Waiting list for help in Hong Kong

Over 200 hidden youths are waiting for help from the Socially Withdrawn Youth Support Network in Hong Kong. The association in charge of the programme is currently assisting 115 youths but calls on society to lend a hand.
“The Hong Kong Christian Service is very concerned with the problem of socially withdrawn youth in society and has been providing one-stop services to them since 2004,” network leader Eva Yuen told Macau Daily Times.
A 2007 survey estimated there were around 20,000 hidden youth aged 20-24, accounting for 1.4 percent of Hong Kong's total youth population.
Only two social workers are currently supporting the 115 youths aged between 16 to 26 years. “Because the existing quota is full, we so far have accumulated more than 200 phone-in requests or inquiries and we still need a response from society,” Yuen said.
Most of the young people that are being assisted are male and only 15 percent are female. A total of 75 percent have low education.
The social worker believes that the hidden youth syndrome has seen an upward trend since the financial tsunami in 2008. “There was a group of young people that found difficulties at work or experienced unemployment after the economic downturn, so they lost confidence and hid at home,” she stressed.
Yuen said that up to the end of 2010 the Hong Kong Christian Service was the only association providing assistance to reclusive youths in Hong Kong. “Now four non-governmental associations have launched a pilot scheme to meet the needs of the society, but the scheme still fails to cover all districts,” she bemoaned.

A.L./A.Y.