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SLW visits job centre and food bank in San Francisco (with photos)
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     The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, visited a one-stop job centre and a food bank in San Francisco, the United States, today (September 15, San Francisco time) to see job placement and social support services provided by non-profit organisations.

     During a visit to the Chinatown One Stop Career Link Centre run by Self-Help for the Elderly (SHE), Mr Cheung was interested to hear from the SHE President and Chief Executive Officer, Ms Anni Chung, on how the organisation had first started as an agency offering employment placement and a limited range of social services for seniors in Chinatown and gradually developed into a multi-service organisation providing a comprehensive range of services from community and residential care, nutrition meals and housing programmes to technology and information empowerment and adults' education.

     Its One Stop Career Link Centre serves as a central hub for job seekers to access employment and training services, with training courses specially offered for those aged above 55. Mr Cheung said similar measures were in place in Hong Kong, such as the Employment Programme for the Middle-aged launched by the Labour Department which has arranged 52 356 placements since 2003. He added that more than 21 per cent of the graduates of the training/retraining programmes offered by the Employment Retraining Board were aged above 50.

     Noting that the food bank concept was first born in the United States in the 1960s, Mr Cheung also took the chance to pay a visit to the San Francisco Food Bank (SFFB) today. He was interested to learn from the SFFB Executive Director, Mr Paul Ash, that corporate and community support had been a major driving force for the success of various programmes operated by the SFFB, with about 75 per cent of its revenue coming from in-kind contributions and donated food and 14 per cent from private contributions.

     Mr Cheung said that the HKSAR Government has also funded the Short-term Food Assistance Project operated by non-government organisations (NGOs) since 2009 to provide essential short-term relief for those in need. The project has benefited 57 000 users in some two years, and extra funding has been committed to keep the project going. Apart from that, a number of NGOs also run their own food assistance projects with private donations. He said it is important for the public and private sectors as well as the community as a whole to join in the ongoing effort of poverty alleviation.

     Mr Cheung is in San Francisco to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Women and the Economy Summit (WES). He attended the WES reception tonight, during which Executive Council Member, Ms Marjorie Yang, and the Dean of Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Professor Nancy Ip, were honoured among 42 Women Innovators selected from the APEC economies.

     Mr Cheung will take part in a number of WES events and speak at the High Level Policy Dialogue, which will be chaired by the United States Secretary of State, Mrs Hillary Clinton.

     He will return to Hong Kong on Sunday morning (September 18, Hong Kong time).

Ends/Friday, September 16, 2011
Issued at HKT 14:59

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