Sze LaiShan helps the poor trapped in tiny 'coffin' and 'cage' tenements
Sze LaiShan aids the vulnerable underclass who live in poverty amid Hong Kong's vast wealth.
By Aidan Jones, / Correspondent / October 17, 2011
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"It makes me angry," she says. "The world looks at Hong Kong and sees the big office towers and rich people eating at expensive restaurants. They do not see that this city is also extremely poor, and many people are struggling to survive."
Since 1995, Sze (pronounced "see") has worked for the Society for Community Organization (SoCO), a nonprofit group that provides food, clothing, education, and advocacy for 10,000 of Hong Kong's poorest and most vulnerable: the elderly, migrants, people with physical or mental disabilities, and children in poverty.
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The city's poor need all the friends they can get. Densely populated and intensely competitive, Hong Kong is a notoriously unforgiving city. Its low-tax, free-market ethos draws investors from around the world, driving up property prices and rents to eye-watering levels.
Those who succeed here often make it very big, including "Superman" billionaire property developer Li Kashing, who is held up as an example of what hard work in an open economy can achieve.
Yet for Sze there are too many being left behind. A 2010 United Nations Development Program report ranks Hong Kong as having the world's greatest disparity between its rich and poor....
