Health & Essential Services
At RUN, we take a holistic approach to supporting our participants’ physical and mental health by providing access to food, housing, healthcare, and childcare.
Refugees and asylum seekers arrive in our city with few possessions to call their own, fleeing violence, abuse, and trauma in their home countries. Their trauma is exacerbated by the lack of support in Hong Kong and the reality of poverty. Our Health & Essential Services are critical, because ensuring that our participants can meet their basic needs not only helps them survive, it also means they can take full advantage of our other programmes in order to thrive.
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Healthcare
To support our participants in their healing journeys, we facilitate access to healthcare services and resources. Our comprehensive healthcare support includes support from our dedicated healthcare volunteers, pro bono or generously discounted medical and psychological care, as well as help navigating Hong Kong's public health system. Our healthcare support is especially important for participants who may be suffering chronic health conditions as a result of torture or sexual violence. Having structured health support also means that we can document our participants' mental and physical condition to support their legal cases.
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Childcare
In RUN's early days, we recognised that offering childcare was going to be a critical part of supporting our participants. Many of our participants are alone with their kids in Hong Kong and lack of childcare is a huge barrier to many women being able to take part in sport (and other activities). We organise childcare during our women's hiking programme and sponsor babysitting during all other programmes and activities, giving parents the opportunity to participate in our programmes and focus on their own healing journeys, while resting assured that their children are being cared for. We also organise regular sport activities and homework help for kids and teenagers.
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Food & Housing
Refugees receive small monthly stipends from the government (HK$1,200 in food vouchers and HK$1,500 in rent support), making it almost impossible for them to feed themselves nutritious, filling meals, or find decent housing in an expensive city like Hong Kong. We ensure our participants can have their basic needs met by providing healthy meals and snacks during all of our programmes, access to our office ‘convenience store’ (where we distribute food and hygiene products), and helping our participants to find and pay for affordable housing.
“I can't find a way to describe how RUN and their programmes have impacted my life. What I can say is thank you RUN for opening my eyes and let me again see good in people. It's hard to recognise good people when once upon time you were in the hands of monsters. Thank you RUN.”
— Alex*, from Sudan