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Social Welfare
The Elder Academy Scheme, jointly launched by the EC and the Government, has established 110 academies, 103 operating in schools and the rest in tertiary education institutions.
At the community level, the Neighbourhood Active Ageing Project encourages care and love for elderly persons and reaches out to elderly people who do not readily know the existing network of community support. Sixty-nine district projects, commenced in 2012 aim at fostering harmonious family relations and enhancing neighbourhood support networks.
Women's Commission
The Women's Commission (WoC) promotes the well-being and interests of women in Hong Kong. It advises the Government on policies related to women so as to ensure that women's perspectives are taken into account in the formulation of government policies.
The WoC comprises 24 members including the chairperson who is a non-official member. Through the provision of an enabling environment, empowerment of women, and public education, the WOC aims to enable women in Hong Kong to fully realise their due status, rights and opportunities in all aspects of life!
On the advice of the WoC, the Government has gradually introduced gender mainstreaming in different policy areas to provide an enabling environment. A Gender Mainstreaming Checklist was drawn up to help civil servants take a systematic approach in assessing the needs and perspectives of both men and women when formulating government policies. Gender-related training has also been provided to over 6,300 civil servants of different grades and ranks since 2001. All bureaux and departments have their own Gender Focal Points through which matters concerning gender mainstreaming can be channelled.
With regard to the empowerment of women, the WoC has implemented various initiatives to help women realise their potential, including the Capacity Building Mileage Programme (CBMP), which aims at enhancing women's self-confidence, learning abilities and life skills.
The CBMP is carried out in collaboration with the Open University of Hong Kong, a radio station and nearly 70 women's groups and NGOs. By the end of 2012, the enrolments for the CBMP had exceeded 61,000, in addition to the large audience reached through relevant radio programmes. In April, the Government turned CBMP into a recurrent project. Part of the recurrent funding was used to develop face-to-face courses taught in English and Putonghua to encourage applications from ethnic minority women and newly arrived women.
In December, the WOC organised the 'Bringing Together Women's Wisdom for a Better Future' conference to review Hong Kong's implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and to provide a platform for participants to discuss and exchange views on issues related to the development and well- being of women. The Funding Scheme for Women's Development, launched in 2012, funds. women's groups and NGOs providing women's services to organise relevant programmes and activities.
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