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HEALTH ORIENTATION COURSES IN PREPARATION FOR RESETTLEMENT OF REFUGEES IN HONG
KONG
The Norwegian Refugee Council has provided ICM with the necessary funds to implement a project for health orientation courses in Hong Kong to prepare refugees for resettlement. The purpose of the courses, which will be available to refugees in both closed camps and open centres, will be two-fold:
to contribute to an improvement in the refugees' physical and mental health situation, and
to prepare them for a new life in a resettlement country.
The refugees will thus be given basic knowledge in the following areas: general health, personal hygiene and health, dental and eye care, nutrition, common diseases, home medical care, immunization, maternal health, health and sickness of children and old people, home safety, alcoholism, smoking and drug abuse, first aid, life in industrialized countries, unemployment, stress at work and at school, housing and related problems, isolation and loneliness.
The courses have, so far, been funded to cover a period of one year and will be implemented by ICM in close cooperation with UNHCR's Education Unit in Hong Kong. Education material will be produced in cooperation with World Relief according to ICM Guidelines for Health Education agreed upon by the social welfare voluntary agencies in all seven refugee centres.
The project, which will cover a total population of 9,500 refugees, has raised considerable interest and is also being supported by the Hong Kong health authorities who have provided part of the education material.
HONG KONG: ICM MOVES ITS 90,000TH VIETNAMESE CASE SINCE 1975
With the departure of Vietnamese boat refugee Nguyen Thi Hoa for Houston on 29 April, the ICM office in Hong Kong marked its 90,000th Vietnamese refugee movement from Hong Kong camps.
The Hong Kong office was established in 1952, the year ICM itself was created. Its involvement with Vietnamese refugees dates back to 1975 a time when ICM was also representing the UNHCR there. Activities reached a peak in 1979-81 when the territory saw a particularly heavy influx of Vietnamese boat people. Some of them were rescued at sea by merchant vessels, while others arrived in small boats and ships directly from Vietnam. In the early 1980's, the office arranged for the movement of refugees on charter airlifts: specially equipped B-747's and other aircraft carried loads of 500-600 persons several times a week to the United States and other countries. These efforts required most precise collaboration between ICM, the Hong Kong authorities, voluntary agencies, the UNHCR and the countries of resettlement.
ICM Hong Kong now counts some 20 staff members and includes a medical section, headed by a physician, which ensures that all departing refugees are
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