Perspectives December 2020∣Youth Hong Kong
Building resilience In two village houses with a view of sparkling blue sea, a dozen young women are at work: learning book-keeping, preparing PowerPoint slideshows, playing the piano. Students, but also offenders. Sentenced to prison, they were lucky to be given a choice: rehabilitation on Lamma Island at the Barnabas Charitable Service Association, supervised by Bella Chan. In peace and quiet, the women aged 19 upwards have time to reflect on their past, learn to stay calm and discover skills for the future. Bella used to teach physical education. Now, her experience gives her the wisdom to create balance and she says she teaches “with Jesus’ love.” Along with lessons on drug prevention, the students do bible study and learn health and hygiene, IT, accounting and cooking. Take Emily, for example. Hallucinatory drugs could have been the end of her but just in time she was taken to a psychiatric ward and eventually sent to Lamma. Very overweight as withdrawal symptoms took effect, she was determined never to go back to her old ways. Instead, Emily focused on exercise and lost half of the 100kg she once weighed. She likes to recite from the bible and write about her life. She makes PowerPoint presentations showing days of hiking, gardening, kayaking and climbing. She speaks poignantly about her life at the centre and her fondness of Bella, about the normal life she wants. “But I also dream of seeing the world. I have never left Hong Kong and hope travelling will be possible again, one day.”
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Then, there’s Ah Wah, a mother already with an eleven year old in boarding school. “They call me Ten-KWah, I love running and can do 10 kilometres,” she says with a cheeky grin. “I’ve been here for twoand-a-half years already but I’ll never take drugs again.” Ah Wah had to learn self-discipline after arrest for smuggling and detention at Hei Ling Chau. She left the prison to come to Lamma and rapidly put on weight, but like Emily, she is working hard to shake it off and looks forward to seeing her boy again. “Once, I used Ice to stay slim, but I love food, especially fish. I also love running and am down to 78kg. I’ve learned English, piano, drums, maths and typing, but the most important lesson here was how to be human.” Nicole’s story begins with drugs at 16. The police caught her with a gram each of ketamine and cocaine: addicted and defiant. That was about a year ago. Now, she spends
