By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-18 02:46:54 | Updated at 2024-11-18 04:43:19
2 hours ago
At a park at a Hong Kong housing estate, an elderly South Asian man sits quietly by himself as a group of ethnic Chinese residents chat nearby.
This small scene is all too common in the city’s Eastern district, which is home to a large population of South Asian residents.
Some residents in the area are elderly people from Pakistan, India and Nepal who have lived in Hong Kong for decades and came to the city to take care of their grandchildren while their sons and daughters worked long hours.
Emily Yeung Yin-chi and Kaur Kirandeep, who are leading a coming community project to support such residents, said many of them led lonely lives as they could not speak Cantonese or English.
“The loneliness is so great. They have no support from the community,” Yeung said.
Kirandeep said her own grandmother had come from India to look after her as a child and had experienced the same situation, explaining that one of the biggest challenges was fitting in.
