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.

There has been panic buying at all the supermarkets and food prices have soared to record highs. As a result, the $1,200 of the Government monthly subsidized food-card that refugees and asylum seekers have received (an amount still unchanged since Feb. 2014) prior to this 5th wave is now woefully inadequate. Food scarcity is frighteningly real every day for many of them.

So, how are we helping? Refugees who can access our CFR at Chungking Mansions are given food packages and supermarket vouchers. To make sure that no-one is left behind we have also contracted a logistics company to drop-off emergency food packs to those refugees who can’t travel to the centre.

Mental health services for our refugees has also been prioritized.

We provide emergency on-line counseling for those who can access the internet. CFR staff and volunteers also make socially-distanced visits to refugees who are Covid positive and therefore isolating at home. We deliver supplies to their doorstep and provide the comfort of having someone to speak to - albeit through their closed front door. We give government updates, read out the various directions for how to use each medicine we deliver and encourage each individual to persevere.

The Bible teaches us to take care of strangers, sojourners or foreigners among us; in modern terms this means refugees and asylum seekers. I want to appeal to your charitable heart to exercise justice and to extend mercy by empowering our CFR staff to continue to distribute food, medicine, rapid test kits and feminine hygiene products to our refugee and asylum seeker clients.

The need is very urgent! Please give generously. Thank you.

Siew Mei