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    #Hashtag Hong Kong

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    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)



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    Nanki Luthra, Project Manager of the Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre, The Zubin Foundation
    09/02/2025
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    Nanki Luthra, Project Manager of the Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre, The Zubin Foundation

    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. 

    09/02/2025 - 足本 Full (HKT 08:15 - 08:30)

    09/02/2025 - Nanki Luthra, Project Manager of the Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre, The Zubin Foundation

    重溫

    CATCHUP
    12 - 02
    2024 - 2025
    香港電台第三台

    09/02/2025

    Nanki Luthra, Project Manager of the Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre, The Zubin Foundation

    02/02/2025

    Michael Lau, Founder, Hong Kong Wetlands Conservation Association

    26/01/2025

    Steph Ng, Founder and Executive Director of Body Banter

    19/01/2025

    Jenmon Jenkins, Community Director - the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Hong Kong

    12/01/2025

    Ivy Leung, Executive Director, CarbonCare InnoLab

    05/01/2025

    Mabel Lo, Executive Director, TREATS

    29/12/2024

    Shirley Yeung, the Integrated Community Centre for Mental Wellness, ICCMW

    22/12/2024

    Gabrielle Kirstein, Founder, Feeding Hong Kong

    15/12/2024

    Cindy Ng, Senior manager, Program and Services of KELY Support Group

    08/12/2024

    Dr. Patrick Cheung, Chairperson, Against Child Abuse
    X

    John Ng, Careers Master of St Paul's College

    How has life treated you?  Each of you may have a different answer at different stages of life.

    When I was small, I wished to stand tall.

    I asked my teacher, “What will I be?”

    Here’s what my teacher said to me,

    “Any dream will do.”

    I’m sure many of you have been encouraged to do the same: pursuing your own dreams.  But I doubt whether many adolescents have dreams of their own in this day and age.  For those who do, I am wondering whether the dreams contribute to genuine happiness.  The World Happiness Report 2024 sounds alarm on the mental well-being of the youth.  Our youth’s happiness has hit a new low. 

    Many teenagers are living with the mundanity of daily routines, and worryingly, lack long-term plans of their own.  With a lack of personal life goals, these youngsters go with the flow, and tend to follow a fragmented path, which is not sustainable in the long-term.  When facing headwinds, they can become disoriented and experience mental breakdown easily.  Their setbacks in life include unsatisfactory academic results, huge pressure from parents and the deprivation of social life.  To our dismay, despair often leads to tragic stories.

    Career and life planning is particularly important for our youth.  Gone are the days when we were burdened with making important life decisions, such as choosing university courses or applying for a job, in the nick of time.  Life is a journey and it should be perceived this way. 

    Now I have students of my own,

    they ask me, “What will I be?”

    I say to them, “Whatever will be will be.”

    Of course, I am not encouraging them to engage in inaction.  What I am telling them is that they should plan ahead without excessive planning. 

    There is a world of opportunities awaiting them.  I usually tell them this: go all out and explore.  Yet nothing should be set in stone to start with.  Nor should they overwhelm themselves with as many experiences as possible.  Remember, it is not the more, the merrier.  They should embrace new opportunities while committing themselves to a few experiences at a time.  Gradually, they will form their own goals, work towards the goals, review them from time to time, form new life priorities and build career resilience.  It’s okay to face hardships.  Don’t be failed by the future but let future find us.  Life planning is a perennial and dynamic process.

    To be future ready, we are often told that we should adapt to the emerging AI world.  I am not worried about Gen Alpha’s preparedness for the AI world because they are generally tech-savvy.  What I am worried about is their exposure to the real world experience.  When some youngsters have spent too much time in the virtual world, they only know how to write fragmented sentences as social media messages instead of composing proper emails; or they only know how to customise their online experience without feeling the need to collaborate with others.  Worse still, some of them only know how to input commands in order to generate music and artworks while losing human creativity.  I hope none of these will become the norm or else our future will be bleak.

    Our future will be bleak because the youth is our future.  If they thrive, we thrive.  That’s why I encourage NGOs, schools and businesses to work together to organise experiential activities for our youth so as to connect their learning experiences with the real world. Nothing is more valuable than providing them with mentorship and internship.  Giving them a flavour of the workplace allows them to appreciate the beauty of teamwork and gain practical experiences making them more humanistic.  In fact, many of our students are grateful for the enlightening and life-transforming experiences of learning from mentors experienced in the field.  Their experiences are conducive to their career planning.

    At the end of the day, we are reduced to a name, or slightly better, a character.  I hope when we reach that note, we can proudly say:

    “I lived a life that's full

    And traveled each and every highway

    And more, much more than this

    I did it my way”

    These few lines are taken from the song “My Way” by Paul Anka.  “My way” does not denote a solitary journey.  Rather, it means that we, especially our youth, should navigate the world ourselves, have forward planning and chart a course that suits us best.  If we can, Hong Kong will prosper.  

     

     

     

    香港電台第三台

    11/08/2024 - 足本 Full (HKT 08:15 - 08:30)

    11/08/2024 - John Ng, Careers Master of St Paul's College