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The North District Office will hold the North District Market Fair for Social Enterprises on Thursday and Friday (December 25 and 26) at Fanling Recreation Ground. Members of the public are welcome to patronise the social enterprise (SE) booths to support the underprivileged and learn more about SEs, making Christmas more meaningful.
Ten SEs, sponsored by the Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme (ESR Programme) of the Home Affairs Department (HAD), will join the fair. Booths will be set up to showcase and promote their products and services, including healthy food and drinks, physical fitness products, an eco-tour guide service and a multimedia service. Some SEs will give out coupons on-site. Please refer to the annex for details.
The market fair will be open from 9.30am to 6pm. Admission is free. The public may also pay a visit to the Hong Kong North District 2014 Flower, Bird, Insect & Fish Show at the same venue.
"Public support is the key to the success of SEs. We hope that the public could patronise SEs more to promote self-reliance and caring consumption," a spokesman for the HAD said.
Since 2006, the ESR Programme has been providing seed grants for eligible non-profit-making organisations to set up SEs for the creation of job opportunities for the socially disadvantaged to enhance their skills and capabilities in order to enable their self-reliance and effective integration into society. Total funding of about $180 million has been approved to more than 160 SE projects for creating some 2 600 job opportunities.
For more information about SEs and the ESR Programme, please visit the following websites: www.social-enterprises.gov.hk and www.had.gov.hk/en/public_services/en_self_reli/index.htm.
Ends/Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Issued at HKT 15:01
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