Soco calls for poverty scheme to be extended
The deputy director of an advocacy group has welcomed the government's Strive and Rise Programme aimed at tackling intergenerational poverty. Under the one-year pilot scheme, 2,000 secondary school students taking part will each get a HK$10,000 allowance and receive guidance from a mentor on how to spend the money. Sze Lai-shan from the Society for Community Organization said it was a good idea to provide financial support and mentors to needy students. But she said the quota was too small. She told RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme that there were over 200,000 low income families in the city, with more than 50,000 of them living in subdivided flats. "We think they should extend to all those children living below the poverty line, and they should increase the financial assistance, and they should extend the service year," Sze told RTHK's Janice Wong. Sze also said one year was not enough time to nurture the students and suggested the scheme be extended to three years.  She said the students should have more contact with their mentors, instead of just meeting once a month.