Limbu and his wife had been living in Hong Kong over a decade. They were working very busily for a living. Limbu had long working hours everyday and sometimes, he needed to work on holiday in order to provide a better living for the family. His wife also had long working hours with a day off every week. Despite such, she still had to take care of the housework. Like the common problems being encountered by the other ethnic minorities living here, Limbu also got language barrier. Even though they had been living in Hong Kong for a period of time, they could not speak Cantonese. Limbu only spoke simple English and his wife could only speak Nepalese. Therefore, they seldom joined community activities. Their social circle was limited to their relatives or other Nepalese friends with no local people. Sometimes, they had a feeling of loneliness in Hong Kong.

Limbu’s son, Suhang was born prematurely. The couple had great anxiety over his health problems. When Suhang was one year old, he was referred to Heep Hong Society for the early education and training service. With time, Suhang’s health conditions had been stabilized and was observed to be playful and cheerful. At that stage, Limbu regarded Suhang to be a ‘normal’ kid. Without much understanding on the purpose and content of the training, he had reservation on the son to receive the pre-school training service. Yet, he gradually understood that Suhang had developmental delay and with the guidance given by the teacher, he could grasp the knowledge of children developmental stages bit by bit.  Although Limbu and his wife could not spare the time to attend the training sessions, they would arrange the relatives to take Suhang to the centre for training. Limbu was grateful that Suhang could receive timely professional intervention.  For those who had no knowledge of the community resources, they did not have the chance of receiving the professional service.

Through participating the programmes of the centre, Limbu had known  other families with similar background “I know more about the social resources after joining the activities. Having got the chance of meeting other families, we share among ourselves on the skills and ways of helping our children with special needs. I look forward to meeting more families with similar experience and support each other” he said. Limbu also shared that most of the Nepalese parents could not speak Cantonese and English, but through the interpretation of the Nepalese worker of the centre, it served to build up a better communication channel and he understood more about the social resources, thus facilitating the integration of ethnic minority in the local community.

Suhang was going to get promoted to primary school in the near future. Limbu was going to face a new challenge…. the son’s school adjustment problem, financial hardship…. Despite such, Limbu was still optimistic. By being hardworking, he believed that he could overcome the difficulties ahead.