Listen to #Hashtag Hong Kong every Sunday morning at 8.15
Focussing on issues affecting civil society, we'll hear from representatives of NGOs, associations, statutory bodies, and non-profit groups.
(Sundays 8.15am - 8.25am)
Good morning everyone. The Zubin Foundation is an integrated service provider for the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. We are a registered charity that seeks to improve the lives of ethnic minorities.
In 2019, we started a pilot project to develop native language counselling for low-income ethnic minorities by qualified counsellors. In 2024, the project became an initiative of the Health Bureau of the Hong Kong government but continued to be operated by The Zubin Foundation.
The Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre has now expanded to all non-Chinese Hong Kong residents who are 18 years of age and above offering free one-to-one counselling services in English, Hindi, Urdu and Nepali. In the last 5 years, over 400 people have received the counselling support from our centre. Indian, Pakistani, Nepali and Filipino are currently the largest ethnic groups that come for counselling.
Over 60% of our clients score severe or extremely severe in one of the scales of depression, anxiety and stress when they first approached us for counselling. Many of them have suffered from mental health issues for years but have not talked to anyone about their issues before. There is a need to raise the awareness of mental health in the ethnic minorities’ community and address some barriers they face as seeking mental health support.
In our outreach work, we see many individuals have accepted their sadness, anxiety and excessive stress as a normal part of their lives. Often times, unlike dealing with their physical health symptoms, they do not see a need to address them even if they have been suffering for a long time.
Usually even if they become aware that they need help, many are concerned about the stigma surrounding mental health in the community; worrying that people will perceive their mental health issues as being crazy, violent or weak.
Sometimes ethnic minorities are concerned that their personal issues will become known to others in their community, resulting in shame, loss of honour or loss of ‘face’ not only to themselves but also to their families, which further hinders them from seeking support.
Language and cultures are other barriers for Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities in seeking help for their mental health. Many of the mental health practitioners in Hong Kong are ethnically Chinese and do not speak the native languages of the ethnic minority communities in Hong Kong.
This can create challenges for mental health practitioners to be able to fully understand the situation of the clients and the possible underlying cause. For example, many go to the doctor stating they are experiencing fatigue, not sleeping well, getting headaches or having stomach ache and not realizing that there may be underlying mental health causes or issues. The practitioner may therefore focus on treating these physical causes without being fully aware of the person’s situation.
While use of translators can help address the language barriers, some ethnic minorities may be concerned to speak about their personal issues in front of the translators as they can be from the same community.
The most common presenting symptoms we find from our clients at the Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre are anxiety, depression, stress, self-harm tendencies, low self-esteem and anger management.
But what causes these issues? Triggers include family conflicts especially intergenerational conflicts such as differences in values between traditional parents and children who are born and brought up in Hong Kong. Other factors include differential treatment between boys and girls, lack of communication or even forced marriage. The differences can create conflicts like the way the children should dress, compliance to religious practices, values towards education and work and views on marriage.
We also see many clients coming in marital conflicts. This is due to power imbalances, as many cultures are still patriarchal. The responsibility of the children and household falls on the mother while providing financially falls on the father, and he is also the main decision maker. Sometimes conflicts arise because of different views of household finance and raising children. The responsibilities of managing large families can also be a contributing factor towards mental health concerns. Sometimes these conflicts can get more evolved and lead to domestic violence.
Also notably being a minority in Hong Kong, we do see clients struggling with discrimination at work, their studies or even their daily lives.
We may all be facing different challenges in lives. For those who have been suffering low mood or issues of managing their emotions for a prolonged period of time, we encourage you to consider talking to a professional. It provides you with a safe space for you to talk about your issues, understand yourself and the situation bothering you, and it helps you think about ways to cope with your issues and manage them better.
If you are a non-Chinese, Hong Kong resident, 18 years of age or above, comfortable with speaking English, Hindi, Urdu or Nepali and would like to consider counselling, call or WhatsApp us at 96823100 or visit our website at emwbc.zubinfoundation.org to find out more about our service.
This morning I would like to dedicate a song called “Love You Zindagi”, which is a Hindi language song and is sung by Amit Trivedi, Jasleen Royal and Kausar Munir. “Love you Zindagi” translates to love you life. It is a song that talks about ups and downs in life and how to embrace it with a smile because you know that tough times don’t last forever and there is always a way out. Also this song is from a movie where the main character seeks counselling and understands that her childhood’s trauma has led to many decisions that she is leading in her current life.
Happy 2025 to everyone, we are a small Hong Kong-based NGO focusing on climate justice.
