Title: FPA Hong Kong extends services to refugees.

POPLINE Document Number: 018189

Author(s):

McGraw E

Source citation:

In: United Nations. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific [ESCAP]. Inventory of selected local family planning programme experiences in countries of the ESCAP region. Vol. 3. Bangkok, Thailand, ESCAP, 1981. :41-2. (ST/ESCAP/107)

Abstract:

In the 2 years since the 1st Vietnamese refugees reached Hong Kong a total of 2575 births have been recorded, an average of 21/week. This is no surprise since 30% of the female population in the refugee camps is of childbearing age. Of the 22,109 refugees remaining in Hong Kong, 9212 or 38% are children under age 15. The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong, with these statistics in mind, launched a comprehensive project with funds from Population Concern and Oxfam to provide family planning information and clinic services to the refugees. At the start the Association had considerable difficulty convincing the authorities that the refugees needed family planning services. Eventually, the Association convinced the authorities and from June 1978 to February 1979, a total of 960 of the early refugees staying at that time in hotels, tenement flats, and colleges were visited. Last year the Association's field workers contacted 33,000 refugees now staying in camps, only 35 did not want any advice and only 108 wanted no more children. The project has 3 facets: publicity and education; person to person motivation; and clinic services. The working team consists of a project coordinator, a family planning advisor, a Vietnamese nurse, a fieldworker, and 2 Vietnamese fieldworkers. The Association conducts clinic sessions once or twice a week in each camp. 1 of the camps in which the Association project operates is Cape Collinson camp, where 250 refugees are held as prisoners. The women inmates seemed obviously pleased to see the family planning fieldworker with whom they discussed personal problems and from whom they obtained family planning information and contraceptive supplies. In the Chimawan prison camp on the island of Lantau, the Association launched a community-based program for distributing contraceptives. The inmates of Argyle camp and Kai Tak North camp go out to work during the day, the the Association runs its clinic in the afternoons and evenings to cater to those workers. There seemed to be more people attending the family planning clinic than the health clinic, suggesting the high regard the refugees have for the warm and friendly family planning workers.

Keywords:

Hong Kong
Vietnam
Asia, Southeastern
Settlement and Resettlement
Family Planning Programs
Field Workers
Family Planning Personnel
Developed Countries
Asia, Eastern
Asia
Developing Countries
Migration
Population Dynamics
Demographic Factors
Population
Family Planning
Programs
Organization and Administration
Health Personnel
Delivery of Health Care
Health