Society
Elderly Hong Kong caregivers bear crushing load amid service gaps
- 2026-03-12
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: SIU Tsz Hang、CHENG Tsz Sen SeanEdited by: CHAN Hiu Ying
- 2026-03-12
In a cramped public housing flat in Wong Tai Sin, Li Yuet-siu, 74, spends almost every hour of her day caring for her 89-year-old husband, who has been bedridden since he broke bones in both hips and legs in 2018. He can still stand and walk a few steps with a cane, but only as far as the toilet, clinging to furniture and walls for support. After the accident, Li said her husband was hospitalised and moved into two different government-funded care homes. But he repeatedly shouted and begged to go home, making it impossible for carers to help him. Since he has moved home, every need – from getting out of bed to going to the bathroom – has rested on Li’s shoulders. “Every day, I help him eat, wash and use the toilet. He refuses to wear adult diapers, saying they’re too hot and uncomfortable, so I have to wake up at midnight when he needs to urinate,” Li said, adding that her husband sometimes gets up by himself but falls. “Lifting him hurts my back badly, but if I drop him, it’s worse... Once when he fell, I couldn’t lift him, so I called the ambulance service. The staff said moving him could dislocate bones or injure him further, but I had no choice. I had no training and no one to help,” she said. Hong Kong’s rapidly aging population is straining family caregivers, many of whom are elderly themselves and face chronic exhaustion, injuries and emotional turmoil without adequate support. An expert estimates there are around 180,000 elderly caregivers in Hong Kong. According to the Census and Statistics Department, the number of elderly persons aged 65 and over is projected to nearly double over a 25-year period, from 1.45 million in 2021 to 2.74 million in …
Long queues for special child care centres: what does over a year’s wait mean for families?
- 2026-03-11
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: SHI Puxuan Amy、MA Yifan ChloeEdited by: QIN Ziyang
- 2026-03-11
In a sunlit activity room of the Cheung Sha Wan Special Child Care Centre, young children are drawing with a therapist’s help. Nearby, another repeats words prompted by a speech therapist. These simple moments are government-subsidised intensive rehabilitation training for children with disabilities. Cherry Lee, 41, waited nearly two years for her daughter with moderate autism to access such a facility and receive intensive training. “It would have been better if my daughter could have entered the centre sooner,” she said. “At the very least, she could have had an earlier opportunity to develop essential self-care skills.” Hong Kong’s 52 government-funded Special Child Care Centres provide full-day centre-based care and cognitive training, speech, occupational and physiotherapy programmes for children with moderate to severe disabilities aged 2 to 6 before they enter primary school. Lee’s two-year wait is far from an isolated case. According to the Social Welfare Department, the average waiting time for the centres is 19.1 months in 2024. Experts and NGOs say that this wait means a delay in development for special needs children, while families are burdened with extra costs and stress in taking care of children. The government added 64 centre quotas for a total of 2,580 places in 2025, with 513 children on the waiting list, according to the Social Welfare Department. “The supply of places cannot keep up with the speed of increasing demand; it is not enough for those special needs children,” a representative from Hong Chi Association, an NGO operating three Special Child Care Centres, confirmed. “This is the core reason for the long wait.” Lee’s daughter, Sakina Muk, was placed in a centre run by NGO Heep Hong Society when she was 5 in August 2025, meaning she only has about a year she can use the service. “Even with early …
Back or stay? Balancing Mainland student integration and Hong Kong’s education policy
- 2026-03-09
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: LIU Rui Reena、PENG Yixin NaomiEdited by: YANG Shuyi
- 2026-03-09
