IV. Poverty Alleviation Programs

The Abundant Blessing Meal (ABM) is one of the programs offered by ABMSBC as part of the Help-The-Poor program series.

The program is to tender short-term food assistance service to help individuals and families who have difficulties in coping with their daily food expenditure, including those among the unemployed, low-income earners, new arrivals, street sleepers, as well as individuals or families encountering sudden change and facing immediate financial hardship, etc.

Thanks to many charitable trusts, corporates, churches, organizations and individuals for their generous donations, which enable us to serve the needy to experience love and concern during their difficult times.

The following shows how we go side by side with a service recipient during their hard times:

Mr. E's family of five rented a sub-divided unit in San Po Kong. His wife took care of three children and was unable to work, as their eldest son suffers from Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) while the youngest daughter suffers from dyslexia. Mr. E originally worked as a transportation worker to support the living expenses of his family. Due to his low income, he began to receive our agency's food assistance service for a period of time since October 2019. Since the epidemic last year, Mr. E became unemployed and relied on intermittent odd jobs and meagre savings to support his living. Recently his savings were exhausted and he was unable to pay rent, living expenses and additional training expenses for his children. He felt very helpless. After having learnt about his situation, we immediately arranged our Abundant Blessing Meal (ABM) food assistance service for the family on one hand, and on the other hand, our social worker assisted him in applying for a charity fund provided in the community so as to relieve his financial pressure and alleviate his urgent needs.

This program aims at widening the underprivileged children’s horizon and enriching their life exposure through provision of alternative learning opportunities, such as after school care service, interest classes, visits and outings.

(Edify Life-long Imprints for Tomorrow’s Excellence)
This Program aims at helping the underprivileged Form 3 to Form 6 students to plan their career path and attain a positive life development. Career Orientation is conducted by high calibre volunteers and companies to share with the students their respective professions and business. Our Clinical Psychologist conducts talks to the students.

The student who studies Medicine (MBChB) Programme Global Physician – Leadership Stream (GPS) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong shares :

Project ELITE greatly supported me during secondary school and offered generous assistance to help me enter my dream university. Participating in talks widened my exposure to different occupations such as doctors and solicitors. I also trained my interview skills by discussing past interview questions with social workers. Other than guidance on university preparation, project ELITE also cared about my mental health. For example, social workers will send me messages and mind about my emotional status. Therefore, I highly recommend students joining the project and earn their own insights!

(Sponsorship of computers was provided by Sino Group to facilitate their study)

The student who studies the Bachelor of Science in Speech-Language Pathology at The University of Hong Kong shares :

This program is really useful since it offers me illuminating insights. Tutors in project ELITE are patient and they are willing to provide me with ample opportunities to discover my own interest so that I can better plan my future career pathway. Not only can I get to know more about myself, but I can also join different talks and visits in order to broaden my horizons and get to know more about the career prospects of different occupations. Soon, I get to know more about my personalities and that I enjoy interacting with others. Therefore, I have developed interest in becoming a speech-language therapist. It would be my pleasure to witness the improvements of my clients’ language abilities. Therefore, this project allows me to widen my exposure and decide my own career pathway.

I highly recommend students to join this programme, especially those who are confused about the future or want to gain more information regarding different occupations, like the career prospect, workload and so on. To illustrate, I have attended a law firm visit during my secondary school life, and I have met several lawyers. We had a casual talk with them and they were eager to answer all the questions that we have raised patiently. After the visit, I knew more about the duties of a lawyer as well as the requirements of being a qualified lawyer. Therefore, you can choose to join different talks that you are interested in. If you have any enquiries, you are encouraged to participate in different talks and workshops so that you can grasp a chance to ask some professionals and experts of different information.

(Sponsorship of computers was provided by Sino Group to facilitate their study)

The student who studies the Bachelor of Science (Group B) at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology shares :

Project ELITE have greatly helped me by the SIGI 3 test and follow ups by tutors enabled me to understand myself more and the job types that suits my characteristics. It broadened my understanding and imagination towards creating my own future life. The other visits also helped me knowing more about different professionals which were very valuable experiences. I strongly recommend students take part in the project!

