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The Director of Social Welfare, Mr Patrick Nip, said today (October 20) that the Government has been proactively promoting respect and love for elderly people, generating a sense of worthiness among them, and fostering inter-generational harmony. In the face of an increasingly ageing population, the Government will continue to devote efforts to developing elderly services, and give credit to the elderly for their contributions to the community.
At the "2011-12 Award Presentation Ceremony of the Opportunities for the Elderly Project" (OEP) today, Mr Nip presented the "OEP Special Awards", "the District Best OEP Awards" and "the Hong Kong Best OEP Award" to 18 winning organisations.
Mr Nip said, "For over a decade, the OEP has been promoting lifelong learning among the elderly and encouraging them to take part in community affairs by making good use of their expertise and ample life experience, hence making further contributions to society and leading a fruitful life while fulfilling the objective of 'Active Ageing'".
"The OEP also encourages the elderly to establish a harmonious relationship with their family, fulfill their family roles and enhance family cohesion," he said.
To enable the organisations to have more time to design in-depth projects to serve the community, the OEP has enhanced the coverage of projects to span across two years with effect from 2012 while continuing to subsidise the 1-year projects. The option of 2-year projects has been well received. So far, 59 of such applications, involving more than $1.7 million, have been approved by the Social Welfare Department (SWD).
"For cultivating a sense of respect and appreciation among our young people towards the elderly, the OEP is running the 'School Promotion Project' in all the secondary and primary schools in the 2012-13 school year," Mr Nip added.
Since the launch of the OEP, more than 3,600 programmes have been subsidised. The total amount of subsidy has exceeded $35 million, involving more than 2.34 million participants. Many elderly people have not only participated in the OEP actively, but also helped the organisers plan and implement activities. In 2011-12 more than 5,900 elderly volunteers have participated in the OEP.
Two other guests of honour, namely the Chairman of the Elderly Commission, Professor Alfred Chan, and the Chairman of the OEP Advisory Committee, Dr Lam Ching-choi, attended today's award presentation ceremony.
Ends/Saturday, October 20, 2012
Issued at HKT 16:50
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