Last September, the 14-year-old Wang Yuqi moved from Beijing to Hong Kong to study in Hong Kong, hoping a new environment would offer a gentler and more balanced approach than the mainland’s exam-driven system. But her stint in the city only lasted two months before Wang returned to Beijing, citing her inability to cope with classes being taught in Cantonese at her Pui Kiu Middle School. Something similar happened to the 13-year-old Zhao Ziheng, a top math student from Wuhan who ranked last in his class at Tseung Kwan O’s Heung To Middle School after struggling for six-months with English as the medium of instruction. As Hong Kong strives to position itself as an international education hub, experts criticize the government and local schools for failing to provide adequate transitional support. This affects retaining mainland students arriving in large batches with parents under the Top Talent Pass Scheme amid other pathways. While non-government organizations offer limited Cantonese help, it remains poorly marketed. Wang arrived with her publisher father under the Top Talent Pass Scheme. She couldn’t fathom how the lack of Cantonese would paralyze her daily life. Since 2022, the scheme has allowed high earners and top university graduates worldwide to bring their children under 18 to live and study in Hong Kong. As of February 2025, a total of 131,818 such children had arrived. Wang’s first lesson at Pui Kiu Middle School was Chinese history, taught mostly in Cantonese. “By the end of the class, the teacher asked if we could all understand what was delivered in class, and if anyone didn’t understand Cantonese. I raised my hand, but I was the only one,” Wang said. Her teacher offered her some tutorials during lunch hours, in Putonghua. Similar help was also available by appointment for other subjects. Still, the …
Inside Myanmar’s tightened passport system
- 2026-03-08
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: LI Yuzhou Asher、Pann Hnin Nay Chi PannEdited by: ZHENG Xinyi
- 2026-03-08
In early 2023, 28-year-old Scarlett, not her real name, queued up to enter Thailand at the Thai-Myanmar border, clutching her passport as she waited for her turn at the checkpoint. This was not for studying abroad, but an escape for survival. She feared that staying longer would permanently strip her of the possibility of leaving legally. “If my passport were scanned at the airport, I am afraid that it would be flagged,” said Scarlett. “That’s why I chose to leave from the Thai-Myanmar border,” she said, referring to its less stringent procedures. When she stepped up to the counter, the officer flipped through her red passport and looked at her briefly. “Okay, next,” said the immigration officer. He waved her through without running the passport through a scanner. Scarlett exited the gate and dared not slow down until she reached Thailand. Since the 2021 military coup, Myanmar’s passport system has increasingly functioned as a tool of exit control rather than merely a document for international travel. According to a 2025 report by the Danish Immigration Service, Myanmar authorities have circulated files of blacklisted people to airports and border checkpoints, allowing immigration officers to identify individuals and bar them from leaving the country with a passport scan. Those barred from leaving include participants in the Civil Disobedience Movement — a nationwide non-violent protest campaign that started in February 2021, in which civil servants went on strike in protest of military rule following the coup. More than 417,000 civil servants had joined the movement, according to an official brief from the National Unity Government of Myanmar. The movement was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. Scarlett was one of them. Before the 2021 movement, she worked as a doctor at a public hospital. After the military seized power, she joined …
Shelters and government housing for street sleepers don’t meet needs, experts say
- 2026-03-04
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: LI Jinyang Carlos、ZHANG Jiahe RoysEdited by: CHEN Ziyu
- 2026-03-04
At night, Wong Hiu-fan, a 46-year-old former street sleeper, returns to her temporary home at the Jockey Club Hostel in Lok Fu, a single bed in a dormitory room she shares with other women. She stores her personal belongings in a small locker she has a key for. For her, it is a warm harbour and a place to restart her life after a period she described as “full of worries". Wong became a street sleeper six months ago -- after losing her job at a temple -- which she had relied on for income, meals and accommodation. After sleeping on the street for a while, Wong moved into the temporary shelter in Lok Fu. According to the Labour and Welfare Bureau, Wong was one of around 750 street sleepers in Hong Kong last year. To get off the street, many look for places in temporary shelters funded by the Social Welfare Department or NGO-funded hostels like this one in Lok Fu. Those who are eligible and lucky can move into government transitional housing units. The Lok Fu hostel where Wong lives in is a shelter managed by the NGO Neighbourhood Advice-Action Council that provides six-month accommodation, including 16 beds for men and 26 for women for street sleepers and needy persons with a monthly rent of HK$2,000. Residents facing significant financial difficulties can apply for rent reduction. It is now fully occupied. Law Sze-ha, 35, a hostel supervisor of Lok Fu, said the hostel does not have enough beds to meet demand. While many residents wish to stay longer than the maximum six months allowed, the hostel must accommodate new applicants waiting for a spot. “A stable place to live is the foundation for starting a new life. We offer guidance and information to our residents for applying to …