(Sponsorship of computers was provided by the Jardine Matheson Group to facilitate their study)

The student who studies the Integrated Bachelor of Business Administration Programme (Integrated BBA) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong shares :

I truly recommend students to participate in this programme. Since ELITE project not only broadens my horizon but also enhances my self-confidence. After doing the personality test, I had a brand-new understanding towards myself. I would say that I was not familiar enough about ‘who am I’ at the past. However, the test has pointed out my strengths and weaknesses, which enabled me to gain more self-confidence and spot some areas of improvement. Moreover, being a student, it was really rare to have an opportunity to meet professionals from different areas. During having the lunch talk with solicitors, it widened my exposure to the real society instead of just focusing on my academic work. It was a great chance for students to step out to the world by meeting lawyers and doctors. Social workers will also give countless advice in order to answer my obstacles that I have faced during setting up my future target. So especially for the one who is feeling frustrated about the future career, joining this project will definitely help you no matter to rediscover yourselves or to establish a solid future goal.

(Sponsorship of computers was provided by Ms. Andrea MA to facilitate their study)

The student who studies Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Communication at The Chinese University of Hong Kong shares :

I have benefited from Project ELITE when I was planning my career. Before I joined the Project, I did not know which job is suitable for me, as well as which university course I want to register. Games and consultations in the programme helped me find out my personalities and future expectations. The social workers gave me useful advice on selecting university courses. Now, I am clear that I should get a job with stable income and related to television production, which I am interested in. I would like to recommend Project ELITE to students who are not clear about their future paths. As they may feel stressed and try to evade from career planning, it is a great chance for them to start thinking about the future after graduation from secondary school.

(Sponsorship of computers was provided by Ms. Andrea MA to facilitate their study)

The student who studies the Bachelor of Science at The Chinese University of Hong Kong shares :

The project ELITE can definitely help me. The personalities test, the marvelous opportunity to visit the law firm, and the talk provided by Dr. Cheung assist my future planning and in more other aspect. The personalities test makes me understand myself comprehensively, so that I am able to have a clear mind and self-image when altering my JUPAS choices and all other significant decision. I can broaden my horizon from the chances to meet the professionals. It is of paramount importance to meet talents as it will be the chances for us to learn from them and ask them questions, that can be never done by ourselves. Therefore, I strongly encourage students to grab the opportunity to join this project.

The HEAL Project is one of the programs offered by ABMSBC as part of the Help-The-Poor program series.

由於本會的相關服務單位座落於東九龍區，以及資源所張，本計劃乃接受由區內醫院所轉介的癌症病友，在接受化療和電療而又需要特別營養補充的基層病友的個案。病友如有需要可由該二所醫院的醫生或醫務社工的轉介。本會會回應病友的特殊需要，購買營養奶予這些有特殊營養需要的病友，以協助及緩解他們在接受化療或電療時所面對吞嚥困難及特別營養的需要。

The following shows how we go side by side with service recipients during their hard times:

1) Mr. A (Age 62)

Mr. A suffered from Esophageal Cancer, which made him tolerate only a fluid diet to sustain his life. The nutritious milk was so costly that it constituted a significant portion of his whole family income. Therefore, Mr. A seriously considered ending his life because he did not want to become a huge burden to his family. Furthermore, one of his close family members suffered from depression due to the tremendous stress of looking after him. The medical social worker realized his difficulties and referred him to us. Mr. A felt greatly relieved when he knew that we were willing to support his nutritious milk. He called off his suicidal thought and was grateful to our assistance. His family member’s emotional state also improved.

2) Mr. B (Age 60)

Mr. B is a patient suffering from Nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The patient is receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy. During his treatment, Mr. B went through difficult time of treatment. He suffered a lot despite the use of high dosage of anti-biotic, which caused him much agony. With the help of the extra nutritious milk, he recovered sooner than expected. Mr. B felt grateful to our assistance.

3) Ms. C (Age 58)

Ms. C is suffering from colonic cancer. When she was receiving chemotherapy, knowing that Ms. C came from an under-privileged family, the medical social worker referred her for our assistance by seeing that the patient was very weak. Nutritious milk was delivered to help her recover from her weak body.

