Supporting vulnerable children is the focus of child protection. Most of them have an insecure life, and are unable to receive education and explore their potential like their peers. To help them, it is not enough to provide shelters, meals and clothes. They need the access to education so that one day they can become self-dependent adults and give back to society.
In 2012, HSBC funded the China Social Welfare Foundation to carry out the ‘innovative project for the development and protection of street children’ that aims to provide rehabilitation, education, vocational skills training and employment opportunities for children in temporary care in children protection centre. The project has so far helped over 20,000 children.
China Social Welfare Foundation found that it is better to help vulnerable children at an earlier stage. So they worked with HSBC and designed the Lighthouse for Children programme, a comprehensive system of child welfare protection services. HSBC financed the training of child director and social workers, designing of children work methods and flow, and the development of on-demand child information management platform, where the information of a child and his/her custodians and family has been put into and can automatically identify all types of vulnerable children according to data.
The pilot programme of HSBC and the China Social Welfare Foundation expanded the scope and content of child protection, raised the protection standards, and formed a comprehensive child protection system that covered the most vulnerable and the most marginalised children.
Over the past three decades, HSBC has always supported children’s welfare in China. In addition to helping vulnerable children, HSBC has also been focusing on children's mental health and skill training for teenagers, and funded over 100 programmes that benefit more than 500,000 children in 13 provinces. It is HSBC’s hope to help children build self-confidence and self-dependence. In the future, HSBC will continue to unite all parties to create a better life for children in China.