While looking back at 2024, it has been the warmest year on record since 1884 with an average temperature as high as 24.8 degrees. While you may have the impression of how hot the weather was, you may not be aware that we had a total of 52 very hot weather warning days, with the highest temperature reaching over 36 degrees. All these record-breaking weather conditions are telling us that climate change has been more drastic than ever.
When talking about climate change in the past, people might have liaised it with environmental problems only, but it is now widely known that climate has made extensive impacts to social and economic areas as well, and we must take real actions to tackle the climate disasters.
So for example what have you done to cope with the extreme heat? Maybe you have turned on the air-conditioning, went swimming or enjoyed some icy drinks to cool off yourself. However, not everyone in the society is as fortunate. There are quite some vulnerable communities in Hong Kong who suffer much more in terms of physical and mental health. These groups include low-income families living in inadequate housing units, elderly, people with disabilities and chronic illness, and outdoor workers. They contribute the least to the climate crisis, yet suffer from its worst impacts, while having the fewest resources to cope with these challenges, including but not limited to typhoon, flooding and extreme heat. Through our community dialogue initiative, we have mobilized over 100 NGOs to integrate climate action into their daily services and support these vulnerable communities.
The climate crisis is here and ahead, making adaptation essential. Since 2021, CarbonCare InnoLab has launched a pilot community programme in Kwai Chung area, aiming to build climate resilience of the underprivileged groups together with other NGO partners. We provide training and facilitate workshops for the residents to practice low-carbon living styles including onsite gardening and upcycling initiatives, while we also co-create ways with them to enhance energy efficiency and get prepared for extreme weather disasters. Over two years, we are proud to see how the residents forming groups in voluntary basis to continue and lead on these climate actions.
Of course, in the long run, we would like to call for an elimination of inadequate housing as the first step, so no one has to face the extreme heat together with poor air circulation issues which can be fatal. Also, the government must plan for building the climate resilience of the vulnerable groups, which can include the climate adaptation capabilities in the public housing projects, for example, having water resistant and windproof designs for buildings, introducing heat prevention technique and materials, and significant green public areas to ensure air circulation within and between buildings.
Besides the adaptation measures, CarbonCare InnoLab always advocates tackling climate issues from the root cause with a comprehensive mitigation strategy. We are delighted to see Hong Kong announcing our own Climate Action Plan 2050, and set goals to cut half of carbon emissions by 2035 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050; but there is still a very big loophole in how the government is leading us to achieve these targets.
Taking renewable energy as an example, we welcome the government to continue promoting green transportation policy and to develop green hydrogen, yet there is barely any mention of developing solar and wind power. We urge for a detailed energy transition roadmap with a clear timeline to phasing out fossil fuel.
Since 2019, CarbonCare InnoLab has launched the SolarCare Programmes to build solar energy systems for NGOs and schools with the support from philanthropy and corporate funders. In the past five years, we have built more than 30 PV systems widely spread across the city and generated more than 6000 megawatt-hours in total, and we target to have 20 more systems upcoming. Being sincerely thankful to the trust of funders and our solar partners, we have successfully avoided over 3300 tonnes CO2 emission together, and walk one step closer to a Zero Carbon Hong Kong in the near future.
While more stakeholders are aware of the affordable and clean energy, it requires more incentives from the government to continue the growth. The current feed-in-tariff scheme only lasts until 2033, and we truly believe that an extension of the scheme will largely encourage sustainable investments in renewable energy.
Apart from the local issues, CarbonCare InnoLab also believes in the importance of upholding values as a global citizen. Climate disasters are one of the most prioritized global issues and it requires all the countries to pay tremendous attention and effort to save our planet, which also means saving the human habitat.
Every year, we provide training to the enthusiastic young professionals and students who are devoted to climate solutions and advocacy. Global perspectives and climate issues development are key content in our training. We have been attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference since 2015 as an NGO observer, and we have led groups of youth to participate and negotiate onsite in recent years. The learnings and experiences have inspired our young leaders to create and continue climate actions back in Hong Kong. And we are thrilled to see the alumni network growing into a resourceful and insightful young climate leader circle. The future belongs to the young generation, and CarbonCare InnoLab is dedicated to fight for a sustainable future jointly with their force.
We are celebrating our 10th anniversary and I would love to take this opportunity to present my wholehearted appreciation to our small team of 15 people with aligned values. I would like to dedicate the song, “Truth To Power” by OneRepublic to everyone who is with us on the just transition journey.