Hong Kong people’s champion still fighting poverty with a passion
He’s spent decades helping the city’s poorest and campaigning for greater social justice, but Ho Hei-wah is still grappling with the challenges ahead
Veteran social activist Ho Hei-wah’s career began when he ran away from home at the age of 17.
It was the early 70s and Ho’s family wanted him to inherit the family’s jade business. Ho, who wanted to study, opted instead to become a teenage runaway, working odd low-income jobs to fund his educational pursuits.
This glimpse into working-class life was the spark that triggered Ho’s passion for social justice and poverty alleviation – a passion that eventually propelled him into a decades-long career fighting for the city’s most vulnerable populations.
Known as the “voice of the poor”, Ho, 62, is now director of the human rights non-profit Society for Community Organisation (SoCO), where he has worked for 35 years. The organisation provides services for disadvantaged groups including the poor, ethnic minorities, new immigrants and ex-offenders.
Also a member of the Commission on Poverty, Ho was named by Time magazine in 1997 as one of the 25 most influential people in Hong Kong.
According to the government’s latest report on poverty, there were 1.34 million people living below the official poverty line, the highest number since 2009 and about 20,000 more than in 2014. While the number of poor people dropped to 971,000 when government welfare was taken into account, they still represented 9,000 more than the year before.