4) Mr. D (Age 67)

Mr. D, together with his family of three, was one of the recipients of the Short-term Food Assistance Service due to unemployment. During their application, Mr. D’s wife informed us that her husband was suffering from Esophageal Cancer. Upon receipt of the information and our continuous caring enquiry into the family background, it was further learnt that Mr. D was undergoing radiotherapy, which had caused Mr. D suffering from swallowing difficulties. He could hardly swallow anything, including solid food items. Caring about Mr. D’s physical conditions, we suggested Mrs. D to discuss with Mr. D’s medical doctor about Mr. D’s health conditions and to explore anything that was needed to alleviate his situations. Mr. D was then referred by his medical doctor and the medical social worker of the hospital for nutritional supplement assistance. After thorough communication with Mr. D’s medical social worker, we learnt that it would be helpful if fluid nutritional supplement could be provided to Mr. D during his palliative radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Nutrition milk powder was then delivered to Mr. D to relieve his agony.

【Home Visit】

There is a large number of sub-divided unit households that need to be contacted because of our food assistance services and our participation in the project launched by the Community Care Fund, which provides support to the sub-divided unit household to improve their living environment. The service area covers Wong Tai Sin, San Po Kong and Ngau Chi Wan. During the home visits, we find that the general living environment of these families is small and crowded. Space for activities is scarce. Moreover, since the buildings are not properly managed, most of them are dilapidated and dirty, and the sanitary conditions are poor. Even though the environmental conditions are so bad, the rent is still very high and actually not affordable for those low-income families. As their lives are already stretched, they still have to cope with such expensive rents that causes a huge burden to them. Hence, any kinds of food assistance can definitely help most of the recipients to relieve their life pressure.

Recently, I paid a home visit to a client who lives in Wong Tai Sin. She is an elderly person living alone. Due to the rugged and difficult path inside her community, together with the lack of light and incomplete house number, I was afraid that I could not find her unit. Hence I decided to meet her at the entrance of the village so that she could pick me up to her house. However, she did not show up at the time we agreed. So I called her but she did not answer my calls for several times. At the last attempt, she answered. It turned out that she was busy with picking cardboards on the streets and forgot my home visit. Having answered my call, she rushed back. When we met, she took me through a winding, dark and slippery path to her residence. Then, we had to carefully climb a dilapidated ladder to reach her house, which was filled with sundries and debris. It was hard to move around with two persons standing inside it. The old woman showed me those old things, which she treated like her treasures. She picked them from the garbage station, such as the rusty fan, rice cooker, refrigerator ...… I was looking, listening, but speechless...!

【A Corner of Subdivided Household】

In one of the six-storey tenement buildings in Wong Tai Sin District, a long-lost and warm scene appeared. I call it a small neighborhood community.

This building has two flats on each storey, and the two flats on the fifth floor are divided into three subdivided units, living a total number of six households. One of which has only one young man living alone, and the other five households are families with couple and children. What is commendable is that these six households are like one big family. The door is usually open among the households. Children come and go, play together, and share food; adults watch and help each other. From time to time, they will meet together to have a big food party on the rooftop. Each family contributes their own food and share together. The atmosphere is lively and warm.

The man living alone usually cooks less, but he never lacks dessert and soup; a family treats guests and is in a flurry, other families will automatically lend a helping hand; a family who makes delicious food will often share it with other families. Once, a couple of a family went back to their hometown to handle affairs and left their children to be taken care of by their neighbors. When they came back, they found that the windows were clean, even the bed sheets were washed …... The neighbors feel obliged to help each other, and their selfless devotion helps nurture the interpersonal relationship. The loneliness between people is completely broken, the tacit understanding of coexistence, symbiosis and sharing brings them closer to each other, forming a peculiar small community, sharing each other's love and human interest!

The primary objective of this program is to empower the disadvantaged women with self-belief and skills that will assist them in making a positive contribute to their families and community.

Assistance of daily necessities are rendered to the underprivileged through donation-in-kind from donors.

The revenue generated from the Charities Sales will be used for supporting the Poverty Alleviation Programs.

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