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. _________________ AustraLasia is an
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