Budget 2026: HK$50 million for Hongkongers to receive AI training
- 2026-02-25
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: LI Yuzhou AsherEdited by: FENG Zhenpeng
- 2026-02-25
Hong Kong government will provide HK$50 million to invite public organizations to hold AI training courses for residents. The government will also provide HK$2 billion to improve AI education in primary, secondary schools, and universities, said Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in the budget plan on Wednesday. “While AI is advancing at a rapid pace, both students and teachers lack a basic understanding of it and the ability to apply it in practice; fewer than one in ten people have a grasp of it,” said Simon Wang, 48, a lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University computer assisted language learning department. According to data research by Google, of the 4,446 US employees surveyed, only 40% of them have adopted AI in their work, and 5% are AI fluent. In the budget, Chan said public universities will launch 27 undergraduate courses that relate to AI. “HKBU has launched AI and Data Science as a new second major, and the computer science major includes Applied AI as a core course. Computer Science Department holds a supportive attitude to the application of AI in university education,” said Byron Choi Koon Kau, a professor from the Hong Kong Baptist University Computer Science Department. “Most professors still have a low acceptance of AI. Some assignments that could have been completed better with AI are not allowed to be used. It is necessary to fully implement AI training and education,” Wang said. In response to the budget plan for AI training, the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers said, "We suggest that the government provide more systematic teachers’ AI training programs and add special subsidies to support all teachers in Hong Kong to take AI courses." According to Wen Hui Net, at the beginning of this month, the Education Bureau provided over 70,000 systematic AI training opportunities …
Budget 2026: MTR expansion to Shenzhen fully operational by 2035 to enhance cross-border transportation
- 2026-02-25
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: Li Yinheng、XIE Xinni CindyEdited by: Lou Zhengzheng
- 2026-02-25
The MTR expansion with the Northern Link will open before 2034 and the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Rail Link the following year, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said in the budget plan today. The Northern Link will be used to connect the Tun Ma Line and the East Rail Line and extends to the Huanggang Port in Shenzhen, while the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Rail Link will run to Shenzhen Bay Port. Both will connect to Shenzhen’s railways. “The strategies will focus on public transportation, and promote the flow of people and goods within the Greater Bay Area,” Chan said. MTR’s official website reports that the total passenger flow on the MTR border crossings is projected to be 106.673 million in 2025, which is the highest number in the past three years. Chen Nga-Yau, 20, a local university student living on Hong Kong Island, travels between Shenzhen and Hong Kong once every two weeks. Chen said Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau MTR stations are especially crowded on weekends and holidays and sometimes she has to wait for 30 minutes to return. “If I want to go to Bao’an District in Shenzhen, I need to change two modes of transportation to get to Shenzhen Bay Port,” Chen added. “It’s really too troublesome.” According to the MTR Corporation 2025 Results Report, HK$140 billion will be invested in developing new railway projects. Zou Zhang, 37, Business Manager of China Railway Rolling Stock Qingdao Sifang Company (the major supplier of MTR train cars), said the company has already begun technical preparations and signaling system research for the construction of the Western Railway and Northern Link. Peng Huiwen, 31, Hong Kong University urban planning lecturer, said that the connection between the Hong Kong and Shenzhen MTRs is of great help in promoting the integration …
Budget 2026: Hong Kong to increase elderly care vouchers, but long waiting list persists
- 2026-02-25
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: MA Yifan Chloe、LIU Rui ReenaEdited by: CHEN Xiyun
