Background

In the Policy Address 2005, the former Chief Executive Mr. Tung Chee Hwa has used 13 paragraphs out of 98 to discuss the issues on poor and needy (Paragraph 34-46). He opened as follow, “34. Several Members as well as the community at large have expressed deep concern about the problem of poverty. As a result of globalisation, some types of jobs have relocated elsewhere. Unemployment has persistently remained at a high level. For some low-income families, their circumstances have worsened over the past few years. They require the community's care and assistance.”  

To address this issue, our knowledge in the profession might contribute. We, a group of young architects and designers, together with the social workers from Sham Shui Po district got chance to meet recently and have generated the idea of having a collaborated project to help improving the living standard of the poor.

We believe that we cannot help the poor and needy by only providing resources on what they lack. We should also shift the paradigm from ‘need-based’ to ‘development-base’, which encourage:  

-        the building up of their social connections;

-        the rejuvenation of their local social and economic communities;

-        their participation in the community with their own skills and 

        knowledge;

-        the equipment of their abilities to acquire information and new 

        knowledge