Traversing Boundaries: A look into Hong Kong’s hidden population

By Amanda Cheng and Stacey Fung

Independent Schools Foundation Academy

The Global Issue Discussed

Hong Kong is home to people from all walks of life. We pride ourselves on our diversity, acting as an international hub that welcomes all. As you might know, Hong Kong is also one of the main financial hubs of the world for finance, trade, and logistics. Living in Hong Kong as private school students, we often see hyper-modernized and rich styles of buildings around us in areas like Central, Admiralty, or even Cyberport. Though what we often don’t see are the structures in neighbourhoods like Sham Shui Po, Yau Tsim Mong, or Kwun Tong. These districts are historically Hong Kong’s poorest, where living conditions are subpar due to the old, worn buildings, rising cost of living, and lack of services, such as childcare. 

Many families living in these districts have government-subsidized flats - though due to the growing housing crisis in Hong Kong, many of these flats have been nicknamed ‘Coffin Homes’ because of their size. These apartments are on average 20 to 86 square feet in size, only being able to fit a bed and provide minimal storage space for residents. Because of poor living conditions, both women and children, two of Hong Kong’s most vulnerable communities, are becoming more and more impoverished. 

Fig 1. Poverty in Hong Kong

The income gap is a problem that has been prevalent in Hong Kong for decades, widening especially between the 1980s and 1990s. This phenomenon then creates a cycle that keeps impoverished people in poverty, not allowing them chances or opportunities to break free of their current situation. 

First, we’d like to address what this means for youth in these communities. As opportunities are few and far between, there are a plethora of children who are not able to experience a truly fulfilling academic education. In Hong Kong, there are approximately 230,000 children who live below the poverty line, and only 13% of grassroots youths are able to enter university. This means there are only a small percentage of youth who are able to break through this broken system. 

Children from families in poverty simply do not have the right funds or support to guide them through their schooling. TYR Hong Kong recently wrote about 15 year old Leo, who attends school in Hong Kong is falling behind on his grades and academic activities. The reason? Because his family cannot afford to send him on field trips to partake in meaningful school projects, they cannot afford a tutor, and they most definitely cannot afford to send him to any extracurricular activities that are crucial to his development and learning. 

Knowing this, we then decided to investigate how prevalent or known these issues are in our communities as well, in order to gain more information on which issues specifically our society should tackle. We sent out a survey created aimed at collecting data on the awareness of different topics in the subject to friends and family. Here are the results. We have found that there is a wide variety of perspectives in our community. When participants were asked to rate the importance of education inequality to them on a scale of one to ten, most rated it relatively high. 10/42 participants rated below a 7, and no participants rated below a 5. When asked which aspect of education equality was most important to them, 71.4% of participants answered Access to Resources, followed by Quality Education, Educational Resources, and Out of School Opportunities. These results show that people in our respective communities are still aware of the importance of access to education. And without the financial ability to do so, children are not able to gain those opportunities. 

The Initiative

Founded at the ISF Academy, The Helping Hands Initiative is a student-led non-profit organization dedicated to bridging the gap between student privilege and community need. Our mission is to inspire peers to engage in meaningful volunteering that aligns with their personal talents and interests. The club was born out of a realization that many students view service as a checkbox exercise. We sought to transform this perception by partnering with local charities to support our primary target groups, which are underprivileged individuals and children in Hong Kong. By integrating the school’s 8+1 values, specifically Ai (Love) and Ren (Respect), we foster a culture of proactive activism rather than passive participation.

The work of The Helping Hands Initiative is inextricably linked to SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). As explored in Part 1, the coffin home crisis and the widening wealth gap in districts like Sham Shui Po create systemic barriers for youth. Our initiative addresses the Access to Resources and Out of School Opportunities gaps identified in our community survey. By focusing on literacy and academic support, we aim to provide the extra help such as volunteering that families in poverty are unable to afford. This directly challenges the cycle that keeps only 13% of grassroots youth on the path to university.

We recently organized a high-impact event at school where we successfully raised over 3000 HKD. While this specific fund was donated to the WWF to support environmental sustainability, the event served as a pilot for our mobilization strategies and demonstrated our capacity to influence the ISF community.

After each experience we encourage our society members to contribute to our collaborative service journal. This is our flagship internal project. Members document their volunteering experiences through creative mediums like videos, art, or stories. This living diary ensures that the impact is not just external but also internal, as students reflect on the socio-economic complexities they witness.

The intended impact of our initiative is two-fold. Locally, our partnership with literacy charities provides a direct human connection. Within our school, the impact is measured by the shift in student perspective. Raising 3340 HKD and collaborating with charities shows a growing awareness of problems present in everyday lives. This is evidenced by our survey results, where 71.4% of respondents recognized access to resources as the most critical hurdle.

One of the primary challenges we faced was the difficulty of establishing communication with local organizations. We found that some charities did not respond to our initial outreaches, likely due to their high workloads or limited administrative resources. Additionally, because our members have demanding academic schedules, it was challenging to organize a specific time for everyone to join volunteering opportunities together.

We overcame these obstacles by becoming more persistent and diversifying our outreach to multiple organizations at once. To solve the scheduling issue, we implemented a flexible volunteer model where members can choose sessions that fit their individual timetables rather than requiring the whole group to meet at once. This approach increased our participation rates significantly.

Moving forward, The Helping Hands Initiative is excited to expand our reach through an upcoming partnership with Crossroads. This will involve logistical volunteering to distribute essential goods to families living in subpar conditions. This moves beyond just education to address the material needs of those in coffin homes. We also plan to showcase our Collaborative Journal via Google Slides at the Enrichment Fair in May. This offers members a chance to practice their public speaking skills and advocate for the rights of the underprivileged. By connecting our privilege with purposeful action, we plan to continue expanding our impact across the most vulnerable districts in Hong Kong.