Hong Kong is short of ethnic minority social workers, but most can’t clear Chinese language barrier for university courses
- NGOs press for action as there are only 21 ethnic minority social workers for more than 600,000 people in city
- Universities urged to ease language requirement, government adviser suggests setting a quota
Anju Ghising is one of Hong Kong’s small number of social workers from ethnic minority backgrounds that serve people who only speak Nepalese, Hindi, Urdu or English and need help with everything from finding jobs to mental health counselling.
A Nepali who moved to the city as a teenager, the 33-year-old has dedicated her professional life to helping people from her community overcome their struggles.
“Growing up, I could see older people without support suffering with mental health issues,” she said, adding that people from the city’s minority communities often felt stranded, especially when it came to finding help.
“These people often deal with strict religions, very defined gender roles, arranged marriages, language barriers and struggle to find jobs … On top of that, many do not speak Cantonese and English is not their first language.”
The mental well-being of the city’s ethnic minority communities and the services available to them was in the spotlight last month, after a 29-year-old Indian woman was charged with murdering her three young daughters in a subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po.
The woman had no record of mental illness and had moved there with her children about a year ago, after suspecting that her husband was unfaithful.