Officials laud success of Southern District care teams

Senior government officials have lauded Southern District care teams for their dedication in serving the community, saying they urgently address the needs of citizens. Chief Secretary Eric Chan and Home and Youth Affairs Secretary Alice Mak attended a ceremony in Aberdeen on Friday to celebrate the teams' first year of operation. Chan singled out the response to a landslide in Shek O Road last September for particular praise. He noted that care teams were promptly deployed to various locations to provide food and other items to those affected by the landslide by boat, and helped with temporary accommodation. Mak, meanwhile, said the care teams have exceeded their performance targets, paying visits to 11,000 households and handling over 1,500 enquiries throughout the past year. The tasks they handled ranged from home repairs, to technology assistance and form-filling support, she said. Mak said the teams also organised more than 300 activities, including national education seminars, festive celebrations and policy promotion events in the community. She said care teams across Hong Kong visited 90,000 households last year, adding that a review of the scheme will be carried out next year. “The first phase of the care team services last for two years and after two years we will definitely review the whole scheme and see how we can enhance and improve the scheme so that more residents can benefit and we can provide more district-based services to our residents,” she said.