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Hong Kong is

Our Home Too

The city’s first registered social worker with an
ethnic minority background, Jeffrey Andrews,
shares his experience in raising a voice for a mul-

ticultural Hong Kong.

By Gabriella Lynn

ing the charge and arrest. But he is de- how just get on with it. I still have so Students studying in designated
termined that the arrest will not stop much faith in this Hong onger spirit,” schools were assumed to finish their
him from continuing to help other he adds. school days at the age of 15 or 17 as
ethnic minorities and refugees in the they finished Form 3 or Form 5 at best
future. From Gang Member to but students in other schools would
“Even with what happened to me, Social Worker continue their studies.
I still believe there should be an eth- Becoming a social worker was “In Form 5, when [my classmates
nic minority representative in Hong never on young Andrews’ mind. and I] left the school with public exam
Kong. I might not [run in the elec- Growing up in the 1990s, he went to a results… there were gang members
tion] again, but we still need a voice,” school which had many non-Chinese- outside, trying to recruit us. They
Andrews vows. speaking (NCS) students, commonly asked: ‘Why do you want to study
“I am confused about the future referred as “designated school”. The when you can make money this [easi-
and [my feelings for Hong Kong], just term was later abolished by the Edu- ly]?’ And many of us ended up joining
like everyone else, but Hongkongers cation Bureau in the 2013/14 school them, including me,” Andrews recalls.
have gone through so much, like the year to remove the misconception Led astray, he wasted two years of
SARS and economic crises, we some- arising from the label. his life as a gang member. The wake-