the streets for hours. It is a nightmare! We take care of the girls and provide them with medicine, rapid test kits and other daily necessities. Fortunately 4 of them have recovered.”

- Vivi Tusmiati Vistamika, Staff member at our Domestic Worker’s Service Centre

Hong Kong is in the midst of a fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. One tragic consequence of this is that some families have been so gripped by fear that they have forced their Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs) out of their homes and onto the streets. In many cases MDW’s have been left to fend for themselves and sleep in parks, tents or even sleeping in their employers’ cars!

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Embrace the Bend in the Road of your Career

It’s not the end of the road if you are forced to leave the labour market for a time. Such a break, might just mean a bend in the road of your career.

Several years ago Eling Kwok was happily working as a carer for the elderly. Then her own mother suffered a debilitating stroke. Eling had no other option but to leave her job to care for her. She loved her mother but she was also terrified that the gap in her resume would hurt her future job prospects.

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