It's raining and pouring in Hong Kong. Our Sunday hike organised by SK and Janet was cancelled due to unfavourable weather conditions. Instead the event was taken indoors, which although disappointing, resulted in an even more interesting day. We met at the Sai Wan Ho MTR station promptly at 10:45am. Huddled together shielding ourselves from the spitting, gloomy rain we headed to the Youth Outreach Centre located a few streets away.
At the top of a large set of concrete steps, leading off a small side street, you will find a large building tucked away from the rest of society. What appears to have been an old block of a typical HK style apartment building, is now a renovated youth hangout for both male and female members of Hong Kong's youth.
Once through the main doors you are met with an impressively structured basketball court of a generous size. It's floors look polished to perfection and it's walls are a burst of colour, adorning graffiti style art work wall to wall. The whole room is gleaming with hope and inspiration. We are told that the basketball court has multiple uses, being transformed into a live gig venue for local musician bands at least once a week. The gig nights are a popular interest of many young people from various areas, gathering to listen to the music whilst socialising amongst similar minds, sharing backgrounds and experiences. Just within the first few minutes of stepping into the establishment I realised how well catered this particular centre was to it's youth. The staff have listened well.
Once through the main doors you are met with an impressively structured basketball court of a generous size. It's floors look polished to perfection and it's walls are a burst of colour, adorning graffiti style art work wall to wall. The whole room is gleaming with hope and inspiration. We are told that the basketball court has multiple uses, being transformed into a live gig venue for local musician bands at least once a week. The gig nights are a popular interest of many young people from various areas, gathering to listen to the music whilst socialising amongst similar minds, sharing backgrounds and experiences. Just within the first few minutes of stepping into the establishment I realised how well catered this particular centre was to it's youth. The staff have listened well.
This centre also provides an overnight shelter service for young people who feel they are not able to return to their home environments. Two sections separate females and males, housing up to twenty guests at a time for a maximum period of 8 weeks. Sadly, the centre must enforce this 8 week limited stay due to its cramped accommodations and stretched funding issues, with main monetary contributions coming in from public donations and collections. Only a few guests with special cases are allowed to stay for a couple of months at a time depending on overall capacity and resource. It is a strained service but thanks to the dedication of the staff the best is made of the resources at hand.
Today we are visiting the male section of the youth centre. By appearances it is kept very tidy and well organised with the perfect balance of homeliness, visible by the neatly stacked computer games, books and magazines piled around the living room area. As we walk through we can hear the noisy crowd of youth guests on the lower ground catching up with each other and comparing stories. A total of 14 guests have gathered at the centre this morning all curious about the prospects of the day. The staff at the centre have already informed us that the male guests hardly receive visitors or volunteers. So today's organised activity is somewhat of a novelty to most of these young men.
We start our event by sitting together in a big circle, having the 10 volunteers intertwined within the crowd. We all introduce ourselves by playing a name memory game which breaks the ice and gets the laughter flowing. Afterwards, the group break off into two teams to compete against each other during various other games. Everyone is laughing, smiling, and talking to each other. Some conversations have separated off into pairs or small groups.
Very soon after a few chats with some of the guests, it becomes apparent that trust and human contact are two very fragile concepts amongst these young men. Although each are at different stages of confronting their hardships they share one common feature - once you scrape past the layers that have built up over time, underneath all that skin is the same child.
What I am amazed to learn about is the youth centre's outreach team, who travel out every evening of every day seeking out young members of the youth that appear to be displaced or homeless. I learn that the most common places that the young homeless are found are in parks, playgrounds and generally dark corners of an urban city. With Hong Kong known for it's vertical concrete jungle-like character, I can imagine that there are plenty of hiding places for someone to intentionally get lost in. This incredible outreach team bring back willing guests to the youth centre and offer services of shelter, advocacy, and counselling. They push their own limits to reach out to as many needing souls.
When you step into this place there is a very raw but comforting vibe in the air. The walls whisper countless experiences of violence, anger, and sadness. But they also echo a myriad of success stories. Weakness, fear, and silence has been turned around in this very building, helping many members of the youth realise their own self value and purpose.
Growing up in a stable environment is a challenge in it self. Growing up in an unstable and uncertain environment must be to some a nightmare. Let's remind ourselves every once in a while of this forgotten truth.
