Ethnic Minorities Youth Ambassadors

Summer is the best time for children in Hong Kong. It is a time for watersports and fun days in the sun. This summer, our Youth Ambassador Programme for Ethnic Minorities took groups of ethnic minority (EM) kids on sailing, dragon boat and beach clean-up outings.

It makes me so happy that Christian Action can do these things for EM youth who rarely get to leave the city.

The Youth Ambassador Programme aims to promote ethnic equality, to facilitate adolescent development and the integration of EM youth into HK society. We recruit EM young adults as ambassadors and train them in outreach skills, case working, and partnership with the police and local organisations for anti-crime efforts. Our goal is to help the youth avoid bad influences like getting involved with gangs and drugs.

Outreach is vital to the Ambassador Programme and in the past year we conducted 200 outreach services and received 4,000 attendances among the EM communities. Game Night is an outreach in which we bring sports equipment and board games to parks and play with the youth and their families. Once our ambassadors get to know them, we ask about their needs and their interests so that we can learn how to help them.

Once we know their needs, we invite the youth to Chinese language classes and music lessons. To expose them to the larger Hong Kong community, our ambassadors arrange community service events like beach cleanups and watersports. The EM youth love these events and our ambassadors do a great job.

Recently, our EM programmes moved from Jordan to the Mongkok Service Centre. The ambassador team is getting to know the new area and EM community, which is predominantly Pakistani.

We are praying for financial support to cover the extra rental expenses and programme instructors. I thank God for our faithful staff as they serve the ethnic minority communities in Hong Kong.

“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35