HONG KONG (SE): Caritas Asian Migrant Workers Social Service Project has disbursed infection control materials and food supplies to the two shelters of the Diocesan Pastoral Centre for Filipinos. Masks and hand sanitisers were donated by Raimondi Alumni Association, while a batch of food products were offered up by Feeding Hong Kong. The staff of the Caritas Community Centre-Aberdeen delivered the items to the shelters on August 10.
Man Si-i, a social worker of the Social Service Project, said, “We learned about the situations inside the shelters when we contacted the pastoral centre. Compared with local people, foreign domestic workers may find it harder to get resources and the residents in the shelters may face a shortage of supplies. So we arranged this donation activity.”
Good Shepherd Sister Peter Chua, who is in charge of the centre, said foreign domestic workers in the shelters have lost their source of income so they need the supplies to help them get through difficulties. She added that the shelter regularly gives away virus prevention materials to residents as well as other foreign domestic workers in need.
Sister Chua said the centre has adopted a number of virus prevention measures apart from limiting the number of residents to half, such as requiring residents to clean the shelter in the morning and after dinner, and encouraging them to cook their food in the shelter instead of eating out.
Other preventive measures include having online interviews with potential employers and limiting the frequency of marketing to three times a week. (Sunday Examiner, August 16)
Due to the limited number of places in the shelter, priorities is given to first-timers who may need more help. She recounted that the shelter recently admitted a foreign domestic worker who came to Hong Kong for the first time and was dismissed after three days of employment.
“She did not sleep for three days before she came, so we let her take a good rest in the shelter,” Sister Chua said.
