Under the same sky, many thousands of Non-ethnic Chinese (NEC) residents of different colours, religions, races and cultures, who were born and raised in Hong Kong, have taken root in society. They share the same dream with us - to live and work happily in this beautiful city. To help them accomplish their dream, the Force has implemented a series of initiatives to promote racial harmony over the years with fruitful results. Being a former Police Constable of the Nepalese Task Force from Yau Ma Tei Division (YMTDIV), I would like to share my story with OffBeat readers.

Enhancing understanding

In late 2010, my supervisor informed me that I would be transferred to the Nepalese Task Force of YMTDIV. I had mixed feelings about this - being glad that a new post would mean new experience to me but at the same time being worried that I did not have much experience in liaising with the NEC. The new post was certainly a challenge to me.

To secure the NEC's active involvement in preventing and fighting crime with the Force, we need to foster closer communication with them to enhance mutual understanding, in particular about each other's cultures and customs. Hence, apart from day-to-day contact during work hours, we often went to their gathering places in our spare time to chat and share our life experience with them.

When our friends are in need, we can be a strong supporting force. Citing a case, one day a bad news came out from the Nepalese community about a six-year-old boy went missing in Yau Ma Tei. We immediately went around to look for the boy, arranged for three Nepalese Ambassadors to tender assistance to the family concerned, and spread the news through social media, newspapers and Facebook of the Nepalese community. Eventually, the boy was located safely. Besides, to prevent the boy from bullying by a primary school student again, we assisted him to transfer to another school. These incidents made us realise the need for the NEC to learn Chinese.

Want to learn Chinese?

In 2013, Yau Tsim District started running a series of Chinese language and interview classes under Project Gemstone for NEC youngsters with an aim to strengthening their capability for pursuing their careers in disciplined forces or other civilian grades. Nevertheless, the initial result of the project was not satisfactory. A number of project members grumbled that it was very difficult to learn Chinese. Worse still, some thought that as long as they could speak Chinese, they could have already met their everyday needs. For some others, their parents did not encourage them to learn Chinese.

In order to rectify these misconception, we kept making contact with them, including visiting different NEC communities and giving talks at schools, to invite them to join the project. We even asked every NEC youngster we came across in the streets on whether they were interested in learning Chinese. I was particularly impressed when we successfully invited two Pakistani youngsters in a hair salon to participate in the project.

At present 11 Project Gemstone members have joined the Force, two others have been recruited by the Fire Services Department and Correctional Services Department whilst another member has been employed by an international aircraft maintenance company. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my supervisors and colleagues for their overwhelming support for the project.

Dream coming true

In fact, many NEC residents who were born and brought up in Hong Kong have their own dreams. However, their dreams are often dashed because they are not good at Chinese. I hope that Project Gemstone is just a starting point and will be expanded to other police districts to benefit more NEC youngsters.

Lastly, I want to conclude as follows: "Although we are not NEC, we can still stand by their side." To this end, we will continue to assist the NEC to integrate into the local community.

(The article is contributed by Hung Ka-wai of YMTDIV.)

If you wish to share your story in Yung Shu Tau, please email your story to storytelling@police.gov.hk.