2734 CIN Workshop on social issues
austraLasia #2734
 

Workshop on China Issues
 
Hong Kong: 7 October 2010 -- A workshop on a range of Chine issues, held this week, benefited from the long experience of Fr Peter Newbery sdb. Fr Newbery shared information on China’s Criminal Justice System and China’s migrant workers and their children, with Salesians at the workshop. He is the Executive Director of Hong Kong Youth Outreach, which provides aid and guidance to the youth at risk in Hong Kong. He is also the Honorary Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong.
    Fr. Peter maintains good rapport with China academics. Therefore, he has more exposure to the situation of Mainland China. This is a great opportunity for the Salesians in China Province to understand more about China. In the workshop, the overview of the criminal justice system, the development of China’s criminal justice system and the professional training of judges were shared. This was really a rare chance for us to understand more about this important topic.
    During the second session, there was a very impressive sharing on the life of migrant workers and their children, revealed through a series of videos. These children lack community support such as medical care, housing, child education, from local government. On the other hand, the work of the migrant workers is usually of high life-risk and they are often in urgent need of medical support.
    Their children, left behind in rural villages, desperately look forward to family reunions. They are often emotionally disturbed, of low self-esteem, socially deficient, self-blaming, with poor academic performance and have difficulty in getting along with their grandparents. The original desire of migrant workers is to enable their children study so they can leave poverty behind, however findings revealed that the situation was contrary to their wish. Finally, Fr. Peter showed us a successful example of a Hong Kong retired Social Worker operating a community centre for young migrant workers and children of migrant workers.
    We Salesians have the mission to develop services for children in need. This valuable sharing inspired us to find new ways to help these underprivileged children, so as to fulfill the mission of Don Bosco.

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