- 2026-02-25
Hong Kong is set to increase funding to boost capacity for elderly community and home care vouchers by up to 33% which could benefit more citizens but shortage of service provision remains. Speaking in his budget speech on Wednesday, Secretary of Finance Paul Chan Mo-po said the increase will allow 4,000 more elderly citizens to receive subsidised community care and another 1,000 people to receive discounted residential care services. Sze Lai-shan, deputy director of the Society for Community Organisation, welcomed the move as previous provisions could hardly meet the demand of Hong Kong elderly people’s needs. “But the problem of inadequate service provision remains,” Sze said, referring to service waiting time continuing to be an issue. “The government has made significant efforts to assist the elderly but caregivers of elderly people also need support,” said Wong Lai-ying, 59, who is for her 98-year-old mother. Wong’s mom lives alone in Kwun Tong with a urinary catheter attached, which requires Wong to take her to the hospital twice a week for kidney check-ups. Each visit could take up four hours as she works in the Hong Kong International Airport. It’s the fifth year that Wong’s mom has failed to gain eligibility for residential care services. Last year, 14,346 applicants were on the waiting list for subsidised community care services, and 17,664 queued to enter the nursing homes that are covered by the current vouchers schemes, according to the Social Welfare Department. According to the 2021 Population Census, 16.6% of persons aged 60 and over living in households require long-term care. “We hope the government can continue to increase funding for more elderly community care vouchers in order to cut down waiting time of elderly homes, ” Sze said.
Budget 2026 Key Takeaways: Prioritise innovation to drive Hong Kong’s economy
- 2026-02-25
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: CHAN Hiu Ying、LAU Ka YanEdited by: CHAN Hiu Ying
- 2026-02-25
Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po delivered the 2026-2027 Budget speech on Wednesday, announcing that the operating account has returned to surplus after three years of deficit. He said Hong Kong should focus on technological innovation and seize related opportunities to boost economic growth. For the coming fiscal year, total government expenditure will increase by about 6.9% to HK$843.4 billion, while total government revenue is estimated at HK$765.2 billion. Chan expects that there will be a consolidated surplus of HK$22.1 billion for the year, and the fiscal reserves will increase to HK$679.3 billion. Here are the key takeaways of this year’s budget plan.
Budget 2026: Hong Kong to continue to attract global talent while nurturing locals
- 2026-02-25
- Society
- The Young Reporter
- By: SHI Puxuan Amy、WU Sitan ElaineEdited by: ZHANG Yiping
- 2026-02-25
Hong Kong will step up efforts in attracting top global talents while nurturing local talents, said Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in his budget speech on Wednesday. Chan said that the government would continue to advance the current scheme. But gave no details on how they would increase recruitment. Critics of the government’s Top Talent Pass Scheme, a mechanism targeting high-income earners and top graduates, say the scheme takes jobs away from locals, while nearly half of external talents didn’t choose to extend their visas. “The Top Talent Pass Scheme draws over 100,000 global elites, contributing to Hong Kong's economic development,” Chan said, adding that the government particularly seeks to attract leading scientific research experts. The Top Talent Scheme was estimated to contribute about HK$34 billion to Hong Kong’s economy annually, equivalent to around 1.2% of the city’s GDP, according to the Labour and Welfare Bureau. Bibi Lam, 26, said that when she first arrived in Hong Kong through the Top Talent Pass Scheme after graduating from a university in Australia three years ago, she felt a great deal of pressure in finding affordable housing and a job. “I need to pay HK$8,500 per month for a small flat of less than 20 square metres while everything is expensive. It felt suffocating,” said Lam. “I think the biggest difficulty when I just arrived in Hong Kong was finding my first job,” Lam said, adding that many people she knows eventually had to leave Hong Kong after failing to secure employment. Her first job as an administrative assistant required frequent overtime and involved work unrelated to her marketing background. “It felt like being boiled slowly in warm water,” she said. She finally found a satisfactory job in marketing in August last year after several job changes and said she will stay …